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Shalimar the Clown

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 6,795 ratings · 577 reviews

This is the story of Maximilian Ophuls, America’s counterterrorism chief, one of the makers of the modern world; his Kashmiri Muslim driver and subsequent killer, a mysterious figure who calls himself Shalimar the clown; Max’s illegitimate daughter India; and a woman who links them, whose revelation finally explains them all. It is an epic narrative that moves from Califor...more

Paperback, 398 pages

Published October 10th 2006 by Random House Trade Paperbacks (first published 2005)

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Dec 05, 2012 mark monday rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: into-the-past, these-fragile-lives, blood-and-danger

a smart young lady trying to find herself in California. the assassination of her father - America's counterterrorism chief. a portrait of Kashmir before all the ugliness and horror. the life of a man: lawyer, Jew, printer, resistance fighter, diplomat, husband, lover, father. a portrait of Kashmir - the ugliness, the horror. the life of a man: acrobat, actor, husband, freedom fighter, terrorist, chauffeur, assassin. a courtroom drama. a tale of a guy who really knows how to handle himself in pr...more a smart young lady trying to find herself in California. the assassination of her father - America's counterterrorism chief. a portrait of Kashmir before all the ugliness and horror. the life of a man: lawyer, Jew, printer, resistance fighter, diplomat, husband, lover, father. a portrait of Kashmir - the ugliness, the horror. the life of a man: acrobat, actor, husband, freedom fighter, terrorist, chauffeur, assassin. a courtroom drama. a tale of a guy who really knows how to handle himself in prison. a troubled young lady finding love and thirsting for revenge. a miniature epic. a work that is sublime and transcendent. a frustrating book. a masterpiece!

the first section of the novel follows the life of young urban sophisticate India, a documentarian and the daughter of a famous father. right off the bat, i had issues. Rushdie's voice is justly famous for its idiosyncracy. he is a "witty" writer. his voice is polished, erudite, disarmingly casual, sometimes dry, sometimes broad, intellectual, political, personal. Shalimar is full of sharp, wry characterization that is delivered in prose that is complicated, flowing, detailed in long sentences and even longer paragraphs, with much use of striking bits of offbeat imagery. the dialogue can be realistic but just as often feels archly stylized. i couldn't help but think that many characters spoke like Rushdie himself must speak. all of this became rather off-putting, as if Rushdie was oh such a clever man - like that oh so clever gent who goes on and on at a cocktail party, entranced with being the center of attention while never noticing how genuinely pretentious and condescending he sounds (i'll admit here that that dreary kind of cocktail party person is frequently... myself. sigh). this is not to say that the first section wasn't often funny. it was. particularly in Rushdie's depiction of the all-american boy-next-door type, and that type's glorified kind of anonymity. but you can still really want to smack a funny person upside the head if their humor comes wrapped in up-his-own-ass cleverness. at least i did. and all that said, the last part of the section - an assassination and a daughter's removal from reality: brilliant. just brilliant.

the second section takes us into the past, to a Kashmiri village named Pachigam. my God, this section was beautiful! Rushdie's prose sings. the story of this village, its wonderful characters, two young people in love, the myths and legends, the magic, the rivalries, the coming of military types from India and revolutionary types from Pakistan, the stories within stories, the feeling of time moving inexorably forward, the troubling hints of bad times on the horizon, the grand passions, the small things, the humanity, the color and light and life and all the glorious details of a world that is no more... marvelous! just marvelous. i wanted to live in this world. here is also where it becomes absolutely clear how much Rushdie respects the strength of women and the power of art (art in cooking, acting, theatre; art as a tradition and a lifestyle). there is a dreamy kind of wish fulfillment happening in this section. things are not idealized and the narrative is not a sentimental one and characters are not one-dimensional - and yet this section is so full of people surviving in hard times, people living their lives to the fullest, people standing up for each other and being brave and being honest and being utterly themselves - i read this novella-sized section in a state of bliss. it is beauty on the page. i could read the story of this village over and again. swoon!

the third section is the story of Max Ophuls. his name is that of a brilliant, classic director. he has a sinister, cringing assistant named Ed(gar) Wood(s). hey that's the name of another brilliant, classic director, a low-rent one, one who exists on the exact opposite part of the film spectrum as Ophuls. is this another example of Rushdie being clever for the sake of cleverness? perhaps. it doesn't matter. this section is also fantastic. Rushdie knows how to write thrilling wartime drama. Rushdie knows how to write tales of escape and derring-do and brave flights across troubled waters. is there anything the man can't write? this section starts in World War 2-era France, the life before the war, the resistance during, the politics and the spies and the lives lived in hiding. it gives you a brave heroine as well - complicated, butch, tender, merciless, independent, an incredibly sympathetic lady, and - much later - a stone-cold bitch. then Rushdie takes you out of France, into India, and into a disturbing affair. the fall of a Kashmiri villlager turned mistress. Rushdie writes of great events but keeps the personal front and center. he keeps things intimate and he keeps his characters real. Rushdie knows how to write.

some serious spoilers follow!

