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East, West (1998)

East, West (1998)

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Genre
Rating
3.56 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
0099533014 (ISBN13: 9780099533016)
Language
English
Publisher
vintage

About book East, West (1998)

I read 'The Prophet’s Hair' by Salman Rushdie from this book, and it has a good theme, but a very dark meaning. The story is written in Magic Realism like many other works by Rushdie. The story line and the way Rushdie is portrayed it is extremely negative. It shines a dark shadow on any form of religion, specifically orthodox Islam. Although I support freedom of expression, it is unjustified when what someone expresses explicitly attacks a particular set of people or beliefs and that is exactly what this story does. Through very pointed metaphors and allusions Rushdie casts religion and orthodox religious people in a negative light and makes it seem as though religion and religious following itself as the reason for everything difficult and wrong in a person’s life. This is quite evident in the way everything goes wrong for the moral and good family when the head of the family comes in contact with the greatest symbol of his religion, the vial containing the Prophet’s Hair in it. The story conveys that just because of that one relic, Hashim became the most orthodox Muslim in the world, and this too is represented as a bad and violent trait, although Islam is one the most peaceful religions. Islam not being sacred for Rushdie does not justify him mocking or attacking the religion or the people who follow it.Rushdie’s language is also just as pretentious. The sentences are long and the language is verbose and vivid. This makes the story even stranger and harder to read. The sentences lose their meaning in their length and are awkward as a result, making the entire experience of reading the story unpleasant. He uses long and hard words where much simpler words will do just as well. Some sections of the story need to be reread to understand their complete message because of the nature of the language used and the length of the sentences. Sentences such as “These breaches of the family’s unwritten laws of decorum alarmed Atta and Huma, and when, that evening their mother attempted to…” (Rushdie pg. 47) are winded in a complicated manner that is quite unnecessary. The word choice and the construction of the sentences are quite awkward. There is situational as well as dramatic irony used in the story. The way the irony is used suggests that religion is just like money; it corrupts people and destroys their moral ground. This theme is hard to convey in exactly the right way and Rushdie does not seem to have grasped that. There can be several parallels drawn between Sheikh Sin and Hashim who are both greedy, one for money and the other for artifacts. This greed kills both of them and destroys their families. This aspect of the story furthers the negative denotation in it. The characters in the story are not very well developed, and this makes his argument even weaker. The theme Salman Rushdie has attempted to convey through this story is just as good as it is controversial and needs to be portrayed very carefully. I admire the idea, but it’s execution by Rushdie is not good, the language as well as the irony used is too extreme and in its harshness the story falls short of the effect it could have had.

Rushdie is an author I've always wanted to read more of than I have. I'm mostly familiar with him through his children's novel, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," as well as at least one novel that I read in herky-jerky bits and pieces during my 20s. I think it's entirely fair to say that Rushdie is one of those writers I always feel, snobbishly, like I *should* have read, and I've enjoyed seeing him interviewed and talking about other books and films. It finally dawned on me, then, that a short story collection like "East, West" might be my "way in" to a fuller appreciation of his work. It's a challenging set of stories. What is immediately apparent is the mastery Rushdie has with the English language, because even the stories I didn't enjoy, content-wise, had a real flow that made them like music to read. I found myself wondering if Rushdie ever reads his own work aloud for audiences; in many cases, I felt like these would be even more of a joy to hear performed by the author. As stories, though, they were sometimes a little beyond me (hard as that is to admit). The collection is split into three sections - "East," "West," and "East, West" - with three stories in each. You can guess the thematic separation between these sections ("East" largely indicating India and "West" Britain). To be perfectly fair, most of the first six left me feeling a little distant, with probably "The Prophet's Hair" - which is rather like a mournful, bad-luck Indian fairy tale - the most engaging of the lot. However, I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed all three stories of the final section, each of them playing on themes as varied as infidelity, loyalty, and a shared love of the original "Star Trek" to find an interesting shared space between Indian upbringing and British culture. Those stories made my reading of the volume completely worthwhile.Would I recommend the collection? Contrary to my original theory, I think these might come off better if you are already familiar with Rushdie's longer work. His stories are dense and literate, and I think if you know the patterns of his writing, they might be a little easier to engage. That said, I'm certainly glad I made the attempt. Reading "East, West" has made me want to move back toward Rushdie novels and give them a more determined try. This time, I'll be better prepared for the density, and I always like to read beautiful music.

