What do you think?
Rate this book
Grimus
'A mixture of science fiction and folktale, past and future, primitive and present-day . . . Thunderous and touching.'
Financial Times
After drinking an elixir that bestows immortality upon him, a young Indian named Flapping Eagle spends the next seven hundred years sailing the seas with the blessing -- and ultimately the burden -- of living forever. Eventually, weary of the sameness of life, he journeys to the mountainous Calf Island to regain his mortality. There he meets other immortals obsessed with their own stasis and sets out to scale the island's peak, from which the mysterious and corrosive Grimus Effect emits. Through a series of thrilling quests and encounters, Flapping Eagle comes face-to-face with the island's creator and unwinds the mysteries of his own humanity. Salman Rushdie's celebrated debut novel remains as powerful and as haunting as when it was first published more than thirty years ago.
'A book to be read twice . . . [Grimus] is literate, it is fun, it is meaningful, and perhaps most important, it pushes the boundaries of the form outward.'
Los Angeles Times
Financial Times
After drinking an elixir that bestows immortality upon him, a young Indian named Flapping Eagle spends the next seven hundred years sailing the seas with the blessing -- and ultimately the burden -- of living forever. Eventually, weary of the sameness of life, he journeys to the mountainous Calf Island to regain his mortality. There he meets other immortals obsessed with their own stasis and sets out to scale the island's peak, from which the mysterious and corrosive Grimus Effect emits. Through a series of thrilling quests and encounters, Flapping Eagle comes face-to-face with the island's creator and unwinds the mysteries of his own humanity. Salman Rushdie's celebrated debut novel remains as powerful and as haunting as when it was first published more than thirty years ago.
'A book to be read twice . . . [Grimus] is literate, it is fun, it is meaningful, and perhaps most important, it pushes the boundaries of the form outward.'
Los Angeles Times
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
121 people are currently reading
3401 people want to read
About the author
Salman Rushdie
199 books13.2k followersSir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize.
After his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), Rushdie became the subject of several assassination attempts and death threats, including a fatwa calling for his death issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. In total, 20 countries banned the book. Numerous killings and bombings have been carried out by extremists who cite the book as motivation, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. In 2022, Rushdie survived a stabbing at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.
In 1983, Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was appointed a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in 1999. Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him 13th on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States. He was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in 2015. Earlier, he taught at Emory University. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the events following The Satanic Verses. Rushdie was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in April 2023.
Rushdie's personal life, including his five marriages and four divorces, has attracted notable media attention and controversies, particularly during his marriage to actress Padma Lakshmi.
After his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), Rushdie became the subject of several assassination attempts and death threats, including a fatwa calling for his death issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran. In total, 20 countries banned the book. Numerous killings and bombings have been carried out by extremists who cite the book as motivation, sparking a debate about censorship and religiously motivated violence. In 2022, Rushdie survived a stabbing at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York.
In 1983, Rushdie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was appointed a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in 1999. Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for his services to literature. In 2008, The Times ranked him 13th on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States. He was named Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University in 2015. Earlier, he taught at Emory University. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the events following The Satanic Verses. Rushdie was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in April 2023.
Rushdie's personal life, including his five marriages and four divorces, has attracted notable media attention and controversies, particularly during his marriage to actress Padma Lakshmi.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 273 reviews
February 27, 2023
This is a horrible book. But I finished it out of respect for the author then discovered that not even Rushdie rates it! It is interesting only because Rushdie plays around with the magical realism that will play a major part in his writing and touches on themes he will later explore in much greater depth.
I don't recommend anyone who is thinking of reading Rushdie to think that as this is one of his shorter ones it would be a good one to start with, it really isn't a good read. Rather go for Shame with the wonderfully drawn character of the Virgin Ironpants (Benazir Bhutto). Now that book would make anyone want to explore more Rushdie.
Recommended to writers: knowing that Rushdie won the Booker of Bookers for his magnificent book Midnight's Children should give you hope that even if your first book flops (because it is crap) there is still hope, you can still aim for the top and know that it's possible to reach there.
Read back '96ish, Why does this awful book stick in my head?
I don't recommend anyone who is thinking of reading Rushdie to think that as this is one of his shorter ones it would be a good one to start with, it really isn't a good read. Rather go for Shame with the wonderfully drawn character of the Virgin Ironpants (Benazir Bhutto). Now that book would make anyone want to explore more Rushdie.
Recommended to writers: knowing that Rushdie won the Booker of Bookers for his magnificent book Midnight's Children should give you hope that even if your first book flops (because it is crap) there is still hope, you can still aim for the top and know that it's possible to reach there.
Read back '96ish, Why does this awful book stick in my head?
December 1, 2016
The first book from Rushdie is a magical voyage that successfully merges the magical realism of Marquez with Rushdie's own distillation of Indian mythology and tradition. It was a valiant first effort and is an exhilarating read. I think one should jump right into Midnight's Children, but if its length is too imposing, you could try Grimus or Shame to get your feet wet.
June 2, 2012
The most striking part of this story was that it presents a world in which people are aware that the world they inhabit is only one of a series of alternative worlds. The burden of immortality , with which the protagonist grapples throughout the novel, sheds light on the absurdity of our daily neccessary denial of our own mortality. This is shown through the idea of "dimension fever".The residents of Calf island are required to occupy themselves with a singular idea in an effort to preserve their precarious existances.Obsession or single mindedness is the only thing that can keep dimension fever at bay. The characters' petty squabbles, alliances , and feuds are all played out in an effort to avoid facing the very conditions of their existence. There are so many themes at play in this allegorical tale that I cant even wrap my mind around quite yet. I know this is a book I will continue thinking about for the next several weeks.
September 21, 2015
The most remarkable thing about Grimus? Revelation that the great Salman Rushdie isn't good enough a writer to write SF.
Such lush prose, such splendid imagination, and such a wasted opportunity. "Incoherent" would be putting it mildly. "Garbled gibberish" would perhaps be somewhat more accurate description. The beginning of the story was intriguing (albeit bizarre), but pretty soon things started to seem more like someone's bad LSD trip, and then it got progressively worse. The "plot" was all over the place, the "characters" were meaningless caricatures, and narrative threads were unraveling out of control... By the end I got a headache and couldn't care less about any of it. I'm giving it two stars solely for the writing and the ideas, 'cause everything else about this book is cringe-worthy.
Such lush prose, such splendid imagination, and such a wasted opportunity. "Incoherent" would be putting it mildly. "Garbled gibberish" would perhaps be somewhat more accurate description. The beginning of the story was intriguing (albeit bizarre), but pretty soon things started to seem more like someone's bad LSD trip, and then it got progressively worse. The "plot" was all over the place, the "characters" were meaningless caricatures, and narrative threads were unraveling out of control... By the end I got a headache and couldn't care less about any of it. I'm giving it two stars solely for the writing and the ideas, 'cause everything else about this book is cringe-worthy.
January 1, 2018
Although Rushdie disowns his first novel, it is not that bad. In fact I see it a sort of potential for what was to follow in later novels. Saying that Grimus does have a lot of flaws.
The story focuses on Flapping Eagle, who drinks an elixir which gives him eternal life, given to him by his sister, who deserts him. After 777 years he wants mortality and to find his sister, eventually ending up on the metaphysical Calf Island. After meeting a bizarre cast of characters, while embarking on his two quests, Flapping Eagle also tries to unveil the mysterious Grimus and discover why Calf island is so strange.
