The Ground Beneath Her Feet

It's interesting to see other reviewers contrast Ground Beneath Her Feet with Midnight's Children, as my thoughts ran the same way. While Midnight's Children is Rushdie's best novel, Ground Beneath Her Feet is the most fun. It is not a book for someone who is not a veteran Rushdie reader, as the author's puckish jokes and references to pop culture abound, and would irritate anyone who hasn't learned to love his puns and wordplay. In some ways Ground Beneath Her Feet reminded me of what Kurt Vonnegut said about his Breakfast of Champions: it's a book the author wrote as a gift to himself. Here, Rushdie is riffing and having fun with language. If you don't take it too seriously, it's a great ride. (It's also tremendous fun trying to catch all the fictional characters who are alive in Rushie's alternate reality.)

Until this novel, Salman Rushdie was a tease. Yes, his words are musical and magical, inventive and playful. And yes, his characters are complicated and real.But I knew I was missing half of what he wrote. Who caught the targets of his allusions? Not me. I don't know the Koran (Satanic Verses) or the history of Pakistan (Shame) or India (Midnight's Children). Now he has written something for me. Set in India and London and New York, the references and allusions are all to rock and roll. Elvis, Ike and Tina, Dylan, Madonna and U2 are obvious. Less obvious are David Bowie, David Byrne, and the Clash. But they are all here.And the story is moving, easily the most emotional work he has crafted.

"The Ulysses of Rock and Roll", trumpets one reviewer on the dust jacket. Maybe. I can't think of any other decent contenders for that title. Certainly Rushdie has not let his fans down if what they were hoping for was for him to sustain his reputation for daring inventiveness and great writing.This novel is the story of a rock star couple, in the vein of Ike and Tina Turner (though later on with the reclusive lifestyle of Michael Jackson), told from the perspective of a friend (and sometime lover) photographer. The settings span India (of course), England and the US; the themes include music (naturally), mysticism, insanity and loyalty. Oh, and seismology - the earthquake is ever-present, warning the reader that nothing is to be relied on, that the ground can give way beneath you at any point.Without giving away too much of the plot, the book is set in what science fiction writers would call a parallel universe, where Simon and Garfunkel are women, where Bill Clinton never makes it to the presidential candidacy (due to the premature discovery of certain extramarital liaisons), and England joins the Vietnam conflict. All the settings are beautifully portrayed, but the greatest literary trick that Rushdie uses is to use real people - mostly rock stars - as characters. U2 put in an appearance (a group called Vox Pop - referring to Bono's full name, Bono Vox, and their mid-90s album Pop) as "a promising Irish quartet"; Andy Warhol is there, with Basquiat, Lou Reed and the rest of the crowd; David Bowie is the "thin guy from England" ; and so on. The rock fan will have a lot of fun looking out for the others. The honour of most prominent real person, though, goes bizarrely to Brian Eno, portrayed as himself (a music engineer). Amazing.In a case of art imitating art, U2 have written material using lyrics from the book. The songs, in turn, are in the soundtrack to the Wim Wenders movie Million Dollar Hotel. And Rushdie goes on to feature as a character in the spy thriller The Hit List, by (real life) former British special forces operative Chris Ryan. Multimedia indeed. Where will it end? I don't care. This is great fun, and brilliant writing to boot.

it is impossible for me to begin a "review" of the book, The Ground Beneath Her Feet." well, i guess it isn't impossible.what i mean to say is, this book made my eyes water, my mind enter states of intense restlesness, and my mouth smile so hard it hurt at times, that i am quite often speechless when asked about this novel.this is by far rushdie's most human book. sure, as some nay-saying people point out, he is *too* clever all over every page times one-hundred. true. that is because he is a clever person, i think. also, the book drags on, goes everywhere without going anywhere, etc., etc.... whatever. there is such intense beauty /hilarity/ originality /reality /fantasy /artistry in so many of the passages in this book, just when your heart/mind/funny-bone gets over the last brilliant passage, the next is upon you. god bless 'em.if i weren't such an inarticulate neanderathal i would tell you how his epic writing is more than a match for all the widely diverse themes (some of his most poignant critiques of culture), time and space continuums, lunatic minds and worlds encompassed in this book. i would mention that his characters, rai, ormus, vina, are some of the most memorable people i have never met. i would mention how the reader is always at his mercy- when he wants you to feel, you feel- and how, fortunately, rushdie is merciful to those in need of complete satisfaction. too bad i'm not that articulate.in any case, if you're just a casual reader, there are 1,000 and 1 reasons for you to read this book. if you are one of those intense stay-in- on-the-weekend- to-read-the-latest-from- this-or-that- contemporary-super-duper-intellectual- cutting-edge- blah-blah-blah-author people, then you probably make me look like the ignorant buffoon i am and there are even *more* reasons for you to read The Ground Beneath Her Feet. VTO forever!

"The Ground Beneath Her Feet" is Rushdie's latest offering to the world. It is yet another eruption of the rumbling force trapped under the landslide of hate and fanaticism. It is a voice from the underground pleading to be set free. The mythical framework used by Rushdie is the Orpheus-Eurydice legend. Orpheus ventured to the land of the dead to bring Eurydice back to life. Paralleling this myth is its Indian counterpart: that of Kama and Rati. Kama was destroyed by the third eye of Shiva but, when Rati pleaded, Shiva soon relented and restored him to life. These two legends are worked into Salman Rushdie's novel. Ostensibly it is a love-story: the story of Vina Apsara and Ormus Cama, both star singers, much in love with each other, locked in a volatile relationship that can neither be consummated easily nor abandoned as a lost cause. Hovering between the two is Umeed Merchant, a.k.a. Rai, a professional photographer, also hopelessly infatuated with Vina Apsara. Rai is the narrator of the foredoomed love-story, the Tiresias who sees all and suffers all, the bard who can see and narrate Past, Present, and Future. The narrative begins with the disappearance of Vina Apsara on Valentine's Day of 1989 (which in reality was the day when Khomeini passed the infamous fatwa against Rushdie), loops back in time to recount events that took place in the past, and returns in a circumlocutory manner to the main story, thus completing a full circle. The myths used are timeless, but they are placed in a contemporary situation, making the story comprehensible to us in the present times.What is unusual about Rushdie's latest gift to his readers is the music content of his book. Rushdie is no stranger to popular music. His earlier works have several references to popular songs, but in the present book music is an integral part of the story. Without it the story of Vina and Ormus would fall apart. During the last ten years, among the few people that the author has been in touch with is the rock group U2, whose lead singer, Bono, is his close friend. In fact, U2 was supposed to bring out a new album to coincide with the release of Rushdie's book. The book itself was to be marketed with a CD-ROM. However, the recording of the songs got delayed and the book has hit the market before the songs. The U2 album will shortly be released, we are told, and it has a few haunting lyrics from The Ground Beneath Her Feet.Coupled with the music that weaves in and out of the story, is Rushdie's inimitable play with words. With language. With the known world as we percieve it. With history, as he distorts facts, combining reality with fantasy. His style remains irreverent, even arrogant, in the manner it challenges traditional usage, as in his erratic punctuation, when he repeatedly places a question mark and a comma together (?,). He deliberately thumbs his nose at the conservative reader in his idiosyncratic naming of his ch