the fourth section returns to the Kashmiri village of Pachigam and is a tale of horror, why is that. it details the ruthlessness of religious fundamentalism and the madness of mindless militarism and the bloodthirstiness that occurs when the two meet, why is that. it shows us traditions dying, traditions being slaughtered, small things ground under the boots of smaller minds, villages burning and women raped and people tortured and beloved characters being hurt and broken and tormented and demeaned and killed, why is that. the authorial voice remains stylized and that should lead to some distance between story and reader but if anything the wryness and the stylization and the continued use of magic make the brutality even more stark and horrible, why is that. humans are fucking miserable bugs to treat each other this way and yet that's how it is and people die and people don't care and people live to rationalize their disgusting lack of humanity and people die who only want to live and people die and people die and people die, why is that. i hate people, why is that. i read this in an airport terminal while my flight was delayed for hours and it was hard not to cry and so i took many smoke breaks to try and let the heaviness lift a little and i kept returning to the book and i started to feel a strange feeling of being altered, of looking at things from very far away, of wanting to be far away, and yeah i did start crying, why is that. i'm writing this now and for some reason the tears are flowing again, why is that. why the fuck are people so fucking cruel and why is history a record of cruelty and why should humans be alive anyway, why do they do the things they do, i will never understand that, just thinking of what humans do to each other fills me with such sadness and rage and confusing feelings that i barely understand, why is that. people are so fucked up, why is that why is that why is that why is that.

the fifth section returns us to modern day California. tale of a troubled young woman trying to be strong. tale of a man so hollowed out by his lack of love that he is nothing but a terrible shell with a terrible purpose. tale of some courtroom shenanigans. tale of a prison break. tale of a tale of a tale of a tale. things come together; things come apart. Kashmir is more than Kashmir - it is a living symbol for so many things. there is always room for love, even in the middle of vengeance. sometimes the lack of love is replaced by something else. sometimes hate is like love. sometimes things just can't be understood or explained. Rushdie tries, he really does, he tries brilliantly. his sentimental humanism is obvious in the very motivation of Shalimar the clown, who is not your typical terrorist. i don't mind the sentimental humanism; sometimes i crave it. Rushdie is a humanist who has not let the fatwa destroy his sense of decency or fairness, his need to see a person's tale from all angles, to see the why and the how of humans turning into monsters. Rushdie understands both the futility and the necessity of revenge, different forms of revenge. Shalimar the Clown ends on an exciting note. Shalimar the Clown ends on a mysterious note. what will happen next? is there any hope? perhaps i am more of a pessimist than Rushdie because he clearly has hope while i think of humans and often feel hopeless. Humans Off Earth Now! but maybe not. there's hope yet, right? it is a strange and terrible and wonderful feeling to read a book that gives and then takes away and then gives back - just a little - a kind of faith in humanity. hey look the book is bigger on the inside than the little thing you are holding in your hands.(less)

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Jul 31, 2007 Jan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After toiling through The Satanic Verses a few years ago, my overriding memory is of how little of the novel I understood. I was therefore reluctant to get stuck into Shalimar The Clown when my sister passed it on recently.

Sure enough, I'm finding Rushdie's authorial voice to be much like I remember it - extensive vocabulary, usage of magical realism/dreams/fantasies, strong character descriptions, and multi-cultural savvy that combine together seamlessly. For these reasons I'm finding the stor...more

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Jul 22, 2007 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars

My Review (in very "reviewy" language)
Wonderful. All of Rushdie's powers are at play here, but perhaps the most striking is his exploration of the social and psychological borderland between visceral, emotional impulse and ideological motivation. What motivates someone to become an assassin, a terrorist, a murderer? And in the enlongated moment of that decision, how do personal, emotional wounds gain political currency enough to justify killing someone? Or killing many people?

(For a second ther...more

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Nov 24, 2010 Regine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: magical-realism, owned, bucket-list-books, favourites, war, india

Shalimar the Clown has been on my shelf collecting dust. While I do admit to having quite the crush on Rushdie, I get flashbacks from the utter disappointment I felt when I read The Satanic Verses. My friend, also a Rushdie aficionado, finally convinced me to pick it up and blow the dust off the covers. My love affair with Rushdie has been rekindled.

Rushdie is at full power in Shalimar. He combines his lush prose and diverse characters with political allegory and cultural savvy. Although it's...more

7 likes · like · see review

Feb 04, 2009 Toni Osborne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Maxmillian Ophuls a U.S. diplomat, who was formally stationed in the Kashmir Valley, is murdered by his former chauffeur, Shalimar, in broad day light on the doorstep of his illegitimate daughter India. The murder looks at first to be a political assassination but turns out to be personal.

Several flashbacks take the readers to the past. Shalimar, the clown, was once full of affection and deeply in love with Boonyi, a beautiful Hindu girl who he married. Things come to a turn when Maxmillian come...more

1 like · like · see review

May 01, 2013 Marina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ok..so this is my first review. Thought I'd give a try.
Shalimar the Clown is my second book by Rushdie after I read Midnight's Children a few years ago. I read this book in 5 days by starting very tentatively and slowly until I was very immersed in it and felt the need and curiosity to read it quickly. It is a quite complex book which investigates the inner lives of very different characters from various backgrounds, often backgrounds that are unfamiliar to the Western reader. I have to confess...more

1 like · like · see review

Dec 01, 2008 Zoe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent book. For me, it started out painfully slow. I was not terribly interested in the first characters he introduced to me. Nor was I terribly interested in the story. CONTINUE READING! The histories of these characters are deep, deep, deep. Rich and beautiful language. By the quarter mark of the book I was completely riveted. For the first part of the book I found myself, irritatingly, asking, "when is he going to get to the point!" and the rest of the book eagerly asking, "what happens N...more

6 likes · like · see review

Aug 26, 2008 NYLSpublishing rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: not a soul

Recommended to NYLSpublishing by: NYLS Book Review

The publishing community has long believed that once authors achieve best seller status and their names become recognizable, subsequent works from these so fortunately knighted are bankable safe bets. Oh, how easily sprinting giants stumble when they lose sight of the path to reader bliss and focus, instead, on the desires of their marketing departments.

