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Kalliope's Reviews > The Moor's Last Sigh
The Moor's Last Sigh
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This is another hard book to rate and review. Rushdie is a smart, ingenious and purposeful writer. Everything is cleverly thought out and his use of language is magical. He bends the words with ease and brings out richer meanings. The plot is an original story that unfolds as a series of riddles to a satirical account of modern India.
Yet, in spite of all that, the book did not click with me.
The characters remain puppets. As exotic cartoons they act out a sort of fable that sometimes appears without direction. The novel seems another example of what is by now a well-established genre in the literature of the subcontinent, that of magical allegories of the history of its Independence. Rushdie may have been the pioneer of this trend with his “Midnight Children�. I preferred the earlier novel.
In this genre I also liked Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel, in which he mixes the Mahabharata with the account of the Partition.
Since Rushdies’s Enchantress of Florence is on my bookshelves anyway, I will certainly read one more of his books and hopefully will like it better.
But here is a brilliant review of the Moor that does the book better justice:
Yet, in spite of all that, the book did not click with me.
The characters remain puppets. As exotic cartoons they act out a sort of fable that sometimes appears without direction. The novel seems another example of what is by now a well-established genre in the literature of the subcontinent, that of magical allegories of the history of its Independence. Rushdie may have been the pioneer of this trend with his “Midnight Children�. I preferred the earlier novel.
In this genre I also liked Shashi Tharoor's The Great Indian Novel, in which he mixes the Mahabharata with the account of the Partition.
Since Rushdies’s Enchantress of Florence is on my bookshelves anyway, I will certainly read one more of his books and hopefully will like it better.
But here is a brilliant review of the Moor that does the book better justice:
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Reading Progress
August 24, 2010
– Shelved
December 22, 2011
– Shelved as:
fiction-english
December 22, 2011
– Shelved as:
india
December 22, 2011
– Shelved as:
asia
April 7, 2012
–
Started Reading
April 26, 2012
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-19 of 19 (19 new)
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Caroline
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Sep 16, 2012 03:56AM
On your recommendation I just checked out Taroor's The Great Indian Novel, which sounds excellent. Regrettably it's not held by any libraries in the South-East of England (my ordering patch), so I am going to try and persuade my library to buy it.....
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Caroline wrote: "On your recommendation I just checked out Taroor's The Great Indian Novel, which sounds excellent. Regrettably it's not held by any libraries in the South-East of England (my ordering patch), so ..."Yes, that was a very good book. I have just added the link in my review (I did not know how to do it when I wrote it). And I had not started writing reviews yet. I also read it during a trip to Delhi.
I hope you can persuade your library to get it.
Caroline wrote: "On your recommendation I just checked out Taroor's The Great Indian Novel, which sounds excellent. Regrettably it's not held by any libraries in the South-East of England (my ordering patch), so ..."Another recent book using the Mahabharat as its structure is The Palace of Illusions, which is told from the point of view of one of the ladies, Panchaali, married to the Pandava brothers. Interesting.
Kalliope wrote: "Another recent book using the Mahabharat as its structure is The Palace of Illusions, which is told from the point of view of one of the ladies, Panchaali, married to the Pandava brothers. Interesting."Ah, even better - I've checked and this will be easy for me to order. I shall go for this one first, and see how I get on....
I have read Midnight's Children and loved it. I was trying to figure out which book would be the next Rushdie to read. Thank you for taking the time to write this review. It helps me.
Steve wrote: "I have read Midnight's Children and loved it. I was trying to figure out which book would be the next Rushdie to read. Thank you for taking the time to write this review. It helps me."Yes, I also liked MCh. It was recommended to me long before Rushdie became so famous after the fatwa, by a friend whose family had been in the opposite case to Rushdie's. They were Hindus living in Sind (modern Pakistan) and had to move to India vs Rushdie's muslim family living in Bombay. My friend absolutely adored the book.