Philosophers, prostitutes, hunchbacks, ghosts, frog gods and tons of people crop up during the novel and they all leave an impact on Flapping Eagle's psyche but drag him into the weirdness of Calf Island and change his destiny. Flapping Eagle himself has to control himself in order to complete his quest.
As such this is a rich plot with some Rushdie trademarks, puns, jokes, references to popular culture and mythology but somehow things just don't gel that well and there quite a few dull stretches which hamper the plot's progress. Also Rushdie's writing is restrained, considering that by his second novel his penmanship improved, Grimus' style comes as a tiny shock.
Definitely not a book for a Rushdie beginner but if you want to see the seeds which later developed in his later novels then Grimus is worth a read but prepare to be underwhelmed.
The story focuses on Flapping Eagle, who drinks an elixir which gives him eternal life, given to him by his sister, who deserts him. After 777 years he wants mortality and to find his sister, eventually ending up on the metaphysical Calf Island. After meeting a bizarre cast of characters, while embarking on his two quests, Flapping Eagle also tries to unveil the mysterious Grimus and discover why Calf island is so strange.
Philosophers, prostitutes, hunchbacks, ghosts, frog gods and tons of people crop up during the novel and they all leave an impact on Flapping Eagle's psyche but drag him into the weirdness of Calf Island and change his destiny. Flapping Eagle himself has to control himself in order to complete his quest.
As such this is a rich plot with some Rushdie trademarks, puns, jokes, references to popular culture and mythology but somehow things just don't gel that well and there quite a few dull stretches which hamper the plot's progress. Also Rushdie's writing is restrained, considering that by his second novel his penmanship improved, Grimus' style comes as a tiny shock.
Definitely not a book for a Rushdie beginner but if you want to see the seeds which later developed in his later novels then Grimus is worth a read but prepare to be underwhelmed.
August 20, 2022
An imaginative fantasy, adventure, magical realism novel that follows the journey of Flapping Eagle to find Grimus on Calf Island. Flapping Eagle is an outcast Indian weary of the immortality bestowed on him 700 years ago by an elixir. He learns that he can become mortal again by going to Calf Island and confronting Grimus. Grimus is Calf Island’s maker.
This book is the author’s first novel. Readers new to Salman Rushdie should begin with ‘Shame’ or ‘Midnight’s Children’.
This book was first published in 1975.
This book is the author’s first novel. Readers new to Salman Rushdie should begin with ‘Shame’ or ‘Midnight’s Children’.
This book was first published in 1975.
February 6, 2013
No. Just no. Rushdie never lacked for imagination, and it is ample evidence here. But sometimes, all that imagination can go absolutely nowhere. This book not only feels like a fever dream, but also makes as much sense. Which is to say, not at all.
Flapping Eagle is an (Amer)Indian, who has been given a potion for immortality doesn't drink it. Then he does. Then he wanders around aimlessly for seven hundred years, during which he comes across a mysterious figure wielding a stone wand. Nothing happens. Then he meets this figure again, and he gets thrown to Calf Island, which seems to be in a different dimension. Its denizens have the habit of speaking very pedantically about something completely different than was asked of them. And it's obvious Eagle's presence there is a catalyst for all manner of mayhem, all of which is directly related to a being that may or may not exist, called Grimus.
Everything goes obviously, because this is a badly written fantasy. Things are convoluted to the maximum degree possible. Flapping Eagle is a craven and nasty piece of work, so there's no inclination whatsoever to see him succeed. In fact, it's so horribly foreshadowed, that I don't believe what happened in the end. There is no reason to suppose that Eagle has the willpower or the morality to resist the power of Grimus. The other characters were just as hard to relate to. In fact, I was hoping for all of them to boil their heads. Which they do after a fashion.
This is a mess. It's hard to believe the very next book this author wrote was the splendid Midnight's Children. Just as well he had India to turn to for inspiration. Out of all of Rushdie's novels that I've read, Rushdie's worst books (Grimus, Fury) are the ones that did not overtly reference the subcontinent. Two stars, because I did not detest it, and I cannot deny his language.
Flapping Eagle is an (Amer)Indian, who has been given a potion for immortality doesn't drink it. Then he does. Then he wanders around aimlessly for seven hundred years, during which he comes across a mysterious figure wielding a stone wand. Nothing happens. Then he meets this figure again, and he gets thrown to Calf Island, which seems to be in a different dimension. Its denizens have the habit of speaking very pedantically about something completely different than was asked of them. And it's obvious Eagle's presence there is a catalyst for all manner of mayhem, all of which is directly related to a being that may or may not exist, called Grimus.
Everything goes obviously, because this is a badly written fantasy. Things are convoluted to the maximum degree possible. Flapping Eagle is a craven and nasty piece of work, so there's no inclination whatsoever to see him succeed. In fact, it's so horribly foreshadowed, that I don't believe what happened in the end. There is no reason to suppose that Eagle has the willpower or the morality to resist the power of Grimus. The other characters were just as hard to relate to. In fact, I was hoping for all of them to boil their heads. Which they do after a fashion.
This is a mess. It's hard to believe the very next book this author wrote was the splendid Midnight's Children. Just as well he had India to turn to for inspiration. Out of all of Rushdie's novels that I've read, Rushdie's worst books (Grimus, Fury) are the ones that did not overtly reference the subcontinent. Two stars, because I did not detest it, and I cannot deny his language.
August 22, 2021
In the fantasy genre, unless specific rules are spelled out early, anything can happen. Therefore, for me, there is no tension, no reason to turn the page. In 'Grimus', 1/3rd of the way through, a character thinks "...if anything can happen, we'd better make damn sure it never does." Shall there be rules in this world? Near the end of this novel (and oh do things end), the author writes, "...ideas were the sole justification for existence". The author is honest with the reader, I like that, and the writing is often beautiful. Still, I struggled to find a foothold within these pages. Perhaps that's the point given life does feel woozy at times. But I just don't feel like I read a book. It's like seeing an animated film. I might find it okay, but I feel like I haven't seen a movie.
July 2, 2012
Having read a couple of Rushdie's most acclaimed books before this one I expected "the usual" Rushdie style. It was nothing like this. The book is early, and his writing - undecided, not fully grown up. And that's precisely what I liked about it. I mean the story is crazy, and I like crazy. But the words, the writing style (someone might say: inmature) I would call open (yet). The sentences are rough, but the story - clear. Normally I would rate it 3 stars, but this early language, that leaves a space for surprise (if Rushdie decides to go young-crazy again, maybe, in the future, despite of his mature now life and style). I keep my fingers crossed. After all, life is full of surprises.
May 23, 2020
Li boas e más críticas a este livro antes de começar a leitura e confesso que fiquei um pouco "preocupado" com algumas das más críticas...Mas no fim do livro posso dizer que embora não seja dos melhores livros que já li, é bastante bom de se ler!A história tem qualquer coisa que nos prende,embora consiga ser um pouco "surrealista" por vezes...Acho que a menção na capa do livro de "combinação entre fantasia científica, fábula e folclore"é realmente uma excelente definição para este livro!3 estrelas quase a chegarem a 4,por isso optei por dar 4 estrelas!
