¿Quién fuera Eurídice para que Orfeo cruzara el inframundo y cantara su amor con tal de tenerla de regreso?
¿Quién fuera Vina Apsara para que el mundo entero la divinizara, su amor Ormus Cama la siguiera hasta la muerte y fuera inmortalizada en un mundo paralelo al nuestro que tarde o temprano encontrará su destrucción?

Salman Rushide recrea de manera curiosa el mito de Orfeo y Eurídice, situando al héroe de la lira y su amor en los barrios altos de la India del siglo XX y enamorando al Oriente y al Occidente a través de su misticismo y su cosmovisión.

The story is magical and Rushdie is a master of language. However, this book didn't work for me like his other works. This could be due to the hectic period in which I read it, but I don't think this would remove my one major issue with this book.

Concerning three main characters (at any one point during the story) the narrating is done by Rai, photographer, secret lover of Vina and virtual brother to Ormus. Where Rai narrates events as they happened, the language flows and the story is powerful. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between and overwhelmed by the manner in which Rai relates the story which is more of a summary of the lives he and they lead. Richly interspersed with philosophizing and background information – quite often not really related to the story itself, but a higher plain of thought. For instance the overarching relation the story bears to the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

A side effect of this kind of summarizing style of narrating is that the characters never really came alive for me. It also made it a very slow read for me, because the story asks a lot of thinking along with Rai and I kept losing my concentration and needed going back to grasp what he was talking about.

Me llamó la atención porque tenía elementos que me gustan: música y fotografía. Tardé demasiado en terminar este libro porque no fui nada constante en su lectura, de hecho, hice pausas de años y a veces terminaba comenzando de nuevo. El autor en ocasiones se mete demasiado en detalles con demasiadas referencias históricas, políticas, culturales, etc, y en otras ocasiones son simplemente detalles de la historia. A veces eso hacía que perdiera el interés en el libro. Pero la historia es escencialmente de amor, un triángulo amoroso. Es un libro muy rico de pequeñas historias con muchas referencias a muchos temas. Fantasioso pero muy humano.

Reason read: special event, February 2024
I generally like Rushdie's writing but I struggled with this one. It is an ambitious work which you do expect from Rushdie. This is a retelling of the Orpheus/Eurydice myth. Rock'n Roll is used in place of the lyre. It's a story of two men in love with the same women and it is set during the 50s to the 90s as an alternate history. There is a lot of music in the story as well as name dropping. I found it hard to engage with this book and I did not appreciate the sexual descriptions and language. I think people who love music, alternate histories, and retellings may find the book interesting.

I usually like Salman Rushdies books but I just couldn't get invested into the story, nothing held my attention, just wanted it to be over

The plot was somewhat odd, but this is the most beautifully written book I have ever read. Just go find something by this author and read it. He turns prose into poetry, makes it almost sing while you read it. Just, go read it.

Uit!

Het was even wennen in het begin en verder hard werken. Sommige stukken/delen/hoofdstukken vond ik saai en langdradig, terwijl ik bij andere passages moest lachen ('ik zie geen melkbaar verschil'), erover na moest denken ('de inhoud van een boek is er, of je het leest of niet. Zelfs als niemand het ooit leest, is het er, doet het zijn werk'). Over het geheel genomen vond ik het boek ok, maar ik kon het macroniveau het meest waarderen: de referenties naar Franse literatuur, de gedachten over fotografie en literatuur, en de (soms) prachtige, grappige en/of inspirerende zinnen.

Goed, nu ga ik iets luchtigs lezen.

This novel is very dear to my heart, it is the story of the tempestuous love between Ormus Cama and Vina Apsara, two gifted musicians, as told by the other man who loves Vina, Umeed “Rai” Merchant. It is also a re-imagining of ancient classical and Indian myths, a critique of the cult of celebrity, and an existential meditation on “not-belonging.”