Rushdie’s latest work, Shalimar the Clown, is a clear example of what ails the novel today. Notwithstanding my disdain for page long sentences a...more

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Jun 03, 2008 Gunjan rated it 2 of 5 stars

spit it out already rushdie!

some of this is just so long winded.

also, his descriptions of the character, "India," remind me of his first inkling of desire for his ex-wife,pseudo-human and nit-wit, padma lakshmi. sick.

and finally, if you're going to name one of your main characters after a sort of popular german film director, make sure your audience understands why. if anyone else has read this, what do max ophuls the director, max ophuls the main character, and kashmira from the story all have...more

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Mar 19, 2009 MacK rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: world-lit, contemporary, favorites

Rushdie, like Marquez, is a master of setting, capturing the essence of a place and a time. But while Marquez specializes in placing a town, an island, a village under a microscope, Rushdie prefers to center his satellite over a sprawling metropolis, compelling geographical region or nation at large.

In Shalimar the Clown Rushdie considers India's largest problem spot: Kashmir. While his classic Midnight's Children delves into the history of independent India as a whole, Shalimar focuses instead...more

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Feb 17, 2009 Linda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: current-events-social-history, india-asia-settings-culture

I found this wonderful synopsis of the book posted by Don in Sep 2007. He took over a year to read the book so compared to him I sped through it. Here's Don:
"Fierce! Make no mistake: this is a war novel, in both the literal and figurative sense; though mostly the literal. Transformation is a major theme here, as it is in most of the Rushdie's novels, and the reader is led through the hellish makeovers of people and places affected both directly and tangentially by the conflict/crisis that befell...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Like some of the post-9/11 literature, Shalimar delves deep into the roots of terrorism and explores the turmoil generated by different faiths and cultures attempting to coexist. How can nations, Rushdie asks, go from near-peaceful ethnic and religious acceptance to violent conflict within a mere generation? Critics agree that Rushdie has brilliantly unraveled the construction of terrorists: some of them fight for ideas; others fight to fulfill vows or, if they are men, to reclaim their wives.

...more

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May 24, 2013 Evan Ostryzniuk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kashmiri Fates
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie (2005)

A few years ago a friend of mine gave me what was then Rushdie’s latest with a very lukewarm recommendation. As a result, I set it on my shelf for until such time as I had the time and motivation to plough through the man’s florid prose. I had just read his The Moor’s Last Sigh the previous year and was mildly impressed by the constancy of its themes and the unusual historical context, although the story itself did not have a whole lot goi...more Kashmiri Fates
Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie (2005)

A few years ago a friend of mine gave me what was then Rushdie’s latest with a very lukewarm recommendation. As a result, I set it on my shelf for until such time as I had the time and motivation to plough through the man’s florid prose. I had just read his The Moor’s Last Sigh the previous year and was mildly impressed by the constancy of its themes and the unusual historical context, although the story itself did not have a whole lot going for it. This time around, not a whole lot has changed, since the main narrative thread has great gobs descriptive text hanging off it while the thread itself is rather short and straight. This has the advantage of ensuring that the reader has an easy time following the basic plot and movements of the characters, which is a good thing because the story Rushdie really wants to tell is about a place over time. In short, the novel is about how in a land of fundamental tensions and contradictions, a lasting peace is best achieved by the application of tolerance, moderation and wise counsel from within the native community.

The title is a little misleading because the novel contain four main characters, each of whom is given equal time in the novel, as well as a cast of minor characters, some of whom are just as interesting as the ‘big four’. I suppose calling the novel ‘Kashmir’ might have been too obvious, although Rushdie does not write with any particular subtlety in this case. Rather, he writes with passion and a depth of understand that few other authors can match. Shalimar is an emotionally, if not stylistically, uneven work by Rushdie. It is not only clear where his sympathies lie, but where he put in his strongest literary effort.

At is most basic, the story is about how American diplomat, spy and war hero Max Ophuls allows his lust get the better of him, which sets off a chain of events that has unfortunate consequences. The setting leaps from modern-day America to Kashmir to wartime Europe and back again. Both greater and lesser characters are drawn with much depth, which is necessary to propel the narrative because while their actions have serious consequences, the actions themselves are spaced well apart. There is a lot of interior monologue in this novel.

This is a historical novel. All the contemporary bits serve as windows for the author to peer into the past and follow the steady ruin of a small but vital community until the present day, so that they are in effect perfunctory. Even one of the main characters, the daughter of Max Ophuls, whose names serve as the titles to the first and final of the novel’s five long chapters, is almost a blank state, full of uncertainty and ambiguity, but not grounded in any meaningful sense. In fact, she is hardly a catalyst for the main conflicts, despite her prominence. Depth of character development and setting is reserved for two relatively minor personages and a small place in the heart of Kashmir: the Hindu Pyarelal and Abdullah the Muslim, who are the morale leaders of the town of Pachigam. Together, they make sure that nothing gets out of hand within and without the village. Rushdie excels in describing the idyll of pre-war Pachigam, which represents Kashmir in miniature, and the complex relationship between the two headmen. Both men are shown to be flawed and prejudiced in their own way, but they are always willing to work together to maintain the fragile balance of the community. They do this not only for practical reasons, but also because this is how they see their history.