January 20, 2016
3.5 stars
Grimus is Salman Rushdie���s first novel. Part fantasy, part folk-tale, and part science fiction, this book is a blend of mythology, mysticism, and religious symbolism. The book tells the tale of Flapping Eagle, a Native American man who becomes immortal and wanders the world for 777 years, 7 months, and 7 days until he attempts suicide and ends up in another world (a parallel dimension). The book is based on a 12th century Sufi poem and covers themes of human identity and meaning.
This was my first Rushdie book and in retrospect was probably a strange book to chose as my first Rushdie book. What a wacky book! The book was like nothing I���ve every read before but I really enjoyed it for reasons I can���t quite describe. I���m sure many people who read this book will hate it because at times it seems nonsensical. There are flaws in the book (I think he tries to pack too much in the book to the point that the story line becomes convoluted at times), but interspersed with the moments of nonsense there were some real gems. Rushdie raises some interesting questions in this book about human nature, spirituality, and cultural isolation. I enjoyed thinking about the issues he raised and loved seeing the parallels with other works of literature. In many ways, the book structure parallels Dante���s Divine Comedy. There are three parts, a guide called Virgil, and parallels between the travels through various circles to reach ���Heaven.��� I decided to re-read the Divine Comedy while reading this book and it made the reading experience much more meaningful. I am less knowledgeable about the other religious/spiritual material he draws from so I think I missed out on a lot of the other references that were made in this book.
Grimus is Salman Rushdie���s first novel. Part fantasy, part folk-tale, and part science fiction, this book is a blend of mythology, mysticism, and religious symbolism. The book tells the tale of Flapping Eagle, a Native American man who becomes immortal and wanders the world for 777 years, 7 months, and 7 days until he attempts suicide and ends up in another world (a parallel dimension). The book is based on a 12th century Sufi poem and covers themes of human identity and meaning.
This was my first Rushdie book and in retrospect was probably a strange book to chose as my first Rushdie book. What a wacky book! The book was like nothing I���ve every read before but I really enjoyed it for reasons I can���t quite describe. I���m sure many people who read this book will hate it because at times it seems nonsensical. There are flaws in the book (I think he tries to pack too much in the book to the point that the story line becomes convoluted at times), but interspersed with the moments of nonsense there were some real gems. Rushdie raises some interesting questions in this book about human nature, spirituality, and cultural isolation. I enjoyed thinking about the issues he raised and loved seeing the parallels with other works of literature. In many ways, the book structure parallels Dante���s Divine Comedy. There are three parts, a guide called Virgil, and parallels between the travels through various circles to reach ���Heaven.��� I decided to re-read the Divine Comedy while reading this book and it made the reading experience much more meaningful. I am less knowledgeable about the other religious/spiritual material he draws from so I think I missed out on a lot of the other references that were made in this book.
June 19, 2020
I finally finished this book. I must admit that what kept me going was pure intrigue for the many questions presented at the beginning. They were all solved in the next to last chapter, making the whole rest of it unnecessary. This could've very well been a well written short story and I might have loved it. The writing felt scattered and the characters empty. However, I did find some passages to be well written and some great ideas, so I will continue to try and read more of Rushdie.
I have much more bad things to say, but I will abstain, as they serve no purpose. I didn't enjoy it, and it shows in how long it took me to get through.
I have much more bad things to say, but I will abstain, as they serve no purpose. I didn't enjoy it, and it shows in how long it took me to get through.
June 27, 2015
What an incredible book for a first work! It may be trifle immature and a little puerile in parts but the vivid imagination behind it causes it to blaze out of the pages in glorious Technicolor.
I've always loved mythology and Grimus has its roots in this grand old tradition. Add in some mystery, a dash of scientific magic and human interest and shake it all together for a book that caught my interest from the start and never let it go. If this is what Salman Rushdie manages to write straight out of the authorship gate I'm not sure if I'm more excited to think of the literary treats in store for me, or apprehensive to think that the rest of the books won't live up to the promise of Grimus.
I'm going to go with Door #2 for now.
I've always loved mythology and Grimus has its roots in this grand old tradition. Add in some mystery, a dash of scientific magic and human interest and shake it all together for a book that caught my interest from the start and never let it go. If this is what Salman Rushdie manages to write straight out of the authorship gate I'm not sure if I'm more excited to think of the literary treats in store for me, or apprehensive to think that the rest of the books won't live up to the promise of Grimus.
I'm going to go with Door #2 for now.
August 2, 2011
yow. incredible journey. the first chapter was my favorite. my favorite moment? when the rocking chair stopped. beautiful & simple. loved reading it as it was rushdie's first foray into fantastic realms. i prefer his other works, but as rushdie's 'beginning,' found the read fascinating. i would say the read was more interesting than the end, but enjoyed it nonetheless. oh, and p.s.? there was a brilliant meta-moment about 2/3 of the way into the book. loved it.
April 21, 2008
actually a horrible book. but even rushdie said that about it! it was his first novel, and really sucked. but it is worth reading because he wrote it - and if you are an aspiring author it should give you hope that you can write a piece of crap and come back to be an amazing and well-respected writer.
August 27, 2010
Rushdie critique's his own work in this book. Read carefully the debate between Gribbs, Elfrida, and Irna about whether stories should be well tied together or not. It seems to be the issue that Rushdie struggles with in his first novel. There are moments of mystery, but the drive to tie all the ends together makes it a bit too neat in the end.
April 1, 2025
one of the best-written terrible books i’ve read, which makes it all the more frustrating. this could’ve been a marquez. but it’s marquez’s misogyny dialed to like. 15.
moments of true undeniable brilliance bogged by groan-worthy grossness.
moments of true undeniable brilliance bogged by groan-worthy grossness.
May 18, 2021
After a bit slow start, enjoyed it a lot. The idea of travelling between different levels of reality... A bit of ridicule of the ways we currently live...
February 23, 2023
TL;DR Rushdie is very clever, with plenty of good ideas, but is held back by some miserable writing, character choices, and inability to focus in on some of the more interesting things about his own story.
Tw: sexual assault
Plenty of spoilers below. More of a criticism than a “review” per se.
Grimus is the story of Flapping Eagle—a young “Amerindian” who gains the gift of immortality after fucking his sister. Technically she gives him a potion that the man we eventually find out is called Grimus gives her—but he does fuck his sister, and he does it very early on in the novel as a rite of passage. Before the immortality. But still.
If you were interested in what would happen to the character and meaning in a person’s life after they become immortal, and then got turned off of reading because of the sister fucking, you just had an experience that echoes most of mine with the book. Rushdie introduces something interesting, and then drops it for a strange sex scene or a non-sequitur. Genuinely, I feel like I might be missing something with some of these sequences so if I’m the moron here, tell me. There are just so many places—including the first stint with immortality at Livia Cramm’s that just happen for so long, mean nothing, and are over.
The book constantly assures us that Flapping Eagle, our main character, is the bringer of destruction, a being with pure chaos inside of him that will bring death to Calf Island—a different dimension that’s home of the town of K, a strange place full of other immortal people who must remain obsessed with their day to day life to avoid the deadly “Grimus Effect” (more on that later). He just… never really does any of that? He doesn’t have many personality traits, interests, or personal motivations beyond finding his sister who fucked off and presumably went to Calf Island with Grimus many years ago. Even then, he drops that whenever it’s more convenient for him to hang out with the weirdos in K. He does end up destroying the whole dimension, but it’s basically an accident. In general, he’s mostly callous and stoic, but without anything behind that veneer.
