I really wanted to read this book, and though I haven't read much else by him, I really like Salman Rushdie.. But I just couldn't get into this. Every time I picked it up I couldn't get through more than 20 pages without putting it down and finding myself with no incentive to pick it back up again. From October 2007 until about a month ago I hadn't even gotten through half the book.

Suffice it to say I was not impressed. I felt like it was just this long-winded story of nothing. There was so much irrelevant back story and unnecessary characters. The story itself could have been told in 150 pages and half of the characters could [AND SHOULD] have been completely eliminated.

As if that wasn't enough, I actually DISLIKED Vina Apsara. Here's this 600 page story about TWO men and an entire world that are madly in love with this famous, sexy, self-proclaiming free spirit and are completely destroyed due to her demise (this you learn on page 1 but it takes 500 pages to loop back around to) and I found her to be arrogant and pompous.
Why would you even agree to marry someone (especially someone who is madly in love with you and practices complete celibacy for over ten years) if you just want to sleep with other men?!
I don't believe "true love" is giving your body to other people.
Maybe that's just me..
But it made it extremely difficult for me to gain anything out of this novel when it's supposed to be the story of ultimate love and I rolled my eyes and found myself screaming at the male characters "She's a bitch, why do you even care about her!!???!@!"

Five stars because of the writing. Rushdie has a way that is so unique and captures so much nuance it is a joy to read. Two stars because it so unnecessarily long. I don't mind a "loose baggy monster" now and then, but said monster should at least have a point. This felt like it was long simply because Rushdie wouldn't cut anything out. Much seems superfluous. And while I'm sure it added to the overall richness of the book, it felt like too much.

I was reading this book for 2 years... The beauty of language is extraordinary but i could care less about the story. I will still read other of his books

Ho immediatamente capito, già dalle prime pagine, che sarebbe diventato uno dei miei romanzi preferiti.
È un racconto variegato nonostante ci sia unico narratore, Rai, che ci permette in ogni caso di indagare a fondo sui numerosi altri personaggi, consegnando un ricordo dettagliato non solo di Vina e Ormus, della loro impareggiabile storia d’amore e del loro straordinario successo, ma di tutti i personaggi che li hanno circondati e che hanno dato un’impronta personale allo svolgimento della loro vicenda.
Un romanzo che parla d’amore in ogni sua forma, e poi di musica come forza irresistibile, di arte visionaria, di terremoti che cambiano la struttura stessa della realtà, della metamorfosi di Bombay all’alba della decolonizzazione, degli Stati Uniti come terra di libertà, certo, ma anche di enormi ipocrisie e violenza. Un romanzo che parla del doppio, di personaggi irrimediabilmente contrapposti che sono l’uno lo specchio dell’altro, di universi che si scontrano, entrano in collisione e vengono distrutti. Un romanzo che parla di vita, di morte e di tutto quello che c’è in mezzo. E forse anche di quello che resta dopo.

Βαρετό και φλύαρο, ένδειξη ότι αν δεν είχε βγει φετφά για το κεφάλι του Σαλμάν, δεν θα τον ήξερε ούτε η μάνα του (εντάξει, υπερβάλλω λίγο, σίγουρα τον αναγνώριζε). Μια ιστορία αγάπης που... δεν πατάει στα πόδια της και το μόνο που καταφέρνει είναι να κλέβει λίγο από το μύθο του Ορφέα και της Ευρυδίκης (μουσικοί γαρ οι προωταγωνιστές) και να εκνευρίζει τον αναγνώστη, σαν να έχεις το "αυτό το κάτι που θέλω" της Γαρμπή στα αυτιά (με external noise cancelling ακουστικά) επί 24 ώρες. Αν δε δείρεις άνθρωπο, είσαι ο Κρίσνα ο ίδιος.
Το τέλος μάλλον αμφιλεγόμενο, "κατασκευασμένο" για να κάνει buzz, κάποιους (κι εμένα) θα τους ενοχλήσει.

Reading 'The Ground Beneath her Feet' is yet another proof of Rushidie's literary genius. It is no wonder that he is one of the most prolific writers of our time. Magic is the word that sums up his literary universe.

Rather shamefully, I was given this book as a present twenty-one years ago now and it has taken a global pandemic for me to pick it up. At the time, Rushdie’s media persona as something of a luvvie with much younger women accompanying him had put me off but, having subsequently read and been incredibly impressed by Midnight’s Children , The Moor’s Last Sigh and Shame , I thought I would take the plunge.

The writing is scintillating and one wonders how an author can seemingly avoid repeating certain words in such wonderful manner – the book bubbles with ideas and cultural reference points and the use of musical history as a touchstone works well – Rushdie’s world is a clever mix of fact and fiction, nods, allusions and puns.

Although the author knows London well, it is the sections of the novel that take place in India and in particular Bombay that convince the most – and that roughly equates to the first half of the book. Thereafter, the story does drag a little and yet the central narrative of a musical duo affords perhaps less time than one might expect to their most successful years. Rushdie evokes a world where meat and potatoes US rock is blended skilfully with world music and internationalism and it’s frustrating that this is but a concept and if the book as a whole is a hundred or so pages too long, it’s still well worth the trip.