The novel works on binary tension: Hindu-Muslim, Pachigam and the neighboring village, India-Pakistan, native traditions-external temptation, love-hate, ambition-resignation. The bottom line is that an extreme in any form is the greatest threat to community, and these extremes appear time and time again in the novel. Muslim fanatics work to sow discord in Kashmiri villages; Hindu officers believe that only a large dollop of repression can quell dissent; blind ambition leads to personal ruin and unleavened hate does much the same.
One curious theme that Rushdie is keen to emphasize is how modernization does not have to be an agent of ruin and discord. The introduction of a television into the community and a sudden shift in traditional roles, for example, produce some tension but are ultimately neutral factors in and of themselves. On the whole, so long as no one from beyond the sacred Kashmiri valley tries to add or take away from the native inhabitants, all will be well.

Humor is sprinkled throughout the novel for the sake of comic relief and to reveal the absurdity of the human condition, but again Rushdie takes more care with the Kashmiri jokes than with those stateside. The scenes in modern America are flat, forced or just plain silly, while those revolving around the Kashmiri villages are deep and rich and fully formed. It is as though Rushdie places some of the action in America only because he has to, and as a result deploys his weakest prose there. The climax is rushed and reads as though it was torn out of a pulp spy novel. All the passion and subtlety of Rushdie’s fervent mind can be found in the Kashmiri sections.

Looking at Shalimar from the historical novel point of view, what comes across as strikingly impressive is how Rushdie is able to delve deep into the history of Kashmiri villages while remaining in the near-present. The novel only spans two-three generations, but the weight of history lies heavy on the Kashmiri, yet this is not a burden. The clever literary device is the occupations of the Pachigam people: they are actors, singers and dancers who perform past lives (hence the ‘clown’ that is Shalimar). And all this is taken very seriously. The Indian army and radical Islam – the two great enemies of Kashmir – are treated as emotionally shallow, morally bankrupt, superficial agents. I found myself engrossed in these sections, whereas I breezed through the modern non-Kashmiri bits unaffected.
I highly recommend Shalimar the Clown to those who already enjoy Rushdie, prefer character-driven stories, like exotic settings, or are aficionados of historical fiction.
(less)

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Caryn Great review, I would only disagree, slightly with one point. Not wholly, but slightly.

Evan wrote: "It is as though Rushdie places some of the action...more Great review, I would only disagree, slightly with one point. Not wholly, but slightly.

Evan wrote: "It is as though Rushdie places some of the action in America only because he has to, and as a result deploys his weakest prose there. The climax is rushed and reads as though it was torn out of a pulp spy novel."

I wondered until the last chapter why in the world he would set India in Los Angeles instead of say, London where he had her grow up. Why the American connection at all. Until he started describing LA in the Rodney King riots, which resonates again with the theme of 'paradise -lost'/torn by fighting. Not as strong as the connection of WW2 war torn Alsace and war- decimated Kashmir, but another parallel, nonetheless. Another reviewer mentioned, (I didn't know this) that the ending also 'stages' or re-enacts another Hindu goddess, who metes out justice with a bow and arrow. (I've tried looking her up, but there are thousands to weed through!) So India re enacts THIS ancient myth/story as her mother Boonyi enacted the ancient myth/story of the Karnataka in dance.
I think he also set it in LA as the American counterpart to the Actor/Performer village of Pachigam. Actors on bothe sides, yeah, OK, but also LA is the Dream factory, the Magical Kingdom, another (false?) setting as paradise. I think he adds something in his descriptions of the history of LA and Junipero Serra trail, the missions dotted up the coast. LA is my old home, it's always confounded me that almost all writers fail to capture it's tone, it's spirit. Only the hard boiled detective novels seem to 'get' it. (aha! The fast pace of a pulp spy novel!) He probably just couldn't help himself from trying his hand at that!

I think Rushdie did a fair job, simply by describing it's history, (although, I agree with you, it was much truncated compared to Kashmir and Strasbourg). One of the themes I found in the book is that we are informed by our histories. We can overcome them only when we make peace with them. Most Americans, heck! most Angelenos barely KNOW their city's history. No one writes about it. (that's my take)

It also fits nicely into his stage/performance vs. reality, melding magic realism thang: Max Ophuls (the famous film director) moving live people around the set like chess pieces; Max Ophuls, (the book character) moving people around the globelike chess pieces; a behind the scenes mover and shaker, (makes me want to refresh my memory of the details of Charlie Wilson's War), and a fake, a brilliant counterfeiter, just like the fakery of the movies. Also Ed Wood/Edgar Woods the slimy assistant. IMHO, that was just Rushdie being glib.