One of the most interesting things, conceptually, about immortality, is how does a human life change when the stakes are no longer there? The residents of K sort of get around this problem by being forced to live life as it were to avoid the Grimus Effect. Flapping Eagle, however, gets to spend his time on earth for the most part. 700 years of his life go by in a page. He says he fought wars, did all sorts of debauchery, and saw many people die. The detachedness with which this is written could be incredibly interesting—an emotionless man who, after multiple lifetimes, is simply not impressed by what the world has to offer. Or a man so beaten by watching the world go by and effectively not being part of it that he can only be deadpan to the hurt. But, no, he kinda has regular emotions that are just dulled because..? I don’t really know? He’s just like that. Flapping Eagle doesn’t work on the level of an interesting protagonist, nor does he work on the level of a Harry Potter type that’s supposed to mostly serve as a reader-insert. He occupies this weird middle spot that just left me not really caring about what happens to him.
Rushdie’s blending of mythologies is fine in the sense that it’s accurate as far as I can tell, there’s too much source material and I just don’t know it all, but I can’t help but feel like he’s missing the point. Mythologies, stories, parables, are easily accessible but endlessly deep to their audiences. Regardless of your beliefs, I think we can admit that religious stories move people’s souls because they can be understood at any point in one’s life and endlessly reinterpreted. Children can understand the stories in the Old Testament, but Christian and Jewish scholars have debated and reinterpreted these stories for literally thousands of years with millions of different interpretations. “Mythology”, defined loosely as just religious lore, is as personal as it is universal.
Grimus, as a novel, turns that on its head. The mythologies are abstract and obscure, but once you track down the references to real life ones, or get your head into the actual mythology of Calf Island, there’s just not much more to say than, well, it exists.
In Grimus, the alien race of The Gorfs provides a microcosm of these last two problems. Supposedly, they are the ancient immortal alien race that created the Stone Rose, which links together multiple universes and potentialities. I think this is, inherently, interesting. They also have this obsession with ordering, that all should be in the right order, which makes them a perfect foil to Grimus’s chaotic human experimenting on Calf Island. But the two don’t interact except for one time at the end, and there are no real conflicts between their ideologies in the book.
The real pisser is the Gorf’s obsession with anagram—an extension of their fixation on ordering and reordering. They can even “anagrammatically alter their own environment”. Despite desperately wishing I could tell you what this means, Rushdie never goes into it other than to say it could happen. Their game of Anagrammer could be so damn interesting and fun from a reader’s perspective—the chance to work out some literal puzzles while reading, OR, it could be a chance for Rushdie to really flex his literary abilities and give us some complex anagrams just to show that he can do it. Sadly, mostly what we get is Gorf’s (frogs) lead by the Gorf Dota (Toad) on the planet Thera (earth) in the Gorf Nirveesu (frog universe). There’s one extended anagram in the book that’s rather cool, so I’ll throw it here.
The chiefest question, the most important one to the Gorfs for a long time is:
“And are we actually to be the least intelligent race in our Endimions?” (Last word an anagram for dimension, not just a cop out for the letters).
And it’s answered:
“Determine how catalytic an elite is; use our talent and learning-lobe.”
But that’s really it despite the fact that they show up a couple of times. It’s a cool, complex concept that’s dropped too fast to get to the next thing, and provides no real contemplative depth like a fucking alien race that acts completely differently than humans should.
The sex in the novel is distracting, barely readable, and goes into territory that is just offensive. Barring a deep investigation of when Flapping Eagle revenge rapes the image of his religion’s goddess in a different dimension (no joke, the book literally reads "And then he raped her.", a ton of page count is spent on a brothel in K. It’s so often dry, so often overly written, and yet somehow still indulgent. It’s really a stain on the middle of the book.
My favorite least favorite plot line is where Flapping Eagle makes two women cheat on their wives with him, and then claims the peak of his life is when he is fucking one of them, imagines the other one, and says that he was finally with a “complete woman”. It’s objectively more nuanced than that in the novel but it’s too fucked up and embarrassing to deep dive into.
The whole sequence of interacting with the other immortal people is just interspersed with these terribly written, terribly times, deeply unsexy sex scenes that make most of the middle of the novel a blur for me. In general, though, characters are introduced and dropped and rementioned at such a pace that it’s impossible to get a sense of any of them.
In general actually, the novel suffers from some pretty piss poor pacing, never seeming to want to take the time to get into deeper character moments, interesting multidimensional lore (there’s barely anything about any other dimensions exist but Calf Mountain, regular Earth, and Thera), landscape, philosophy, instead it opts over and over to spend its page count on poorly written sex scenes and cruelty toward some of the kinder characters (If I could take Ignatius Gribb and Virgil Jones out of this book and place them in their own novel I’d be so happy).
Ultimately, when Grimus himself arrives on the scene after being a shadow over the whole novel, he brings nothing but disappointment.
Grimus’s characterization, to me, is paradoxical. He’s characterized as this megalomaniac playing a human experiment on the people of K, but he mostly just acts like a whiny child. Let me be clear: it takes Grimus a lot of effort in the lore of the book to keep up this experiment.
But if Grimus has the personality to carefully construct this reality from the Stone Rose and maintain it every day, it doesn’t really track that he’d continue this with such minimal interference when he’s so childish. You’d imagine him more as a Loki figure.
If he wasn’t this way from the beginning, and, as is sort of implied, he grew into this childishness from a lack of existential consequences, you’d think he wouldn’t have the ability to keep it up for so long. And I guess he doesn’t, as he does get himself killed. He just frankly seems much too dumb about it for a 700 year old who claims to be researching the universe, and who has the access and time to visit every possible dimension and every possible potentiality.
Flapping Eagle thinks, “Grimus: a baby with a bomb. Or a whole veiled arsenal of bombs.” He’s just too childlike to be anything but a baby, and yet he is.
The thing that kills me is that Flapping Eagle brings up the problem that anyone would immediately think of—doesn’t the Grimus Effect, the radiating power and time-weirdness from Grimus’s subdimension at the top of Calf Mountain, affect the result of this “experiment?” Grimus’s answer is basically, no, because fuck you I don’t care. It’s so frustrating because he seems to randomly care or not care about the validity of his experiment, and if the answer is “it’s because he’s unpredictable and crazy after being alive so long or because that’s how he is he’s a mad scientist weehaw!”, I’m bored to tears. He's 700 some, he should be more interesting.
The reason I end up with 2 stars is because there really is so much potential in so many of these ideas. The cross cultural mythology and it’s connection to multidimensional travel and ideas, the reflection of capitalism within a society of people who are forced to keep their heads down and obsess over the little things so they can’t meaningfully challenge an all powerful being, the game of Anagrammer, so much potential. It’s just note executed well enough as a novel.
