Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie

I chose to read "Shalimar the Clown" for two reasons:
1. I have never read ANYTHING by Salman Rushdie and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
2. My roommate, Kevin Reich said it was his favorite book of all time and I wanted to get a little more insight into exactly what makes Kevin tick.

In brief, Shalimar the Clown is the story of the title character, his wife, her lover, and their daughter. It takes place is the 60s and follows the characters all the way up until the mid nineties. We learn at the very beginning of the book that Shalimar has murdered a famous ambassador and the rest of the book is the explanation of why and how. The book is divided into several sections (not really chapters...) that focus specifically on one of the main characters and their particular story. The action of the story takes us all the way from the holocaust to the India/Pakistan conflict to the Rodney King race riots in Los Angeles and is really pretty damn brilliant.

HOWEVER

The book does not get off to a very strong start in my opinion. Because the story deals so much with the conflict between the Indian army and the Pak-supported insurgents and also takes place almost entirely in the Kashmir region of India, Rushdie includes a LOT of exposition in the opening chapters, exposition which I ended up feeling was a little unnecessary to the story, including about 15 pages about "The Feast of 30 Courses Minimum" and another five about "The Feast of 60 Courses Maximum." Perhaps interesting to somebody, but not to me...

Unnecessary exposition aside, this is an amazing book. Rushdie is a brilliant writer and every sentence is a gem. This book took me a long time to read, but I believe that's the way this book should be read. The story (love, betrayal, war, overeating, tight-rope walking etc.) is an old one but Rushdie tells it in a way that makes me feel like I'm reading it for the first time.

The other great thing about this book is that it really has a little of everything: history, murder, mystery, action, love, magical realism, folk tales, EVERYTHING! I definitely recommend this to anyone who is a little ahead in the book count and wants to take some time to stp and smell the terrorism.

Overall 9 out of 10, get through those first 75 pages and you shall be richly rewarded.