A book review: Shalimar the Clown

Truth be told, I am not a great fan of political novels and this one by Salman Rushdie did not change my perception much. I tend to avoid political novels purely based on the reason that if I would want to read about politics, I could just as easily purchase the daily paper. However, the story of an American ambassador, his wife, a village dancing girl, their love child, an Islamist hit man and how they are all tied together by both love and hate intrigued me enough to purchase the book. As much as I stood in the bookstore trying to hazard a guess, I could not imagine the plot connecting their much disconnected backgrounds. These separate lives on several continents and in numerous countries seemed like an insurmountable task to be put together into one novel.

When read, I certainly enjoyed the story development but the writing is too abstract for my taste. I do know that thoughts and feelings are abstract in their original form but is it not the job of a writer to capture them into writings easily understood and imagined? Though some parts of the novel proved to be much easier to fathom and read, overall it was a struggle to complete.

To me, it was alot of words, a lot more cultural references, neverending pop culture, infinite name dropping and definitely more than enough political messages.