The ultimate problem with Grimus is this: As clever as Rushdie may be, as deftly as he may have employed interesting hybridizations of culture (Most interesting is Calf Mountain = Kaf Mountain, Grimus named it the Arabic ك but the white people butchered it, the town of K which is pronounced the same in both langauge,), as many cool little sparks of genius and philosophy he includes in Grimus, he does not provide a compelling narrative or characters. There is room for that sort of play in literature, but it does not read as though it’s intentional here. The lack of coherency reads more as though the characters and narrative in Grimus are Rushdie’s way of selling his ideas as a fiction book instead of a work of philosophy.
I know I have more to say, but this is so long and I’m getting super tired, so I’ll leave it at that—for now.
Peace.
Tw: sexual assault
Plenty of spoilers below. More of a criticism than a “review” per se.
Grimus is the story of Flapping Eagle—a young “Amerindian” who gains the gift of immortality after fucking his sister. Technically she gives him a potion that the man we eventually find out is called Grimus gives her—but he does fuck his sister, and he does it very early on in the novel as a rite of passage. Before the immortality. But still.
If you were interested in what would happen to the character and meaning in a person’s life after they become immortal, and then got turned off of reading because of the sister fucking, you just had an experience that echoes most of mine with the book. Rushdie introduces something interesting, and then drops it for a strange sex scene or a non-sequitur. Genuinely, I feel like I might be missing something with some of these sequences so if I’m the moron here, tell me. There are just so many places—including the first stint with immortality at Livia Cramm’s that just happen for so long, mean nothing, and are over.
The book constantly assures us that Flapping Eagle, our main character, is the bringer of destruction, a being with pure chaos inside of him that will bring death to Calf Island—a different dimension that’s home of the town of K, a strange place full of other immortal people who must remain obsessed with their day to day life to avoid the deadly “Grimus Effect” (more on that later). He just… never really does any of that? He doesn’t have many personality traits, interests, or personal motivations beyond finding his sister who fucked off and presumably went to Calf Island with Grimus many years ago. Even then, he drops that whenever it’s more convenient for him to hang out with the weirdos in K. He does end up destroying the whole dimension, but it’s basically an accident. In general, he’s mostly callous and stoic, but without anything behind that veneer.
One of the most interesting things, conceptually, about immortality, is how does a human life change when the stakes are no longer there? The residents of K sort of get around this problem by being forced to live life as it were to avoid the Grimus Effect. Flapping Eagle, however, gets to spend his time on earth for the most part. 700 years of his life go by in a page. He says he fought wars, did all sorts of debauchery, and saw many people die. The detachedness with which this is written could be incredibly interesting—an emotionless man who, after multiple lifetimes, is simply not impressed by what the world has to offer. Or a man so beaten by watching the world go by and effectively not being part of it that he can only be deadpan to the hurt. But, no, he kinda has regular emotions that are just dulled because..? I don’t really know? He’s just like that. Flapping Eagle doesn’t work on the level of an interesting protagonist, nor does he work on the level of a Harry Potter type that’s supposed to mostly serve as a reader-insert. He occupies this weird middle spot that just left me not really caring about what happens to him.
Rushdie’s blending of mythologies is fine in the sense that it’s accurate as far as I can tell, there’s too much source material and I just don’t know it all, but I can’t help but feel like he’s missing the point. Mythologies, stories, parables, are easily accessible but endlessly deep to their audiences. Regardless of your beliefs, I think we can admit that religious stories move people’s souls because they can be understood at any point in one’s life and endlessly reinterpreted. Children can understand the stories in the Old Testament, but Christian and Jewish scholars have debated and reinterpreted these stories for literally thousands of years with millions of different interpretations. “Mythology”, defined loosely as just religious lore, is as personal as it is universal.
Grimus, as a novel, turns that on its head. The mythologies are abstract and obscure, but once you track down the references to real life ones, or get your head into the actual mythology of Calf Island, there’s just not much more to say than, well, it exists.
In Grimus, the alien race of The Gorfs provides a microcosm of these last two problems. Supposedly, they are the ancient immortal alien race that created the Stone Rose, which links together multiple universes and potentialities. I think this is, inherently, interesting. They also have this obsession with ordering, that all should be in the right order, which makes them a perfect foil to Grimus’s chaotic human experimenting on Calf Island. But the two don’t interact except for one time at the end, and there are no real conflicts between their ideologies in the book.
The real pisser is the Gorf’s obsession with anagram—an extension of their fixation on ordering and reordering. They can even “anagrammatically alter their own environment”. Despite desperately wishing I could tell you what this means, Rushdie never goes into it other than to say it could happen. Their game of Anagrammer could be so damn interesting and fun from a reader’s perspective—the chance to work out some literal puzzles while reading, OR, it could be a chance for Rushdie to really flex his literary abilities and give us some complex anagrams just to show that he can do it. Sadly, mostly what we get is Gorf’s (frogs) lead by the Gorf Dota (Toad) on the planet Thera (earth) in the Gorf Nirveesu (frog universe). There’s one extended anagram in the book that’s rather cool, so I’ll throw it here.
The chiefest question, the most important one to the Gorfs for a long time is:
“And are we actually to be the least intelligent race in our Endimions?” (Last word an anagram for dimension, not just a cop out for the letters).
And it’s answered:
“Determine how catalytic an elite is; use our talent and learning-lobe.”
But that’s really it despite the fact that they show up a couple of times. It’s a cool, complex concept that’s dropped too fast to get to the next thing, and provides no real contemplative depth like a fucking alien race that acts completely differently than humans should.
The sex in the novel is distracting, barely readable, and goes into territory that is just offensive. Barring a deep investigation of when Flapping Eagle revenge rapes the image of his religion’s goddess in a different dimension (no joke, the book literally reads "And then he raped her.", a ton of page count is spent on a brothel in K. It’s so often dry, so often overly written, and yet somehow still indulgent. It’s really a stain on the middle of the book.
My favorite least favorite plot line is where Flapping Eagle makes two women cheat on their wives with him, and then claims the peak of his life is when he is fucking one of them, imagines the other one, and says that he was finally with a “complete woman”. It’s objectively more nuanced than that in the novel but it’s too fucked up and embarrassing to deep dive into.
The whole sequence of interacting with the other immortal people is just interspersed with these terribly written, terribly times, deeply unsexy sex scenes that make most of the middle of the novel a blur for me. In general, though, characters are introduced and dropped and rementioned at such a pace that it’s impossible to get a sense of any of them.
In general actually, the novel suffers from some pretty piss poor pacing, never seeming to want to take the time to get into deeper character moments, interesting multidimensional lore (there’s barely anything about any other dimensions exist but Calf Mountain, regular Earth, and Thera), landscape, philosophy, instead it opts over and over to spend its page count on poorly written sex scenes and cruelty toward some of the kinder characters (If I could take Ignatius Gribb and Virgil Jones out of this book and place them in their own novel I’d be so happy).
Ultimately, when Grimus himself arrives on the scene after being a shadow over the whole novel, he brings nothing but disappointment.
Grimus’s characterization, to me, is paradoxical. He’s characterized as this megalomaniac playing a human experiment on the people of K, but he mostly just acts like a whiny child. Let me be clear: it takes Grimus a lot of effort in the lore of the book to keep up this experiment.
But if Grimus has the personality to carefully construct this reality from the Stone Rose and maintain it every day, it doesn’t really track that he’d continue this with such minimal interference when he’s so childish. You’d imagine him more as a Loki figure.