You've caught a lot of things I didn't really see though. Thanks for this review.(less)
Jun 02, 2013 02:56am

Caryn Saraswati, the consort of Brahma was the one who meted out justice with a bow and arrow.
Jun 02, 2013 03:07am

Evan Ostryzniuk I think that is a fair assessment, Caryn. There is so much to unpack in this novel, especially with the many parallels Rushdie likes to deploy, that t...more
Jun 04, 2013 01:30am

Mar 31, 2013 Linaart rated it 4 of 5 stars

Точно на страница 300 (от 600) си мислех: страниците наистина изтичат с лекота, но не изпитвам онази омагьосваща сила от „Среднощни деца“ или „Срам“ – които дори ми бяха по-трудни, но наистина по-омайващи… Дотук историята с девойката Индия и после с Буни ми изглеждаше леко куха, липсваше ми символичността на „магическия реализъм“, реалността и сладникавостта ми идваха в повече. (По-късно магическите елементи възприех по-скоро като чиста психология или „работа“ на (под)съзнанието, т.е. съвсем ест...more Точно на страница 300 (от 600) си мислех: страниците наистина изтичат с лекота, но не изпитвам онази омагьосваща сила от „Среднощни деца“ или „Срам“ – които дори ми бяха по-трудни, но наистина по-омайващи… Дотук историята с девойката Индия и после с Буни ми изглеждаше леко куха, липсваше ми символичността на „магическия реализъм“, реалността и сладникавостта ми идваха в повече. (По-късно магическите елементи възприех по-скоро като чиста психология или „работа“ на (под)съзнанието, т.е. съвсем естествено ги приех, не като някакви самоцелни фантасмагории).

И тук когато действието се пренасяше извън Индия сякаш силата отслабваше (както в „Земята под нейните нозе“). В Индия (особено в Кашмир) силата беше „натурална“, в Европа и Америка нещо не вървеше. Първата глава за Макс (особено по време на Втората световна война в Европа) беше сякаш в различен стил, по-телеграфен, все едно съм свикнала да виждам картини на автора в течение „сюрреализъм“ и изведнъж виждам картина примерно в „кубизъм“.

Но като стигнах до стр. 327 всичко се преобърна! Появи се „моят Рушди“ с мощната сила… Сякаш изведнъж проби до най-дълбокото, достигна до сложността на човешката нравственост и ситуацията стана болезнено неразрешима – кое е правилно, кое е човешко, опрощение или спазване на клетва, състрадание или защита на морал и достойнство (разбира силно ме развълнува проявата на сърдечна доброта, особено когато тя надделяваше над спазването на традициите).

Детайлно беше проследено зараждането на тероризма – на индивидуално ниво, в душицата на всеки отделен недоволен или безумен „боец“ и как в такива случаи винаги има кой да организира тези душици, с охота да ги погълне и разпали. Жалко за всяка раздробена частичка на Индия, където всеки е убеден, че е прав (и международните "сили"). А Кашмир привлича още повече симпатии може би заради райската си красота… преди унищожението отвън и отвътре. Красота имаше в природата, бита и поминъка, в семейните и междусъседските отношения, в умереността на спазването на традициите – не сляпо, а разумно, в дух на диалог, човечност (креативност дори!). Но това беше някога...

При всяка книга на Рушди се питам - има ли нещо, което този човек да не знае – периоди от историята, митологии, религии, геополитика, особености на нации, градове... Но това не са просто знания, всичко е пречупено през призмата на хуманизма на автора. Видях и някои аспекти, които не бях срещала в другите му романи – представени пак с огромна любов – изкуството на пътуващите циркови артисти, кулинарното изкуство (банкетът на най-малко 36 ястия), занаятите; а „любовното изкуство“ си го знаем, след като Кама Сутра е от Индия...

Интересно, че и тук (примерно като в „Земята под нейните нозе“) сякаш има една „елементарна“ основа. Направо да кажа типична индийска драма… Обаче така наслагва и споява пластовете Рушди, че превръща творението си от нещо любовно-индийско в нещо мащабно и гениално. Най-интересното е, че всяка негова книга е като приказка, а уж е за „най-сериозните неща на света“…

Това е първият автор, на който станах fan тук, досега не съм чувствала подтик да го направя с друг. И какво ли не изчетох покрай тази книга (и както винаги като чета книги на Рушди) – личния сайт на писателя, интервюта с него, ревюта за книгите му тук, wiki за Кашмир, за Пакистан, за Индия и т.н...

Често се възхищавам на таланта на Салман Рушди, но не смея да препоръчвам романите му. Трябва човек да е сигурен, че обича Салман, за да продължи да чете книгите му! Или… в неизбежните части/изречения, когато го ненавижда, това да е с любов! ;)
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Jan 31, 2013 Meryl Suissa rated it 5 of 5 stars

A truly Brilliant thriller!

This book is about love, revenge and the search of identity.

Set in Los Angeles in 1991 - Max Ophuls, ex-ambassador of the United States in India is murdered by his Kashmiri driver, Shalimar the Clown. Salman Rushdie looks back at the story of each characters crossing times and countries. This book reveals the horror of the war in Kashimir and the danger of fundamentalism. The author goes beyond the criticism of the war and unravel the humans traits hidden underneath...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Stephanie A. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Or, "how I learned that magical realism makes me angry."

I can never decide between one and two stars for this book. On the one hand, I would like to smack it down for being undeservedly well known, because a good book it is not. A plodding book, a confusing book for sure, but nothing positive.

On the other hand, I spent an intense 24 hours with it hunting for appropriate quotes and writing a surprisingly well received essay for class, and by the end of that ordeal, we had bonded. Stockholm-style...more Or, "how I learned that magical realism makes me angry."

