The Moor's Last Sigh chronicles the events related to modern India. Positing deep conviction how India would be after independence, the violent, conflict-replete India, blighting the life of succeeding generation, that will in fact emerge. Prognostication about post independent India would be really violence riven and tempestuous because the doors of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya were battered down by crowds of fanatical Hindus. Manifesting the naked truth of India that is Hindu movement and fundamentalism, Sati Custom, Corruption, Poverty, and so on. ( )

I'm not up to this one--read 181 pp out of some 500--a crowd of characters, generations of families, and their odd characteristics. Told, not involving--couldn’t latch on to it. ( )

The Moor's Last Sigh is Rushdie's best book since Midnight's Children and is superior to The Ground Beneath Her Feet. Rushdie puts his spin on the multi-generational family novel. Like most such novels, it takes awhile to get the characters and families straight, but once you have the whole picture, you can begin to enjoy the magic that Rushdie is weaving through this genre. His first-person narrator ranges from funny to absurd to cruel, and Rushdie's playfulness with language is in full force here. As in Midnight's Children, Rushdie's characters are set in the context of India's turbulent history, and in typical Rushdie fashion, it isn't clear whether history is affecting the family or the family is molding history. The very end of the book seems a bit over-blown, but it's one of the few weaknesses in this very good novel ( )

...there's some mixed feelings there because it was a lot easier to let go than "Midnight's Children" - its counterpart in storyline and style. And whilst I was englufed in the story of the Zogoiby-Da Gama family, I was a bit more detached when it came to their last heir Moraes (Moor) Zogoiby, the narrator, whose own life experiences occupies about 50% of the book. He seems a rather unfinished, one sided character, defined by his double-speed aging process and his inner struggles (a reflection, I should think, of his multicultural descent, his lack of a firm sense of identity), while his mother, Aurora Zogoiby, accomplished painter and mediocre mother, is far more attractive, complex and alive.

In the end beautiful - beautifully written, it's typically rushdie-esque and much smarter people than I have commented on its themes, on the recurrence of India as a mother(land), on the recurrence of the witch woman - Parvati in "Midnight's Children", Uma Saraswati here, creator and destroyer, on the rise-and-fall story in a family, on the added realism, the accuracy of impressions on the life after The Independence. It seemes like it's all been done, but I don't think anyone does it better than Mr. Rushdie, simply because his prose, while slightly complicated and suffocating on first sight, draws you in and, once you're there, it's pretty hard to walk out. ...
there's some mixed feelings there because it was a lot easier to let go than "Midnight's Children" - its counterpart in storyline and style. And whilst I was englufed in the story of the Zogoiby-Da Gama family, I was a bit more detached when it came to their last heir Moraes (Moor) Zogoiby, the narrator, whose own life experiences occupies about 50% of the book. He seems a rather unfinished, one sided character, defined by his double-speed aging process and his inner struggles (a reflection, I should think, of his multicultural descent, his lack of a firm sense of identity), while his mother, Aurora Zogoiby, accomplished painter and mediocre mother, is far more attractive, complex and alive.

In the end beautiful - beautifully written, it's typically rushdie-esque and much smarter people than I have commented on its themes, on the recurrence of India as a mother(land), on the recurrence of the witch woman - Parvati in "Midnight's Children", Uma Saraswati here, creator and destroyer, on the rise-and-fall story in a family, on the added realism, the accuracy of impressions on the life after The Independence. It seemes like it's all been done, but I don't think anyone does it better than Mr. Rushdie, simply because his prose, while slightly complicated and suffocating on first sight, draws you in and, once you're there, it's pretty hard to walk out.

http://meerchant.wordpress.com/2007/1... ( )

Woah! This is a really challenging read and hard to stay with. It took me an age to get through this one but it was worth it. A good story, interesting plots and sub-plots, engaging characters, etc. just pretty dense. ( )

I bought this book after enjoying the Satanic Verses, hoping for a similar read. I wasn't disappointed, this book was perhaps a touch less complicated and ambitious, but the plot and the characters were just as well thought out, and the narrative as clever and deep, and enjoyable to read as I was expecting. He does the surreal very well, and this book didn't let me down in this aspect either, but it is done in a more subtle way than in the Satanic Verses for the most part. Despite this it still has the same enchanting illusory feel , it just isn't the one long hallucinogenic trip that the Satanic verses is. I would recommend this book if you enjoyed the Satanic Verses, and vice versa. They are both books I would consider re-reading in the future. ( )

This has to be one of the finest novels I've ever read. Written in a dense, hypnotic interweaving of prose and prose-poetry, richly mythic and complex, this work could in some respects be described as a "family saga" were it genre fiction since it tells the story of several generations of a dynasty of Catholic-Jewish Cochin spice traders from the beginning of the 20th century until the early 1990s. But genre fiction it's not. It's literary with a capital L. It's also tremendously learned and filled with characters who are by turns eccentric, tragic, obsessively selfish, psychopathic, ruthless and comic who play out their lives in the decades either side of Indian independence. The novel also contains a great deal of magical realism, though this is subtle and exquisitely handled.

I originally bought "The Moor's Last Sigh" a couple of years ago when I was going on holiday to southern India since the first part of the book is set in and around Cochin, the spice capital, which was one of the places I visited. Hence I have seen and visited a number of the places mentioned in the book, including the harbour, the synagogue, the spice shops in the old Jewish quarter and St Francis' church, as well as the famous "Chinese" fishing nets. ( )

No surprises in this story... the telling has lots of twists but the turns are seen well in advance. A beautiful telling, nonetheless. Language so magical one forgives the predictable. Indian history, folklore and drama. I am not such a fool to take this fictional account as gospel, however I was motivated to go looking for more information about events and figures.

The one foreshadowing I cannot forgive involves a "walkman" and its use as a tool of destruction. Too mundane a plot my dear Mr. Rushdie! ( )

Madcap, heartbreaking, hilarious. Not all writers can be both great writers and great storytellers. Rushdie is one of the few. ( )

either ya love the guy, or ya don't. i love the guy. ( )

A dense, magnificent book, packed full of images and insights. Like eating a slice of rich dark fruit cake. ( )

From Wikipedia: ... Rushdie is also highly influenced by modern literature. Midnight's Children borrows themes from Günter Grass's novel The Tin Drum, which Rushdie claims inspired him to begin writing. The Satanic Verses is also influenced by Mikhail Bulgakov's classic Russian novel The Master and Margarita.

India and Pakistan were the themes, respectively, of Midnight's Children and Shame. In his later works, Rushdie turned towards the Western world with The Moor's Last Sigh, exploring commercial and cultural links between India and the Iberian peninsula.... ( )

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/3... ( )

Only one book (Crime and Punishment) has ever made me miss my stop on the subway. This book, however, came very close. Littered with puns, many of them miserable groaners, it's a peppy tragedy dressed up in showy clothes. The characters neither demand nor recieve the reader's pity, and so come across as fairly mild, regardless of their particular depravity. The novel is a little compressed in the less-fun final acts; Rushdie can't seem to sink his teeth into the dreary stuff. But neither can I, so I didn't really mind. Loved it. Brush up on your 20th-century Indian history before you crack it, though. ( )