Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Book Review : The Moor's last sigh - Salman Rushdie

Awards and Nominations : Winner of the 1995 Whitbread Novel of the year award and shortlisted for the 1995 booker prize.

This is my first Salman Rushdie novel and this work was very impressive. There are certain lines and some citing which may be criticized(for e.g the dog named Jawaharlal) but again he has been associated with controversies all through out his career. The story centers around the life of the Zogobiy family with the Moor being the last of the tree. It is centered around the cities of Cochin , Bombay and finally ends in Spain.
The rise and fall of the family has been presented in a very humorous way . However the main attraction of the novel is the paintings made by Aurora which depicts the various phases of the moor's life. 
Overall a wonderful book to read .(Rating : 4.5/5)

To quote 2 wonderful passages from the book:

" We look at the galaxy and fall in love, but the universe cares less about us than we about it ,and the stars stay in their courses however much we may wish upon them to do otherwise. It's true that if you  watch the sky wheel turn for a while you'll see a meteor fall , flame and die .That's not a star worth following ; it is just and unlucky rock . Our fates are here on the earth. There are no guiding stars." 

" By embracing the inescapable , I lost my fear of it. I'll tell you a secret about fear : it is an absolutist. With fear , it's all or nothing . Either, like any bullying tyrant , it rules your life with a stupid blinding omnipotence , or else you overthrow it , and its power vanishes in a puff of smoke."


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