Shame

by Salman Rushdie

Paperback, 1989

Status

Available

Call number

809

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Vintage (1989), Paperback, 322 pages

Description

The novel that set the stage for his modern classic, The Satanic Verses, Shame is Salman Rushdie's phantasmagoric epic of an unnamed country that is "not quite Pakistan." In this dazzling tale of an ongoing duel between the families of two men-one a celebrated wager of war, the other a debauched lover of pleasure-Rushdie brilliantly portrays a world caught between honor and humiliation-"shamelessness, shame: the roots of violence." Shame is an astonishing story that grows more timely by the day.

Media reviews

New York Times

". . . a lively, amusing and exasperating work . . . The false starts, loose ends and general extravagance of the tale can become irritating. . . . And yet the book in its own peculiar fashion works."

User reviews

LibraryThing member CloggieDownunder

Shame is the third novel by Salman Rushdie. The narrator tells us novel is and is not about Pakistan. The main characters are Omar Khayyam Shakil (who represents shamelessness), Raza Hyder (read Zia-ul-Haq), his daughter Sufiya Zinobia (who represents shame), Iskander Harappa (read Zulfikar Ali

Bhutto) and his daughter Arjumand Harappa, the virgin Ironpants (read Benazir Bhutto). Once again written in magical realism, the plot loosely follows events leading up to the reign of Bhutto and then the coup by Zia. A political novel, it sent me off to Wikipaedia to fill in my sorely-lacking background knowledge of these events in Pakistan. Not the epic length of Midnight’s children or of later novels, it is filled with satire, cynical intrigue and black comedy. Rushdie, as always, demonstrates his mastery of language and keeps the reader engaged to the last line.

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LibraryThing member P_S_Patrick

I've read a couple of Rushdie books before, the Satanic Verses, and The Moor's Last Sigh. I would rate both of them higher than this one. All the same, this is a good book, it is written as well as the other two, and doesn't lack any of the idiosyncratic Rushdie flair and drama in the writing. I

think it is just perhaps because it is not quite as romantic, or balanced as the other two books, it is not as enjoyable to read. The book is fairly miserable all in all, not in a really depressing way, but it is dark, political, and will not be to everyones taste. I did enjoy reading it though, and it has a lot to it's credit, if you've read any Rushdie before then you will appreciate how he describes everything so fantastically, and makes things seem real and unreal at the same time. I would recommend this to fans of the author, but if you've not read any of his before then you should try one of the previously mentioned titles first, as they are in my opinion better reads. This book was shorter than the other two, but the plot is fully realised and he gets a lot out of the ideas in the length of the book.

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LibraryThing member Praj05

Shame is an undesired sperm that impregnates human psychic with acute guilt and discomfort to procreate a shameless fiend amid continual cerebral labor pains. Molded on a fictionalized caricature of Pakistan’s opinionated and influential communal strata it incubates the embryonic mesh of

brutality resulting in social and personal turmoil.

Rushdie along with his emotive quandary constantly appears to be a lost child meandering on the South Asian political-cultural perimeter. With Satanic Verses and Midnight’s Children being his two precious manuscripts, Shame lingers on the threshold of allegorical restrains.

Oh! This book isn’t awful, if that’s what you are thinking. I presume I was more than a decade late in reading Rushdie’s Shame. The book would have appalled my wits then as an adolescent luxuriating in a cushy life. However as a seasoned 30-yr old parasite clinching on the edge of cynical propaganda it was more on the lines of serving a tepid cup of tea with maybe a dry toast.

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LibraryThing member brokeaspoke

My favorite of Rushdie's books. A colorful and hope filled story told as only Mr Rushdie can.

LibraryThing member The_reading_swimmer

I really enjoyed his writing, but didn't just love the storyline.

LibraryThing member VanBlackLibrary

The novel that set the stage for his modern classic, The Satanic Verses, Shame is Salman Rushdie’s phantasmagoric epic of an unnamed country that is “not quite Pakistan.” In this dazzling tale of an ongoing duel between the families of two men–one a celebrated wager of war, the other a

debauched lover of pleasure–Rushdie brilliantly portrays a world caught between honor and humiliation–“shamelessness, shame: the roots of violence.” Shame is an astonishing story that grows more timely by the day.

Key words: post-colonial, novel, India,

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