I can never decide between one and two stars for this book. On the one hand, I would like to smack it down for being undeservedly well known, because a good book it is not. A plodding book, a confusing book for sure, but nothing positive.

On the other hand, I spent an intense 24 hours with it hunting for appropriate quotes and writing a surprisingly well received essay for class, and by the end of that ordeal, we had bonded. Stockholm-style. Part of that was because I had to read about 58 critical reviews just to understand who the characters were and what was going on before I could even think about analyzing it (see evidence for "not a good book"), and that's a lot of energy to expend thinking about a novel. Four years hence I've entirely forgotten what the plot entailed, so let's see what my opening paragraph has to say:

"Shalimar the Clown crosses half a century, touches down in numerous countries, and plays with the line between fantasy and reality. In drawing together the East and West, it seeks out contrasts and displays them in pairs, something exemplified by the novel’s romantic entanglements. Salman Rushdie frames the struggle within Kashmir and the struggle between Kashmir and the rest of the world in the context of the central relationships as they cross national borders and cultural boundaries."

Neat. Now let's check out some of the topic sentences:

"India’s chapters bookend the story, her two love interests representing worlds before and after her father's murder."

"Max Ophuls, man of endless identities, has enough nameless affairs to match but only two stand out enough to merit their own stories. Again, they represent two separate worlds, both physically and temporally."

"Finally, the trigger that eventually sets off the chain of events lies with Noman and Boonyi’s adolescent love affair. Their relationship is as tempestuous and full of passion as the region of Kashmir, and ultimately devolves into just as much anger and hostility."

And in conclusion -- "The relationships among these central characters serve as metaphors for globalization, demonstrating international cooperation and conflict. The idylls and romantic nostalgia of the past are disappearing, but so are the hurt and violence that developed therein. (view spoiler) The novel’s extended flashback encapsulates a messy period in history necessary for future growth; that is, change is unavoidable, sometimes unpleasant, but simultaneously necessary to reach a new plane of understanding. That the closed-off, self-contained woman is now amenable to love is a message of hope that future continental relations will be able to achieve the same balance of aid and understanding, and perhaps solve the internal turmoil – as India comes to terms with her origins -- as well."

Well, there you go! Apparently it has some pretty complex themes running through it. Darn -- once again, I've hypnotized myself into thinking there's more there than there probably is, so two stars it shall keep. (less)

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Dec 30, 2012 Iceman rated it 3 of 5 stars

1993, no dia do 24º aniversário da sua filha, Max Ophuls é assassinado de uma forma monstruosa pelo seu motorista, Shalimar, parecendo tratar-se de um assassinato por razões políticas, pois Ophuls havia sido embaixador americano na India e dono também de um passado ligado à resistência francesa e responsável pela morte de vários oficiais alemães.

Em estado de choque, pois o crime é cometido praticamente à sua frente, India Ophuls, a filha, não entende como é que um homem tão bom como era o seu pa...more 1993, no dia do 24º aniversário da sua filha, Max Ophuls é assassinado de uma forma monstruosa pelo seu motorista, Shalimar, parecendo tratar-se de um assassinato por razões políticas, pois Ophuls havia sido embaixador americano na India e dono também de um passado ligado à resistência francesa e responsável pela morte de vários oficiais alemães.

Em estado de choque, pois o crime é cometido praticamente à sua frente, India Ophuls, a filha, não entende como é que um homem tão bom como era o seu pai pode ter sido assassinado daquela forma bárbara. O que India desconhece é que o passado do pai está ensombrado por acontecimentos escandalosos que estão interligados com o seu próprio passado, nomeadamente o caso que o seu pai teve como a sua mãe, que ela nunca conheceu, aquando do mandato do pai na Índia.

Essa é a premissa para uma narrativa algo complexa sobre o passado de Max Ophuls, passado esse que, por ser longo, abrange seis décadas do século XX, logo acontecimentos muito importantes como a 2ª Grande Guerra, a guerra da Caxemira entre a India e o Paquistão, centralizando uma ideia base que acaba por se sentir em todos esses adventos, o radicalismo.

Sendo o primeiro livro que leio de Salman Rushdie, não posso afirmar que a escrita dele me encantou, até porque, e isso é uma ressalva que faço, achei essa escrita algo parecida com a de Garcia Marquez, e mesmo o estilo, esse realismo fantástico está presente em toda a narrativa, dando-lhe efectivamente um tom mágico e até algo épico, pois Rushdie, para além de abordar uma série de eventos históricos, é useiro em dados e curiosidades históricas e culturais, mencionado outras obras literárias.

No entanto o livro também não me desagradou e houve capítulos, diga-se de passagem que todos os capítulos são muito extensos, que me agradaram imenso. Por outro lado e não sendo eu um curioso sobre a História da India, a abordagem de Rushdie à cultura e religião Indu, aborreceram-me. A forma como Rushdie traça o trama também é bastante interessante. O primeiro capítulo é bastante motivador, ficando nós com a ideia que esse crime é por motivos políticos. Rushdie deixa-nos ir pensando nisso até certo ponto para, de repente, traçar uma outra linha condutora, misturando então tudo e, digamos, voltar a dar.
Pode parecer algo confuso, mas a história segue-se bem e com interesse, no entanto e na minha opinião, há períodos aborrecidos mas que não chegam para deslustrar um bom livro.(less)

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Jul 08, 2012 Ben Doeh rated it 4 of 5 stars

""I fear the house and garden will not last, without." [...] Without a woman's touch."

