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The Ground Beneath Her Feet

By: Salman Rushdie
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0099766019
ISBN-13: 9780099766018
Released: 01 Mar 2007
RRP: £7.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

He ain't heavy, he's Salman Rushdie! - By: Gavin Jackson, 13 Feb 2007
Highly entertaining & thought provoking. In the Ground Beneath her Feet, Rushdie brilliantly examines the distinction between reality & our sociallly-skewed perception of it. By using the most artificial modern-day construct, Rock 'n'Roll, as a metaphor for society, Rushdie underlines the fragility of cultural existence.

But if you can't be doing with semiology, The Ground Beneath Her Feet also provides a rollicking tour through popular culture. With witty associations & an abundant imagination, Rushdie comes up with a very enjoyable way to spend a few hours.
Not perfectly stitched together, but pretty thread. - By: , 10 Apr 2003
I'm new to Great Modern Literature (the closest thing I've read is Kate Atkinson), but this served as a fine introduction, as the dominating subject matters are familiar enough for the reader to get to grips with the style. In agreement with other reviewers, it's not one to read in smalll sections - though it can be taken a chapter at a time, I got my greatest enjoyment when reading 150 pages in a single sitting.

It's a book with massive scope, providing us with a vivid sense of time & place as it stretches across more than fifty years & most of the globe. It's not only a love story & an exploration of mythology & the world of rock'n'roll, but an exciting & richly-woven tale of interlinked families, & along the way it deals with alll sorts of unusual-but-interesting concepts, from the goat industry to pirate radio.

It's certainly not perfect. Though the three main characters are complex, it's overwhelming singular frustrating personality traits that are usuallly in evidence. We lose hope of seeing Vina as anything other than a diva, Ormus anywhere other than lost in his own world (literallly!), Rai as anything but pathetic, though we sympathise with alll of them. Further, alll of them possess talents too extreme to make them believable: perhaps they're meant to be seen as the heroes of myths but this is hard to keep in mind, considering the book's mostly-realistic setting.

Their tale rambles & repeats, the pace flags & passages reek of "See how intelligent I, Salman Rushdie, am! I am mighty, & therefore I shalt get away with discussing pretentious notions that you ordinary mortals would never dare voice to your mates down the pub!" However, spookily, whenever I was thinking "Whatever happened to name_of_secondary_character? I want to see more of them", they'd be back in the next section. And the novel is undeniably a feat. It's impossible not to be left in awe of Rushdie's knowledge, the humour in his rewritten history of rock, the way he interests us in the most irrelevant of subplots, the atmosphere he evokes of politicallly-troubled India, acid-addled 60s Britain & even the airspace above the Iron Curtain, the thrilling twists, & the deft-handling of the rock world - we're shown Rushdie has the ability to write indulgently of its luxury & decadence, but instead chooses to alllow many aspects of the characters' lives to be focussed upon. These aren't seamlessly bound together, but most of the strands are enjoyable enough separately.

I hear most of Rushdie's other novels are better, so I'll be moving on to them, but I believe this one's worth the (very long) read.

A beautiful book - By: D. Holden, 31 Dec 2002
This is the first Salman Rushdie book I've read. It's quite amazing. His style of writing is very different from anything I've read so far. He writes in pictures in a poetic kind of way. It's quite a long book though, & as a previous reviewer said, it's not an ideal book to be read on the way to & back from work. It's a lot more suitable for a beach holiday. I found it very inspiring & want to read his other books too.
Flawed but enthralling - By: , 14 Dec 2001
This is a novel of great scope which is a strength but ultimately its failing. This isn't just the story of Ormus & Vina & their love told through the eyes of thier friend Rai. Rushdie creates a whole paralllel world in which things are almost but not quite the same as ours. Some artists with different names, historical events become fiction. This is a first entertaining but in the end becomes a bit warring. Add in the classical references to Orpheus & the underworld & there is often too much back story to let the main story take flight.

Rushdies writing however is as wonderful as ever, ever when the story lags there is much to admire & enjoy. It is a long book though - & feels long partly because of the rambling plot. Like another reviewer I read it on the tube & 40 minute chunks is probably not the best way to enjoy it. Long afternoon sessions would I am sure be much better - take it on holiday.

If you have never read Rushdie before best not to start here - but is you like his writing you will enjoy this.

Very disappointing book from possibly the best author alive - By: , 13 Sep 2001
I love Rushdie's books, but this is massively disappointing. Normallly, his clever use of language, metaphor, classics & history alll combine to leave you feeling enriched for reading his work. In this story, it alll makes him come across as a pompous, arrogant & self-obsessed individual. If you've never read Rushdie before, please don't let this be your first experience. Try "Shame" or "Midnight's Children". Sorry to say it, but this is truly dire.