The Ground Beneath Her Feet, by Salman Rushdie, is one of my favorite books of all time. I read it for the first time in Paris when I was on a reading kick after discovering the English-language novels in the library. Then I reread it after finding a copy in my house, collecting dust. Now it's with me in Vietnam.
Like most of Rushdie's novels, the story of TGBHF his complex. But overall, I would say that it's about love and music, which to some are one and the same. This book is an epic love story told by a fascinating narrator, one who is (like many of Rushdie's narrator's) not at all unbiased in his storytelling. Which makes it all the more interesting.
The novel is very much about upheaval, both physical--in the form of travel and of earthquakes, for example--and emotional--in the form of love, of course. This is maybe part of the book's appeal to me personally, is the way Rushdie so perfectly captures a lot of the feelings involved in these upheavals. Here is a passage I particularly adore:
"Disorientation is loss of the East. Ask any navigator: the east is what you sail by. Lose the east and you lose your bearings, your certainties, your knowledge of what is and what may be, perhaps even your life. Where was that star you followed to that manger? That's right: the east orients. That's the official version. The language says so, and you should never argue with the language.
But let's just suppose. What if the whole deal--orientation, knowing where you are and so on--what if it's all a scam? What if all of it--home, kinship, the whole enchilada--is just the biggest, most truly global, and centuries-oldest piece of brainwashing? Suppose that it's only when you dare to let go that your real life begins?"
The passage goes on, and I love every word of it. Hopefully this taste will make you want to read this novel, because I promise you it is worth it.
Read it, and let me know what you think.
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