These lines say a lot about Shalimar as a novel. Rushdie is a conjurer of vanished worlds, who laughs bemusedly at, then laments the breakdown of relationships. The novel hinges around one particular betrayal - by a young Kashmiri girl who wishes to escape the confines of her magical cook-actor community for the modern world. She betrays that community that tried to protect her in their own, constricting way, a...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Kailash rated it 3 of 5 stars

A slow, ponderous and plodding narrative!

This is a book that is ostentatiously about the transformation of a Kashmiri stage performer into a vengeful assassin, but ends up being about too many things. The plot is the scorned love of the protagonist and his Kashmiri dancer wife. An American ambassador to India, an illegitimate daughter (named India), and the consequent murder of the ambassador by Shalimar The Clown, complete the plotline. In between, while giving a remarkable insight into the Kas...more A slow, ponderous and plodding narrative!

This is a book that is ostentatiously about the transformation of a Kashmiri stage performer into a vengeful assassin, but ends up being about too many things. The plot is the scorned love of the protagonist and his Kashmiri dancer wife. An American ambassador to India, an illegitimate daughter (named India), and the consequent murder of the ambassador by Shalimar The Clown, complete the plotline. In between, while giving a remarkable insight into the Kashmiri way of life, which sadly includes the terrorist camps operating at the Kashmir border, we see how Shalimar goes from being a fun-loving, talented gymnast to becoming a brutal, inhuman killing machine.

The story has many potential winning points, but there are so many sidetracks in the narrative that its very difficult to remain invested in the actual story. The author seems confused about the purpose of this book - is it a description of the Kashmir conflict, is it scorned love, is it obsessions, is it the pitfalls of ambition, or is it communal politics? In the end, apparenty unable to decide among those choices, he decides to talk about a little bit of all the above. And so, for pages on end, the actual story is put aside while the author expounds on all manner of subjects. Not surprisingly, this leads to a very disjointed narrative.

I believe that the main purpose of a fictional book should be the telling of a story. And if, through the telling of this story, you throw light on real-life subjects, issues or philosophies, its an added plus; but the story should at all times remain the focal point of the book. This book spectacularly fails to do that. And so it is very difficult to retain interest or any kind of continuity in the narrative.

Of course, considering that the writer is actually a genius, there are inevitable flashes of brilliance, like this line : "you never know the answers to the questions of life until you are asked". But such lines are few and far apart, and ultimately unable to redeem the book.

Not one of Rushdie's better works.(less)

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Apr 02, 2012 Ron rated it 5 of 5 stars

It feels like there are at least three novels compressed into this one account of an American ambassador, a dancing girl, their daughter, and an Islamist hit man. Following the lives of these and a host of other characters, Rushdie's story covers large swaths of European and Indo-Pakistan (Kashmir) history while beginning and ending in modern-day Los Angeles. Taken together in all its interwoven narratives, its theme is the politics of gender in the twentieth century, and it poses the thesis tha...more

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Dec 09, 2011 Graham rated it 5 of 5 stars

I tend to be suspicious when a book is trumpeted as "___'s best since ____." I know the machinations of money in any artistic industry and I know what motivates quotability.

But in this case, the assertion that this is Rushdie's best work since "The Satanic Verses" is spot fucking on. I don't even really know how to succinctly sum up my feelings on the book either. To describe Rushdie's scope as "cinematic" or "epic" sells it short. His is a panoramic vision that spans culture and ethnicity, tim...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Aarthi added it

A book that meanders, with a bunch of hugely unbelievable characters with unbelievable lives. I can't say for sure about the European characters, Max Ophuls, Grey Rat etc., but definitely, some of the Indian characters, like Boonyi Kaul. A Kashmiri teenager, from a small village, who elopes with an American Diplomat? Very 'unrelatable' - such a thing just wouldn't happen. I guess that's why Rushdie went to great lengths - at least 100 pages - to get them together; introducing 50-something Max's...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Patrícia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: histórico, romance, emprestado

Temos assistido, infelizmente, a mais uma guerra, mais ou menos declarada, por um pedaço de terra. Caxemira. Não é nova esta luta, aliás arrasta-se desde o fim do dominio colonial Britânico na India.
Não sei muito sobre este assunto e acho que (tal como em todas as outras guerras por um bocado de terra e que envolvem religião) ninguém tem razão. Ou melhor, razão podem ter, mas nada justifica actos de guerra, mortes e mais mortes. India ou Paquistão é, neste momento, (quase) indiferente.

Mas, com t...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Jeremy Preacher rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction, fantasy

Joy keeps lending me books that I dislike in interesting ways.

