I avoided reading Salman Rushdie till now. I heard great things about

him, but overwhelmingly I hear about his ‘Satanic Verses’, the infamous book

that resulted in a death fatwa. But the other week I decided to read something

by him. I was looking for ‘Midnight Children’ but

couldn’t find it and instead, borrowed ‘The Ground Beneath Her Feet’.

I was very pleasently impressed. I love his writing – the way he plays with

the words, his use of mythology to further his references, his characters,

his tackling of the great questions. His ability to weave a story is

extraordinairy and sets him uniquely apart from his contemporaries. He is a

master at his craft and one fantastic story teller.

This book is about music, love and life. Three themes intertwined with an

‘Orpheus and Eurydice’ like love story. He also cleverly brings in the

history of current events and pop-music. But what really makes this book

great is his skill at creating a rich story with fantastic characters who face

the many struggles that we all face.

Some people accuse this book of having unbelievable characters. They’re

right, but it is their lack of imagination and understanding of Rusdie’s

style that makes them see this as a flaw. His characters are magical but

he is still able show us how human they are. Magical realism plays an

important role but like Marquez it is to make a point – to use it as a back

drop to better illustrate our own world.

I enjoyed reading this book tremendously. It has a fantasic story, written by

a master. We can’t really ask for anything more.