Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Shame by Salman Rushdie

Many people find Rushdie unreadable including my pretty colleague who is herself a seasoned librarian and manages our popular reading group . I am sure the group has never thought of trying Rushdie. My first serious attempt at reading Rushdie was “Shame”.Shame is not his lead composition though .Rushdie has an interesting and baffling style. One sentence had over 150 words and one had just two. There are words like “peregrinations” “antediluvian” “imprecations”  “simulacrum” which will make you wonder whether you are reading the novel or the dictionary which you need to consult every now and then. But I loved the expressions “death-encrusted words” “foulmouthed death” “philistine transience” “kiss-lipped boy”, “ectoplasmic arms”. I think Rushdie gradually grows on you and fascinates you.


The fat Omar Khayyam, fatter than fifty melons at the age of eighteen and who becomes a doctor, is a lovable character. He is brought up by three mothers with no trace of a father anywhere and even no mention of who is the biological mother of the three. He marries Sufiya who is thirty one years junior to him. It is a completely fictional world but details of life of an imaginary country are very close to reality. It is a delightful world with all its profanities, purities, scandals, heartbreaks, love, political coups and military Generals. The story telling keeps you engaged throughout and I find the style unique. Enjoyable if you can manage to get involved with the narrative.



http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/book-of-a-lifetime-shame-salman-rushdie-798708.html
http://www.amazon.com/Shame-Novel-Salman-Rushdie/dp/0812976703

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