There is no doubt that this is a collection of beautiful sentences. The writing is vivid, lyrical, and evocative. Unfortunately it's mostly evocative of horror. The sections all pretty much start out "Here are some people. Horrible things happened to them. Let's examine their lives leading up to the horrible things." The Kashmir sections are the loveliest, I think, but that just makes the torture, rape, and systematic murder in them a...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Emma rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 5-stars, world-war-ii, india, magic-realism, 10-best-books-read-in-2009

I was so impressed by this book that it's taken me awhile to work out what to say.... primarily, what fascinated me was the grace and effortlessness with which it moves from one setting to another: a large chunk is set in Kashmir, covering much of the last half of the 20th century; another large chunk in Europe (primarily France) during the Second World War; the last chunk in Los Angeles in the 1990s. Each of these settings and historical periods is richly detailed; a lesser author would have ta...more I was so impressed by this book that it's taken me awhile to work out what to say.... primarily, what fascinated me was the grace and effortlessness with which it moves from one setting to another: a large chunk is set in Kashmir, covering much of the last half of the 20th century; another large chunk in Europe (primarily France) during the Second World War; the last chunk in Los Angeles in the 1990s. Each of these settings and historical periods is richly detailed; a lesser author would have taken an entire book (at least!) to evoke just one of them. Rushdie, however, discusses the history of Alsace and the history of the India-Pakistan conflict with equal facility, making for a truly rewarding read. And the prose is beautiful.

Of course, this isn't just a book about setting: we follow the lives of four main characters, as well as a host of minor characters who add quite a bit of flavor to the stories. Unlike some other reviewers, I think Rushdie's female characters are depicted quite well; neither of the female main characters is Everywoman, but as a woman I found them realistic and compelling even when I couldn't relate to their decisions.

This is one of those books that begins near the end, then works its way backward in time before coming back around; I often find this irritating since I already know what's going to happen, but in Shalimar the Clown it works extremely well: even knowing (part of) the end, I was dying to know what happened in the middle.

Finally, as far as the politics of the whole thing... I was surprised when I came to this site after finishing the book and saw how many people view it as a book about terrorism. Hardly. Yes, the history of Kashmir in the last half-century includes terrorists, and so they appear; yes, the book comments on the causes of terrorism. But there is a lot more to it than that; with slight alterations, the book could have been written with only passing references to terrorism and kept the story largely the same, which should tell you it's not the big focus. If it might bother you, you should know that the Indian government is portrayed in an unfavorable light, while Rushdie's views on the US government come across as somewhat ambivalent. And that the atrocity count in some places is high, although this doesn't make the book depressing all the way through--some of my favorite scenes were the comic ones depicting pre-war village life in Kashmir.

Some have read this entire book as political commentary (with particular characters representing "east" and "west", "Hindu" and "Muslim", etc.), and since Rushdie is a literary author, I don't doubt he intended that. But for me it was mostly just a great story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it as such. Happy reading! (less)

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Nov 29, 2010 Bob Schmitz rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wanted to make myself a better person and so I read one of Salman Rushdies novels. He writes beautifully, like poetry. He takes three pages to describe something that I would be hard pressed to describe in 2 sentences. He describes the lush beauty of Kashmir (I looked up on Goggle images to see pictures of Kashmir and indeed it is a gloriously beautiful place.) For me the entire book is filled with this feeling of impending disaster. At the end of the book I felt as if I had read an ancient gr...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Rowland Bismark rated it 3 of 5 stars

With the brilliant style that has made him famous and earned him respect (and condemnation) around the world Rushdie has written a tale woven through the new and old worlds of Kashmir and America and all points between. This book, this prose, this personal vision into the rarified worlds of political, spiritual and personal power, revolves around a young Kashmir who, from the humblest beginnings, brings himself into the limelight of political world attention through a life of crafting his route...more

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Jun 13, 2010 Matthew rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned

I have enjoyed every Rushdie novel I have read until this one. There is simply not enough action in this ramble, and it seems to me a good example of what happens when an author decides to tell instead of show in character development. This style of rambling fiction always runs this risk.

Throughout the first part of the book, whose only real concrete event is India's birthday car ride with her aging father, Rushdie would drift away into the minds of the characters and it quickly became tiresome....more

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Apr 18, 2009 Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Rushdie's writing is pretty great. He does some beautiful and powerful things in this book. It's a personal story that sandwiches an account of the Kashmiri conflict... and frankly, the characters in the personal story weren't super-compelling for me. The story of the Kashmir situation was really good to learn, and really heart-wrending, and really pretty horribly violent. It's a dark book, and while I know there are dark things out there (that's part of what it's here to describe), there was no...more

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Dec 27, 2012 James Purkis Purkis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

To say that this book is awe inspiring would be an understatement. In Shalimar the Clown, Rushdie is able to capture the complexities that divide nations and entwine them seamlessly with the complex emotions that divide our hearts. Through the telling of a simple love story, he is able to reveal the gamut of human greed and cruelty while also showing how these very same qualities can be used to keep love together. While I often fell in love with his lyrical description of the Kashmir landscape a...more

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About Salman Rushdie

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is a novelist and essayist. Much of his early fiction is set at least partly on the Indian subcontinent. His style is often classified as magical realism, while a dominant theme of his work is the story of the many connections, disruptions and migrations between the Eastern and Western world.

His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, led to protests from Muslims in several coun...more

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Quotes from Shalimar the Clown

“Our human tragedy is that we are unable to comprehend our experience, it slips through our fingers, we can't hold on to it, and the more time passes, the harder it gets...My father said that the natural world gave us explanations to compensate for the meanings we could not grasp. The slant of the cold sunlight on a winter pine, the music of water, an oar cutting the lake and the flight of birds, the mountains' nobility , the silence of the silence. We are given life but must accept that it is unattainable and rejoice in what can be held in the eye, the memory, the mind.” — 35 people liked it

“The inevitable triumph of illusion over reality that was the single most obvious truth about the history of the human race.” — 17 people liked it

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