If he wasn’t this way from the beginning, and, as is sort of implied, he grew into this childishness from a lack of existential consequences, you’d think he wouldn’t have the ability to keep it up for so long. And I guess he doesn’t, as he does get himself killed. He just frankly seems much too dumb about it for a 700 year old who claims to be researching the universe, and who has the access and time to visit every possible dimension and every possible potentiality.
Flapping Eagle thinks, “Grimus: a baby with a bomb. Or a whole veiled arsenal of bombs.” He’s just too childlike to be anything but a baby, and yet he is.
The thing that kills me is that Flapping Eagle brings up the problem that anyone would immediately think of—doesn’t the Grimus Effect, the radiating power and time-weirdness from Grimus’s subdimension at the top of Calf Mountain, affect the result of this “experiment?” Grimus’s answer is basically, no, because fuck you I don’t care. It’s so frustrating because he seems to randomly care or not care about the validity of his experiment, and if the answer is “it’s because he’s unpredictable and crazy after being alive so long or because that’s how he is he’s a mad scientist weehaw!”, I’m bored to tears. He's 700 some, he should be more interesting.
The reason I end up with 2 stars is because there really is so much potential in so many of these ideas. The cross cultural mythology and it’s connection to multidimensional travel and ideas, the reflection of capitalism within a society of people who are forced to keep their heads down and obsess over the little things so they can’t meaningfully challenge an all powerful being, the game of Anagrammer, so much potential. It’s just note executed well enough as a novel.
The ultimate problem with Grimus is this: As clever as Rushdie may be, as deftly as he may have employed interesting hybridizations of culture (Most interesting is Calf Mountain = Kaf Mountain, Grimus named it the Arabic ك but the white people butchered it, the town of K which is pronounced the same in both langauge,), as many cool little sparks of genius and philosophy he includes in Grimus, he does not provide a compelling narrative or characters. There is room for that sort of play in literature, but it does not read as though it’s intentional here. The lack of coherency reads more as though the characters and narrative in Grimus are Rushdie’s way of selling his ideas as a fiction book instead of a work of philosophy.
I know I have more to say, but this is so long and I’m getting super tired, so I’ll leave it at that—for now.
Peace.
July 25, 2011
For an author who I've heard of spoken in such reverent tones for so long before finally acclimating myself to, my first exposure to Salman Rushdie's work was not at all revelatory. In retrospect, starting with Rushdie's first novel, Grimus, and one the author himself has spoken ill of, may not have been the most prudent way to experience the work of a storied novelist. And, truth be told, literary fiction as read voluntarily is kind of a new engagement for me though my initial choice to try Grimus (as opposed to, say, Midnight's Children) was based on the fact that Grimus is marketed as science fiction, the sort of genre book I gravitate toward. But that first couple of pages nearly stopped me before I'd really begun.
I'll say these negative things up front, to get them out of the way: Form-wise and mechanically, I think the choices made in Grimus (which I understand now may be much more common in this vein of novel than I realized) are pompous and unnecessary. The eschewing of standard quotation marks in favor of initializing dashes and then mixing narrative with dialogue, the flipping of perspective and point of view without consideration, the excessive use of the semicolon—all probably nothing more in the end than stylistic choices but ones which I feel detract far more than they add to the prose. The lyrical nature of the writing and the deft hand at description suffice (eventually) to reveal that this is not an unaccomplished writer struggling with basic composition but rather someone altogether too bored with convention to be concerned with trifles like readability. That's both a criticism and a praise, because the truth is that Rushdie does display great skill in crafting this novel, but his willingness to force readers to work harder than they should in order to identify this skill is little more than ego-stroking.
Yet, Grimus did eventually win me over. The story chronicles Flapping Eagle, an outcast from his people because of circumstances beyond his control surrounding his birth. He becomes immortal. He spends a lot of time sailing, living, man-whoring, eventually deciding he wants to die. He arrives via inter-dimensional travel in a place called Calf Island and meets two ugly people, living in a hut near the sea. He disturbs their lives, and is lead to the town of K, where other immortals congregate. He disturbs the town there, as well. It's difficult to summarize the plot exactly because Grimus is less about what happens as it is about the people it happens to and the reactions of all the other characters to the spectre of Flapping Eagle as he moves destructively in and through their lives.
At its core the novel is symbolic, high-minded and a book to make you consider things. Things like death, things like certainty, things like obsession. Rushdie plays with language, plays with names, plays with constructs of time and perspective. There is fun in the book, with notions of pan-dimensional stone frogs called Gorfs who play a game with order, with fleeting romances and quests that seem sort of heroic but really aren't. There is plenty of tragedy in Grimus, because there is tragedy in Flapping Eagle, and tragedy in K, and tragedy in immortality. There is a worrisome amount of sex, too, elevated at times into an enduring and unified force which seems to contain power and motive and a destructive power that nearly rivals Flapping Eagle's existence. Perhaps Rushdie is trying to say something about the weight, the heft we lend to sex. Perhaps he just likes writing about people getting it on.
And that's the mesmerizing thing about Grimus: You don't really know which parts are significant and which are insignificant and which are just there. It's, in a way, like Waiting For Godot, trafficking in literary negative space enough that you can find meaning in small passages or decide that moments which seem to be pivotal to the plot are disposable. As much as I disliked the way Rushdie's mechanical style forced effort on my part to parse the text, I loved that his writing forced effort to discern what was being said behind what was being described. Is he saying something about modern society when he describes the way the citizens of K use obsession to drown out the maddening din of the Grimus effect? Is the Grimus effect a symbol for information overload? For technology? For spirituality? I think the answers to all are both "yes" as well as "no."
The heaviest complaint I have with Grimus is that its ending is weak and entirely too convenient. Not convenient in the sense that the characters all get off scot free (quite the opposite in fact) but in that it provides a nice little bookend, and everyone kind of accidentally gets what they want. It's not "and it was all a dream," because it neither re-casts the narrative in the light of irrelevancy nor tries to shock the reader, but it's almost as bad in the way it takes all the interesting ideas and symbolic food-for-thought and suddenly makes them mere constructs, un-symbols that are now literal facets, of and exclusive to the world that Grimus creates. And Rushdie takes those elements which are no longer applicable to the real world the reader inhabits and tucks them away on a shelf and seems to simply ask, "Did you like the story?" Which, to me, misses the point entirely.
I'll say these negative things up front, to get them out of the way: Form-wise and mechanically, I think the choices made in Grimus (which I understand now may be much more common in this vein of novel than I realized) are pompous and unnecessary. The eschewing of standard quotation marks in favor of initializing dashes and then mixing narrative with dialogue, the flipping of perspective and point of view without consideration, the excessive use of the semicolon—all probably nothing more in the end than stylistic choices but ones which I feel detract far more than they add to the prose. The lyrical nature of the writing and the deft hand at description suffice (eventually) to reveal that this is not an unaccomplished writer struggling with basic composition but rather someone altogether too bored with convention to be concerned with trifles like readability. That's both a criticism and a praise, because the truth is that Rushdie does display great skill in crafting this novel, but his willingness to force readers to work harder than they should in order to identify this skill is little more than ego-stroking.