"Instead, he sought her in other women, sought her furiously and inexhaustibly, searching for an inflection of her voice in this beauty, a toss of her hair in another’s flowing locks. Most women offered only disappointments. At the end of these encounters he often found even the ritual courtesies of the situation beyond him and would confess the true nature of his quest, and sometimes the real woman who had disappointed him would have the generosity to listen to him speak of the departed shadow woman, for hour after hour, until the dawn, when he would fall silent and slip away. A few women came close to satisfying him, because in certain lights, if they said very little and lay just so; or if, once he had placed a lace handkerchief or a mask over their faces, their now-anonymous bodies held some echo of hers, a breast, a curve of the thigh, a movement of the neck; then, ah, then he could delude himself for fifteen or twenty seconds that she had returned. But inevitably they would turn, they would speak lovingly to him or arch their bare, strong backs, the light would change, the mask would drop away, the illusion would be destroyed, and he would abandon them where they lay."

"Φανταστείτε αν θέλετε την αυστηρή, τυπική (και φανατική με το γάμο) κοινωνία της Τζέιν Όστιν παντρεμένη με τη βρωμερή, φασαριόζικη μυρμηγκοφωλιά του Λονδίνου έτσι όπως το αγαπούσε ο Ντίκενς. Φανταστείτε τώρα το Λονδίνο να ξεχειλίζει από χάος και εκπλήξεις όπως ξεχειλίζει από σκουλήκια το σάπιο ψάρι. Ανακατέψτε το μείγμα σε ένα κοκτέιλ σάντυ και αράκ, προσθέστε λίγο χρώμα (μαγεντα βερμιλιο, πορφυρό, λεμονί) πασπαλίστε με λίγα καθάρματα και μπόλικους παλιανθρώπους, και έχετε κάτι σαν την ιδιαίτερη πατρίδα μου. Εγώ την εγκατέλειψα, εντάξει. Αλλά μη μου ζητάτε να πω ότι δεν ήταν μία τρομερή πόλη".

Αστείος, πληθωρικός, φασαριόζος, ενθουσιώδης Ρούσντι. Γράφει σαν να παίζει μουσική ένα παιδί που μόλις έμαθε να παίζει μουσική, και μόλις του είπαν πως έχει ταλέντο. Θέλει να τα πει όλα, να τα χωρέσει όλα, δεν του φτάνουν 747 σελίδες, ξεχειλίζει από τις άκρες τους, βγαίνει από τα περιθώρια, πώς να στριμώξεις σε ένα βιβλίο τον έρωτα, τη μουσική, τη Βομβάη, την Αγγλία, τον Ορφέα και την Ευριδίκη, τους μύθους, τον χρόν��, τους μύθους για τον χρόνο, τις θρησκείες, τους πολέμους τους, την Ανατολή και τη Δύση;

"Πιάνω τον εαυτό μου να σκέφτεται ξανά αυτή την αλλόκοτη, τη θυελλώδη γοητεία που ασκεί η ασκητική Ανατολή πάνω στην ηδονιστική Δύση. Οι δυτικοί, πιστοί οπαδοί του γραμμικού χρόνου και του μύθου της προόδου, ζητούν απ'την Ανατολή μόνο τη θρυλική της σταθερότητα, τον μύθο περί αιωνιότητας".

I'm done with this book. So technically I only read 54% but dang! At first it was really cool with all the tragedy that was happening and it kept me interested, but after a while with all the pining after Vina it got pretty old pretty quick and extremely irritating! I haven't picked up the book in about half a year so if I haven't by now I probably won't. Plus at this point I don't even care to know what happens to all the stupid characters.

I really enjoyed this retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth through two Indian rock stars Ormus and Vina (and photographer Rai who knows them better than anyone). Ormus worships the ground beneath Vina’s feet, and the ground literally disappears beneath her feet in one of the earthquakes that pepper the book, and this pun is one of many that recur through the story.

I sometimes found Rushdie’s style exhausting, but I also found it exhilarating. I can’t claim to always follow his flights of fancy, but amid the fantasy and philosophy and intellectual wordplay there is humour and sharp observations and a cracking story that kept me gripped from start to finish. The book spans the 1940s to the 1990s but historical events and characters are often switched about or given an alternative twist.

I wasn’t so keen on this alternative history aspect but I enjoyed the music references, the digressions on photography as an art form, and the portrayal of the immigrant experience - and I feel I’m becoming quite a fan of Rushdie.

Although a bit tedious, this was definitely worth the read. At some points you feel like you are under a barrage of English, almost overwhelmed by the beauty of the writing. This is what good literature should feel like! In other chapters Rushdie becomes talkative and philosophical, which I liked much less. But overall, this was quite an experience. Four stars out of five.