Fury by Salman Rushdie
When we meet Malik Solanka, the central character in Fury, he is living in a sublet apartment on New York's West Side. He has abandoned his wife, Eleanor, and his young son, without warning or explanation, in London. They are understandably upset, and telephone him often, urging him to return to his senses and to them.
The explanation we eventually get for his peculiar behavior is this: he was formerly a professor, and at a certain point he became interested in doll houses, and in constructing dolls. The dolls initially were merely fanciful but they developed into a kind of educational aid in television presentations about the history of ideas, one doll in particular, "Little Brain," offering provocative anachronistic interviews with the great minds of history. Little Brain became wildly popular, a "hot property" of the television industry, which exploited her, marketed Little Brain action figures, images, clothes, make-up, and whatever. At the same time they dumbed her down. All this made Solanka, as the inventor, extremely rich, but it also upset him to see his creation turned into a stupid promotional vehicle. Consequently, he developed a growing feeling of rage (one aspect of the "fury" in the title) which reached the point where he believed that in a fit of anger he could be a danger to others. So he picked up and disappeared to New York.
All this may sound far-fetched and unconvincing, but wait, there is more. In New York Solanka meets Mila Milo, an admirer of Little Brain, who dresses in the doll's outfit and with whom he enacts episodes derived from the early television shows (all this with a growing erotic undercurrent). After a time, however, he leaves Mila in favor of Neela Mahendra, a woman so surpassingly beautiful that she literally stops traffic on New York streets and causes men to walk into lampposts. With Neela, Solanka is able to overcome his anger.
Mila reappears to work out a business deal with Solanka based on a new doll-type creation, the "Puppet Kings," which is launched on the internet with numerous product lines and interactive features, becomes hugely successful, and brings in more money for Solanka.
Then, in a preposterous climactic scene, Solanka, in bed with Neela in his apartment, awakens at
three in the morning to find Mila's jealous boyfriend Eddie standing over him with a knife. Mila arrives shortly afterwards, and to cap it off, Solanka's wife Eleanor (having just flown over from London) appears with her new lover, Morgen, who punches Solanka. The three women, disabused, go their separate ways, Eleanor back to London, Mila off with Eddie, and Neela off to join the revolution in the tiny Pacific island where she was born (where Solanka follows her to try, unsuccessfully to woo her back).
There is more in the book than I have mentioned--in particular a sub plot involving shocking murders that galvanize the city--but on the whole I did not find the book satisfying or moving. Rushdie's writing is sometimes good. Indeed, there is often a kind of superficial, virtuosic brilliance in the writing. That was part of what kept me going (although the writing is not consistently excellent), but in the end, for me, there was nothing to redeem what seemed a contrived and unconvincing plot, and nothing to cause me to care much about any of the characters.
The explanation we eventually get for his peculiar behavior is this: he was formerly a professor, and at a certain point he became interested in doll houses, and in constructing dolls. The dolls initially were merely fanciful but they developed into a kind of educational aid in television presentations about the history of ideas, one doll in particular, "Little Brain," offering provocative anachronistic interviews with the great minds of history. Little Brain became wildly popular, a "hot property" of the television industry, which exploited her, marketed Little Brain action figures, images, clothes, make-up, and whatever. At the same time they dumbed her down. All this made Solanka, as the inventor, extremely rich, but it also upset him to see his creation turned into a stupid promotional vehicle. Consequently, he developed a growing feeling of rage (one aspect of the "fury" in the title) which reached the point where he believed that in a fit of anger he could be a danger to others. So he picked up and disappeared to New York.
All this may sound far-fetched and unconvincing, but wait, there is more. In New York Solanka meets Mila Milo, an admirer of Little Brain, who dresses in the doll's outfit and with whom he enacts episodes derived from the early television shows (all this with a growing erotic undercurrent). After a time, however, he leaves Mila in favor of Neela Mahendra, a woman so surpassingly beautiful that she literally stops traffic on New York streets and causes men to walk into lampposts. With Neela, Solanka is able to overcome his anger.
Mila reappears to work out a business deal with Solanka based on a new doll-type creation, the "Puppet Kings," which is launched on the internet with numerous product lines and interactive features, becomes hugely successful, and brings in more money for Solanka.
Then, in a preposterous climactic scene, Solanka, in bed with Neela in his apartment, awakens at
three in the morning to find Mila's jealous boyfriend Eddie standing over him with a knife. Mila arrives shortly afterwards, and to cap it off, Solanka's wife Eleanor (having just flown over from London) appears with her new lover, Morgen, who punches Solanka. The three women, disabused, go their separate ways, Eleanor back to London, Mila off with Eddie, and Neela off to join the revolution in the tiny Pacific island where she was born (where Solanka follows her to try, unsuccessfully to woo her back).
There is more in the book than I have mentioned--in particular a sub plot involving shocking murders that galvanize the city--but on the whole I did not find the book satisfying or moving. Rushdie's writing is sometimes good. Indeed, there is often a kind of superficial, virtuosic brilliance in the writing. That was part of what kept me going (although the writing is not consistently excellent), but in the end, for me, there was nothing to redeem what seemed a contrived and unconvincing plot, and nothing to cause me to care much about any of the characters.