Yet, Grimus did eventually win me over. The story chronicles Flapping Eagle, an outcast from his people because of circumstances beyond his control surrounding his birth. He becomes immortal. He spends a lot of time sailing, living, man-whoring, eventually deciding he wants to die. He arrives via inter-dimensional travel in a place called Calf Island and meets two ugly people, living in a hut near the sea. He disturbs their lives, and is lead to the town of K, where other immortals congregate. He disturbs the town there, as well. It's difficult to summarize the plot exactly because Grimus is less about what happens as it is about the people it happens to and the reactions of all the other characters to the spectre of Flapping Eagle as he moves destructively in and through their lives.
At its core the novel is symbolic, high-minded and a book to make you consider things. Things like death, things like certainty, things like obsession. Rushdie plays with language, plays with names, plays with constructs of time and perspective. There is fun in the book, with notions of pan-dimensional stone frogs called Gorfs who play a game with order, with fleeting romances and quests that seem sort of heroic but really aren't. There is plenty of tragedy in Grimus, because there is tragedy in Flapping Eagle, and tragedy in K, and tragedy in immortality. There is a worrisome amount of sex, too, elevated at times into an enduring and unified force which seems to contain power and motive and a destructive power that nearly rivals Flapping Eagle's existence. Perhaps Rushdie is trying to say something about the weight, the heft we lend to sex. Perhaps he just likes writing about people getting it on.
And that's the mesmerizing thing about Grimus: You don't really know which parts are significant and which are insignificant and which are just there. It's, in a way, like Waiting For Godot, trafficking in literary negative space enough that you can find meaning in small passages or decide that moments which seem to be pivotal to the plot are disposable. As much as I disliked the way Rushdie's mechanical style forced effort on my part to parse the text, I loved that his writing forced effort to discern what was being said behind what was being described. Is he saying something about modern society when he describes the way the citizens of K use obsession to drown out the maddening din of the Grimus effect? Is the Grimus effect a symbol for information overload? For technology? For spirituality? I think the answers to all are both "yes" as well as "no."
The heaviest complaint I have with Grimus is that its ending is weak and entirely too convenient. Not convenient in the sense that the characters all get off scot free (quite the opposite in fact) but in that it provides a nice little bookend, and everyone kind of accidentally gets what they want. It's not "and it was all a dream," because it neither re-casts the narrative in the light of irrelevancy nor tries to shock the reader, but it's almost as bad in the way it takes all the interesting ideas and symbolic food-for-thought and suddenly makes them mere constructs, un-symbols that are now literal facets, of and exclusive to the world that Grimus creates. And Rushdie takes those elements which are no longer applicable to the real world the reader inhabits and tucks them away on a shelf and seems to simply ask, "Did you like the story?" Which, to me, misses the point entirely.
October 9, 2023
There is a lot I take issue with here but the biggest thing is that it’s such a hollow story. No character is truly fleshed out or anything more than a vessel to say words. The women are even worse off than that, essentially sex dolls overcome with desire for one person. The plot too had interesting aspects but was also incredibly boring like why would I care if a bunch of people 700 years old died. Nothing was at stake here
July 27, 2021
"The Aeneid"
"A conference of birds"
"Alice's adventures in wonderland"
"A conference of birds"
"Alice's adventures in wonderland"
January 19, 2021
Turns out that crap Rushdie is still quite good.
June 30, 2012
A remarkably assured beginning for a first book. All the Rushdie hallmarks .. Flamboyant, vividly imagined, stylishly written, and science fiction or fantasy, to boot. I wonder why he chose this genre for his first outing. Perhaps he hadn't yet considered magic realism. Sci-fi's loss, mainstream's gain. Conversely, one wonders how many Booker-worthy writers are hiding their light under the bushels of genres considered not literary enough.
For some who think his fame is owed more to his life events than writing, this should give them pause for thought.
True, I haven't liked all his books as much, but I'm glad I managed to find this one.
For some who think his fame is owed more to his life events than writing, this should give them pause for thought.
True, I haven't liked all his books as much, but I'm glad I managed to find this one.
January 21, 2016
The debut of Rushdie was a fantasy novel which follows Flapping Eagle to Calf Islandlooking for his sister Bird Dog. Flapping Eagle has the gift of immortality which really is not something he desires but it makes it possible for him to make it to Calf. Calf is where people who have immortality go to live. The story touches on a variety of mythology of Sufi, Hindu, Christian and Norse and many concepts and philosophy. It was not well received but it isn't hard to read. It's not Rusdie's best but it's not the worst either.
May 14, 2020
Spoilers ahead.
The Barebones Summary: Flapping Eagle, an Axonian Indian pariah, achieves immortality via a liquid given to him by his sister Bird-Dog, who has gotten them from a peddler called Sispy. After living for centuries among humanity, he is at last directed to Calf Island, where other such immortals as himself have founded a community. The whole island is subjected to the Grimus Effect, which is a kind of encroaching madness that can only be staved off by obsessive behavior. Therefore, obsessiveness is the doctrine of the village of K - even if it is, partly, an obsession to deny the Grimus Effect. When Flapping Eagle arrives at the shores of Calf Island, he is found by Dolores O’Toole and Virgil Jones, two recluses who eschewed living in K.
Virgil Jones, throughout Flapping Eagle’s quest to find Bird-Dog and a home, plays the guide. He leads Flapping Eagle through the forest up the mountain to the village of K. On the way they meet an intergalactic being obsessed with order, symmetry and word games, a Gorf, who is first meddling, then simply watching, the happenings on Calf Island. In K, Flapping Eagle, first viewed strangely, soon becomes part of the locale, finding his place within the richer echelons of the town. This momentary “happiness” is only of a brief duration, however, and he soon becomes wanted and has to seek refuge in the town’s sanctuary-like brothel, the House of the Rising Son.
At the heart of Calf Island, the residence of Grimus, lies the Stone Rose, an extraterrestrial tool to link several dimension. It is responsible for the Grimus Effect, and also what keeps this pocket dimension Calf Island alive. Destroying it is the final quest. To this effect, Flapping Eagle and Virgil Jones travel to Liv’s house (Liv being Jones’ ex-wife) where they expect to be the gate to Grimus’ residence. Liv (following her own journey of revenge against Grimus) reads to Flapping Eagle from Virgil’s diary, which describes in detail how they found the Stone Rose and experimented with it.
Ultimately, the path to Grimus is shown to Flapping Eagle by his sister Bird-Dog, who has been Grimus’ devoted disciple all these years -- Grimus being the man Sispy. It turns out that Grimus has orchestrated the entire journey through the power of the rose. He has not only fashioned Calf Mountain, but also found Flapping Eagle and led him to this very point. The purpose of which is to kill him, Grimus, and then take over in his place. To Grimus, self-determination is everything, and so what he wishes for the most is to be able to choose his own death, having orchestrated it in minute detail. The final battle between the two entails a trickery in which their minds meld together. In a final push, after a brief visit to the planet of the Gorfs, Flapping Eagle conceptualizes a paradox with the help of the Stone Rose: a dimension created by the Rose, in which the Rose does not exist. Grimus (Simurg - bird of legend) is shown to be a former prisoner of war, explaining his obsession with self-determination. He is lynched and burnt by a mob from K. Shortly after, the entire dimension collapses and everyone is gone.
