The Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie
The Moor's Last Sigh - Salman Rushdie
Publication date: 1995
Edition: New edition edition (4 July 1996)
Publisher: Vintage
Pages: 448
Source: Amazon
Summary/Back of the book:
From Amazon.co.uk
"Moares 'Moor' Zogoiby is a 'high-born crossbreed', the last surviving scion of a dynasty of Cochinise spice merchants and crime lords. He is also a compulsive storyteller and an exile. As he travels a route that takes him from India to Spain, he leaves behind a labyrinthine tale of mad passions and volcanic family hatreds, of titanic matriarchs and their mesmerised offspring, of premature deaths and curses that strike beyond the grave. The Moor's Last Sigh is a spectacularly ambitious, funny, satirical and compassionate novel. It is a love song to a vanishing world, but also its last hurrah."
I've meant to read something by Salman Rushdie for a while, to see what all the fuss was about, so I was quite pleased to get this to read. After reading it, I'm still pleased I got it, which is a good sign.
The story is about 4 generations of a wealthy Indian family. It's a very conflicted family, ruled by very strong women, and the conflicts seem to echo the political conflicts India undergoes during the time the novel is set (which encompasses almost 100 years). If you wanted to pick out all the allegories you would be there forever. Fortunately, while prevalent they're not completely heavy handed, so you can still enjoy the story as a story. It reminded me a bit of One Hundred Years of Solitude actually, which I also enjoyed, but this is funnier. It's funny in a kind of bitter sweet way though, because behind the shenanigans of this wealthy family are all the other things going on in India, like the struggle for independence, the poverty of many people, and the corruption of officials, not to mention the religious conflicts.
The book is narrated by Moor, the last surviving member of the family, telling the story from his great-grandparents to himself, and it reads very much as if you were listening to someone talk about their family history, with various diversions into interesting family rumours, and skipping back and forth in time to explain motivations and possible causes for some of the events. Although Moor is ostensiably the title character, and the narrator, I think the title of "main" character goes to his mother, Aurora, since she is the most vivid and influential character in the novel. Moor is kind of half-real, and she is in many senses his creator. Aurora is also the bridge between the generations, and (one presumes) the main source for many of the family stories Moor is relating. This leads to interesting conclusions about the veracity of some of it. The family is very interesting, diverse, and divided. Division is one of the central motifs of the book. First the family is divided over British colonial rule, then over the family wealth (to the extent of drawing a dividing line through the house), then there is disaproval of Aurora's choice of husband, and so on. It is not a very stable foundation for a family, and there is a great deal of emotional and financial loss, but each successive generation doesn't seem to learn from the last, and Aurora manages to lose all her children in various ways.
Most of the characters are likeable, although they're all flawed, and the flaws seem to increase as the generations go on, culminating in Moor, who's physically disabled, as well as struggling with the legacy of his eccentric family and his unusual upbringing.
The characters are very well portrayed (although some are on the verge of being stereotypes), and there is plenty of action. It's a shame that the locations aren't fleshed out so well, but that's a small criticism, there's plenty going on so that you don't notice it too much. My only other criticism is that I thought the last part of the book was a bit daft. Considering that the whole novel requires you to suspend your disbelief that is saying something. Some of the characters become more caricatures. This may have been done deliberately, but I found it somewhat jarring.
My rating: 4.5/5
Publication date: 1995
Edition: New edition edition (4 July 1996)
Publisher: Vintage
Pages: 448
Source: Amazon
Summary/Back of the book:
From Amazon.co.uk
"Moares 'Moor' Zogoiby is a 'high-born crossbreed', the last surviving scion of a dynasty of Cochinise spice merchants and crime lords. He is also a compulsive storyteller and an exile. As he travels a route that takes him from India to Spain, he leaves behind a labyrinthine tale of mad passions and volcanic family hatreds, of titanic matriarchs and their mesmerised offspring, of premature deaths and curses that strike beyond the grave. The Moor's Last Sigh is a spectacularly ambitious, funny, satirical and compassionate novel. It is a love song to a vanishing world, but also its last hurrah."
I've meant to read something by Salman Rushdie for a while, to see what all the fuss was about, so I was quite pleased to get this to read. After reading it, I'm still pleased I got it, which is a good sign.
The story is about 4 generations of a wealthy Indian family. It's a very conflicted family, ruled by very strong women, and the conflicts seem to echo the political conflicts India undergoes during the time the novel is set (which encompasses almost 100 years). If you wanted to pick out all the allegories you would be there forever. Fortunately, while prevalent they're not completely heavy handed, so you can still enjoy the story as a story. It reminded me a bit of One Hundred Years of Solitude actually, which I also enjoyed, but this is funnier. It's funny in a kind of bitter sweet way though, because behind the shenanigans of this wealthy family are all the other things going on in India, like the struggle for independence, the poverty of many people, and the corruption of officials, not to mention the religious conflicts.
The book is narrated by Moor, the last surviving member of the family, telling the story from his great-grandparents to himself, and it reads very much as if you were listening to someone talk about their family history, with various diversions into interesting family rumours, and skipping back and forth in time to explain motivations and possible causes for some of the events. Although Moor is ostensiably the title character, and the narrator, I think the title of "main" character goes to his mother, Aurora, since she is the most vivid and influential character in the novel. Moor is kind of half-real, and she is in many senses his creator. Aurora is also the bridge between the generations, and (one presumes) the main source for many of the family stories Moor is relating. This leads to interesting conclusions about the veracity of some of it. The family is very interesting, diverse, and divided. Division is one of the central motifs of the book. First the family is divided over British colonial rule, then over the family wealth (to the extent of drawing a dividing line through the house), then there is disaproval of Aurora's choice of husband, and so on. It is not a very stable foundation for a family, and there is a great deal of emotional and financial loss, but each successive generation doesn't seem to learn from the last, and Aurora manages to lose all her children in various ways.
Most of the characters are likeable, although they're all flawed, and the flaws seem to increase as the generations go on, culminating in Moor, who's physically disabled, as well as struggling with the legacy of his eccentric family and his unusual upbringing.
The characters are very well portrayed (although some are on the verge of being stereotypes), and there is plenty of action. It's a shame that the locations aren't fleshed out so well, but that's a small criticism, there's plenty going on so that you don't notice it too much. My only other criticism is that I thought the last part of the book was a bit daft. Considering that the whole novel requires you to suspend your disbelief that is saying something. Some of the characters become more caricatures. This may have been done deliberately, but I found it somewhat jarring.
My rating: 4.5/5