Do You like book East, West (1998)?

This review is based on The Prophets Hair, a short story within East, West by Salman Rushdie. The Prophets Hair tells the story of a money lender who becomes fanatically religious after finding a hair from the Prophet Muhammad. His children, frustrated by the curse this has brought on their family set out to find a robber who can steal the Prophets Hair for them and save the family from the curse. Rushdie creates a vividly realised story worth reading simply for the way he employs irony to both
—Ishaan Pathak

"Wschód, zachód" jest zbiorem dobrym. Opowiadania, pomimo poruszanych w nich nieraz dość trudnych tematów, napisane są w sposób lekki (nie mylić z zabawnym), bez niepotrzebnego patosu. Każde z nich stanowi odrębną całość, nie powiązaną w żaden znaczący sposób z pozostałymi, jak to chociaż ma miejsce w przypadku krótkich form Amosa Oza. Na niekorzyść zbioru działają jednak opowiadania tworzące cykl „Zachód”, które, choć same w sobie są interesujące, to jednak zaburzają spójność książki, co nieco utrudnia odbiór całości. Szkoda, że autor nie wpadł na pomysł, by w chociaż jednym opowiadaniu opisać np. dzieje Brytyjczyków, których różne koleje losu sprowadziły do Indii. Mimo to całość polecam, zwłaszcza ze względu na te niewielkie, acz znaczące, migawki z życia społeczności indyjskiej.Więcej: http://literatkakawy.booklikes.com/po...
—Magdalena

I don't often read short stories, but Rushdie has never once ceased to impress me (and, more often than not, totally bowl me over), so I figured it was worth a shot.As expected, it was mostly magnificent. His style varies widely from story to story, demonstrating his erudition and imaginative capabilities as he jumps deftly from poignant snapshots in time to experimental postmodern monologues. As always, he writes with exuberance, precision, delicacy, joy, and occasional venom. As other reviewers have written, some stories struck me more than others (though it's interesting to note how the stories some people highlight as dreck are the same ones that the next person will describe as their favorites). Though I enjoyed them all, I was particularly impressed with "Yorick," "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers," "Chekov and Zulu," and "The Courter" (yes, I realize that my list there covers nearly half of the book).Contentwise, the stories cover a lot of the same topics of Rushdie's novels: the concept of "home," the often corruptive powers of religion and money, the often redemptive nature of love, and (obviously) the interactions, collisions, and engagements between East and West. The reader occasionally becomes aware that this was written during his decade of hiding after the Ayatollah's fatwa, particularly during "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers." In that story, the reader finds the narrator longing for the abstract "home," and criticizing the extreme type of tolerance that opens the doors of dialogue to intolerant people (read: people who would order a death sentence for an author because of what he wrote) because to not invite them to the table would be intolerant. Stylistically, as others have remarked, it is curious the way that the triad of "East" stories, all of which take place in India, are written in a relatively straightforward, realistic style. Though he is not employing his magical realism or postmodern linguistic pyrotechnics here, Rushdie is as sharp as ever. In contrast, all three of the "West" stories are written in experimental postmodern styles. To my mind, this implies that the West has lost its grounding to some extent. With all of the varieties of people and thoughts inhabiting the Western world, we don't have a stable foundation of thought and philosophy. We are ummoored from reality in a way, without a clear concept of "home." The style of the three "West" stories reflects this state.Overall, I gave this a four-star rating because short stories still aren't quite my bag. I respect what he has done here and deeply enjoyed the book, but I found myself wanting more. In a full length novel, Rushdie has the space to expand his thoughts and really grapple with huge issues. In short stories, he is limited to snapshots of those big issues, so he has a much smaller canvas on which to dazzle the reader. Nonetheless, it's still Rushdie, and it's still marvelous.
—Frank Kasell

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