General Thoughts: Grimus reads like a fever dream. It has some genuinely funny moments (Virgil and Dolores), and some heart-wrenching ones as well (Dolores O’Toole, Elfrida, etc., come to mind), but on the whole the characters lack much of the depth and strength that is the hallmark of Rushdie’s later work. At times, the premise of the story itself, a fusion of many culture myths with elements of science-fiction, seems to take on hallucinogenic proportions. The Sufi poem about Simurg appears to be the basis on which are grafted many other parts, like an imagined Indian tribe, mentions of Valhalla, etc., creating a chimera that makes for a quick if confusing read.
Does the story reach the heights of other Rushdie yarns? Not quite. Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, etc. are all of a much higher quality, which should be readily apparent to anyone familiar with Rushdie’s writing. Beyond the veneer of its slightly convoluted story and language about reality, Grimus reads more like a sandbox style exploration of the writer into his ability. What works? What doesn’t? How to shape characters, etc. Much of the writing shows traits that he heavily builds on and modifies, leading, in later works, to the style we have come to know and love. The subject matter, too, seems to be more about finding himself. Calf Mountain is a bastardized form of Mount Qâf, which has roots in Islam and already shows a link to Rushdie’s high (albeit secular) interest in religion. Once he has refined and coupled this with the issues of reclaiming the country of his birth, of claiming the countries of his current residency, and of depicting the transmigrational consciousness, his works begin to take off.
In any case, just for completeness’ sake, and for the few laugh out loud moments, I did enjoy myself reading Grimus. If there is a critique to be leveled beside the stylistic one, it lies in the matter of the ending. For everything to disappear, to be atomized through this conceptualization of a dimension without that which created it, makes the whole exercise somewhat meaningless. It feels much like one of the stories where, in the end, the character wakes up from a horrible dream. Even the echo of the Weakdance, a neat point and a pithy last line, does not resonate or save the ending.
The Barebones Summary: Flapping Eagle, an Axonian Indian pariah, achieves immortality via a liquid given to him by his sister Bird-Dog, who has gotten them from a peddler called Sispy. After living for centuries among humanity, he is at last directed to Calf Island, where other such immortals as himself have founded a community. The whole island is subjected to the Grimus Effect, which is a kind of encroaching madness that can only be staved off by obsessive behavior. Therefore, obsessiveness is the doctrine of the village of K - even if it is, partly, an obsession to deny the Grimus Effect. When Flapping Eagle arrives at the shores of Calf Island, he is found by Dolores O’Toole and Virgil Jones, two recluses who eschewed living in K.
Virgil Jones, throughout Flapping Eagle’s quest to find Bird-Dog and a home, plays the guide. He leads Flapping Eagle through the forest up the mountain to the village of K. On the way they meet an intergalactic being obsessed with order, symmetry and word games, a Gorf, who is first meddling, then simply watching, the happenings on Calf Island. In K, Flapping Eagle, first viewed strangely, soon becomes part of the locale, finding his place within the richer echelons of the town. This momentary “happiness” is only of a brief duration, however, and he soon becomes wanted and has to seek refuge in the town’s sanctuary-like brothel, the House of the Rising Son.
At the heart of Calf Island, the residence of Grimus, lies the Stone Rose, an extraterrestrial tool to link several dimension. It is responsible for the Grimus Effect, and also what keeps this pocket dimension Calf Island alive. Destroying it is the final quest. To this effect, Flapping Eagle and Virgil Jones travel to Liv’s house (Liv being Jones’ ex-wife) where they expect to be the gate to Grimus’ residence. Liv (following her own journey of revenge against Grimus) reads to Flapping Eagle from Virgil’s diary, which describes in detail how they found the Stone Rose and experimented with it.
Ultimately, the path to Grimus is shown to Flapping Eagle by his sister Bird-Dog, who has been Grimus’ devoted disciple all these years -- Grimus being the man Sispy. It turns out that Grimus has orchestrated the entire journey through the power of the rose. He has not only fashioned Calf Mountain, but also found Flapping Eagle and led him to this very point. The purpose of which is to kill him, Grimus, and then take over in his place. To Grimus, self-determination is everything, and so what he wishes for the most is to be able to choose his own death, having orchestrated it in minute detail. The final battle between the two entails a trickery in which their minds meld together. In a final push, after a brief visit to the planet of the Gorfs, Flapping Eagle conceptualizes a paradox with the help of the Stone Rose: a dimension created by the Rose, in which the Rose does not exist. Grimus (Simurg - bird of legend) is shown to be a former prisoner of war, explaining his obsession with self-determination. He is lynched and burnt by a mob from K. Shortly after, the entire dimension collapses and everyone is gone.
General Thoughts: Grimus reads like a fever dream. It has some genuinely funny moments (Virgil and Dolores), and some heart-wrenching ones as well (Dolores O’Toole, Elfrida, etc., come to mind), but on the whole the characters lack much of the depth and strength that is the hallmark of Rushdie’s later work. At times, the premise of the story itself, a fusion of many culture myths with elements of science-fiction, seems to take on hallucinogenic proportions. The Sufi poem about Simurg appears to be the basis on which are grafted many other parts, like an imagined Indian tribe, mentions of Valhalla, etc., creating a chimera that makes for a quick if confusing read.
Does the story reach the heights of other Rushdie yarns? Not quite. Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, etc. are all of a much higher quality, which should be readily apparent to anyone familiar with Rushdie’s writing. Beyond the veneer of its slightly convoluted story and language about reality, Grimus reads more like a sandbox style exploration of the writer into his ability. What works? What doesn’t? How to shape characters, etc. Much of the writing shows traits that he heavily builds on and modifies, leading, in later works, to the style we have come to know and love. The subject matter, too, seems to be more about finding himself. Calf Mountain is a bastardized form of Mount Qâf, which has roots in Islam and already shows a link to Rushdie’s high (albeit secular) interest in religion. Once he has refined and coupled this with the issues of reclaiming the country of his birth, of claiming the countries of his current residency, and of depicting the transmigrational consciousness, his works begin to take off.
In any case, just for completeness’ sake, and for the few laugh out loud moments, I did enjoy myself reading Grimus. If there is a critique to be leveled beside the stylistic one, it lies in the matter of the ending. For everything to disappear, to be atomized through this conceptualization of a dimension without that which created it, makes the whole exercise somewhat meaningless. It feels much like one of the stories where, in the end, the character wakes up from a horrible dream. Even the echo of the Weakdance, a neat point and a pithy last line, does not resonate or save the ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2022
Interesting concepts of magic realism intertwined with Native American mythos made for a confusing but entertaining ride. Initially thought Rushdie was a political essayist but this book threw those expectations away immediately lol
September 30, 2021
i like in theory the mashup between all religions and mythologies and a thousand literary allusions
but it's pretty hard to actually read it. this is his first novel, maybe it gets better with the satanic verses or midnight's children. or maybe it doesn't because this is just his style and that's fine. but - good in theory, killer to read
but it's pretty hard to actually read it. this is his first novel, maybe it gets better with the satanic verses or midnight's children. or maybe it doesn't because this is just his style and that's fine. but - good in theory, killer to read
June 7, 2022
It's a ruined orgasm.
Read
August 31, 2024An immortal Indian seeks death, purpose in this surrealistic sci-fi. I admire Rushdie's willingness to straddle genres, but I can't say this did a heck ton for me other than that.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 273 reviews