What a HUGE disappointment. I got through 4% (according to my e reader) and tossed it. Here was an author who came so acclaimed — I was dying to find time in retirement to finally read his books. Finally I start one only to discover his writing is just a just a bunch of self indulgent gibberish as he preens himself with some gigantic therausus. There was no clue to any storyline or character with redeeming qualities. I'm too old to waste time stroking any author's ego.

This was my third foray into Salman Rushdie (the first two being "The Satanic Verses" and "The Enchantress of Florence"). What made this reading experience so pleasurable, beyond the exquisite and sometimes raw prose, was being familiar enough with Rushdie's work now to recognize a few universal themes. Perhaps most notable are the following three:

1) Estrangement from India. India itself is alternately protagonist and antagonistic, sometimes driving away the main characters, but also sometimes reeling them back in. Wherever they flee, she is a reality they will never escape. In this novel, Rushdie examines in some depth the concept of detachment from the East (i.e., "disorientation").

2) The "goddess vs. property" conceptualization of women (p. 486). In Rushdie's novels, particularly this one, women harness remarkable power. Reminiscent of Kawabata's "The House of Sleeping Beauties", the woman becomes "an empty receptacle, an arena of discourse, and we can invent her in our own image, as once we invented god" (p. 485). The male characters pour their entire selves into women like Vina or the Florentine enchantress, women whom they idolize. In this case, Vina becomes that "empty receptacle" for Ormus' and Rai's hopes, failures, desires, passions, expectations, shortcomings, disappointments, neuroses, etc., just as the sleeping beauties do for the old men in Kawabata's story. In fact, it is not just Ormus and Rai who use Vina this way--the entire world, captivated by her singing and atypical candor in the press, makes Vina its "empty receptacle". Even in death, she continues to function as the tabula rasa for various therapists, religious gurus, theorists, philosophers, and pundits--all of whom seek both to derive greater meaning and profit from her untimely death.

3) Doubles, twins, doppelgangers, and mirror images. The end chapters of this book are densely populated with Vina lookalikes and impostors. Ormus is haunted by his dead twin brother, Gayomart, who offers him visions of songs yet to be written and glimpses into alternate realities that torment him to no end, ultimately driving him mad. Mirror imagery throughout the story reinforces these dualistic themes.

Ultimately, this is the story of a very flawed, human love, something the narrative tells us explicitly. Ormus and Vina hurt many people throughout the course of their stormy on-again-off-again courtship--perhaps themselves most of all. Rai is the only character who escapes the destructive triangle, emerging not only with life and limb, but with a tamer, more humane version of Vina (Mira Celano). He achieves happiness with Mira that he could not with Vina--while Vina shunned the notions of fidelity and marriage, Mira craves them. And, perhaps most importantly, he does not have to share her body and soul with Ormus Cama.

3.95

I think this is my favorite Rushdie book yet.

No less of a deep dive into Bombay, India, Europe, current political events, religion and history than the other books of his I've read, this one adds Rock and the modern world as a central theme, and the mythical-magical, so to speak analysis of power and alternate worlds teeming with real and unreal examples of iconic ways that the world just is.

The Orpheus and Eurdike storyline this is woven around is brilliantly exhumed and turned into living rock, it's the most amazing story, the most beautiful language. I loved this book.

Mi-am dorit foarte mult să citesc această carte, fascinată fiind de titlul ei, dar și de cântecul trupei U2, în al cărui videoclip apare Rushdie însuși.
Mi-a plăcut mai mult prima jumătate, dar, după părăsirea Indiei de către cei trei protagoniști vrăjiți de mirajul Occidentului, cartea se dezOrientează, își pierde poezia și magicul se dizolvă într-o poveste dezlânată, lungită artificial, șchiopătată și plictisitoare. Povestea de dragoste dintre Ormus și Vina nu m-a captivat, iar singurul personaj consistent și credibil mi-a părut Umeed “Rai” Merchant.
Cititorii care nu au citit romanele anterioare ale lui Rushdie și tinerii fără informații culturale și muzicale solide vor fi derutați de finalurile răsturnate ale personalităților și evenimentelor din viața politică indiană, dar și de confuzia intenționat indusă în descrierea unor repere istorice și culturale internaționale din anii ‘50-‘90 (data asasinării fraților Kennedy, utilizarea denumirii Indochina pentru războiul din Vietnam, folosirea numelui Jesse Garon Parker pentru Elvis Presley - numele geamănului său mort prematur, rescrierea numelor unor melodii - “Treat me tender” în loc de “Love me tender”, atribuirea unor cântece altor formații, transformarea lui Andy Warhol și a sa Fabrică în Abatorul personajului Amos Voight, împerecherea unor prenume cu alte nume etc). Cred că niște minime clarificări în note de subsol ar fi fost binevenite, făra ca acest lucru să constituie “întreruperi și știrbiri” (vezi Nota traducătorului), ci doar un ghid de înțelegere a contextului pentru generațiile tinere, prelungind astfel viața romanului.