This other one, for a reason I cannot identify, did not engage me when I read it. But it was probably me. Something similar is happening now with a book I am currently reading. I know I should like but it is just simply dragging.
But I recommend The Great Indian Novel.
Thank you, Steve.
Steve wrote: "I have read Midnight's Children and loved it. I was trying to figure out which book would be the next Rushdie to read. Thank you for taking the time to write this review. It helps me."I am curious to know which Rushdie you select next. I have The Enchantress Of Florence in my Kindle and he has a new one Joseph Anton: A Memoir, but I do not know anything about it.
Kalliope said: The characters remain puppets. As exotic cartoons they act out a sort of fable that sometimes appears without direction.Although I appreciated Midnight's Children, which I also read a long time ago, your description of puppet characters and cartoonish action parallels my reaction to The Enchantress of Florence perfectly. In addition, TEoF was like an over-rich and syrupy pudding that proved impossible to digest; too much detailed research, too many elaborate descriptions and nothing concrete to hold it all together
Fionnuala wrote: "Kalliope said: The characters remain puppets. As exotic cartoons they act out a sort of fable that sometimes appears without direction.Although I appreciated Midnight's Children, which I also rea..."
I know. I already have TEoF but feel not too inspired to read it. I like your "over-rich and syrupy pudding description"..!!!
I've read this book about a dozen times and loved it - it had so much political sarcasm, it was extremely insightful the way it offended many Indian prejudices beneath the garb of comic relief. It was almost an alternate take on history.
Lit Bug wrote: "I've read this book about a dozen times and loved it - it had so much political sarcasm, it was extremely insightful the way it offended many Indian prejudices beneath the garb of comic relief. It ..."I read it soon after Tharoor's and for me this one was more interesting..., and less cynical.. But then, I am not Indian. But it is good to know that Rushdie's pleases an Indian reader.
More because it is full of internal references to politics that outsiders might not know of - e.g. Nehru's reign that caused two disastrous wars with China and Pakistan (he was warned by the Army Chief but he didn't listen) and Rushdie's way of naming a dog 'Jawaharlal' and under the guise of a domestic rant, calling him an "all bark-no bite mutt". It is a scathing comment on our first Prime Minister, and not an undeserved one - several such references enriched it for me...
Lit Bug wrote: "More because it is full of internal references to politics that outsiders might not know of - e.g. Nehru's reign that caused two disastrous wars with China and Pakistan (he was warned by the Army C..."Yes, I missed the Jawaharlal.. May be you should start a group read of this one.. I would read it again and woulg probably be more generous with my stars..
I have his The Enchantress Of Florence to read.
Would love to, but can only do it after December - have a research proposal submission to do.I didn't like The Enchantress very much - it was a bit dull for me, though I loved the central character Qara-Koz. But the premise is extremely interesting - would love to see what you think of it...
Lit Bug wrote: "I didn't like The Enchantress very much - it was a bit dull for me, though I loved the central charact..."Yes, I am also "booked" for a few months..., but would love to reread this with you.. Will knock at your door later on.
The Enchantress has had a mixed reception, but the period he has chosen is very interesting..
Yes, and there are some brilliant observations in it (Enchantress) - I too would love to revisit this (Moor's)
KAlliope I am reading this now. Would you like to join me. Hoever I may not login much due to network issues. So disxussion will be an issue. But I let you know since we both wished to read it together. However even if you choose not to koin now I am goong to read ot aome months later agaon and you can join me then. Excuse my typos and bad punctuation mobile touch type isn't my cuppa.
Lit Bug wrote: "KAlliope I am reading this now. Would you like to join me. Hoever I may not login much due to network issues. So disxussion will be an issue. But I let you know since we both wished to read it toge..."Thank you for the offer LitBug but I cannot engage in new readings until year end.. It may still be a while until I come back to this book.
No problem just would you let me know when you read it so I can join you too? Did you have a great time in Venice?
