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    Shalimar the Clown
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    Shalimar the Clown
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    Shalimar the Clown
    Audiobook17 hours

    Shalimar the Clown

    Written by Salman Rushdie

    Narrated by Aasif Mandvi

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    This is the story of Maximilian Ophuls, America’s counterterrorism chief, one of the makers of the modern world; his Kashmiri Muslim driver and subsequent killer, a mysterious figure who calls himself Shalimar the clown; Max’s illegitimate daughter India; and a woman who links them, whose revelation finally explains them all. It is an epic narrative that moves from California to Kashmir, France, and England, and back to California again. Along the way there are tales of princesses lured from their homes by demons, legends of kings forced to defend their kingdoms against evil. And there is always love, gained and lost, uncommonly beautiful and mortally dangerous.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books Audio
    Release dateSep 12, 2005
    ISBN9781449802400
    Unavailable
    Shalimar the Clown
    Author

    Salman Rushdie

    Salman Rushdie is the author of many acclaimed novels, including Midnight’s Children (winner of the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), Grimus, Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and The Sea of Stories, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown, The Enchantress of Florence, Luka and the Fire of Life, and Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights—and a collection of short stories: East, West. He has also published works of nonfiction, including Joseph Anton (a memoir of his life under the fatwa issued after the publication of The Satanic Verses), The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, and Step Across This Line—and co-edited the anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature.

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    Reviews for Shalimar the Clown

    4/5

    31 ratings29 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A slow, intricate, multi-layered novel. Evocative of beloved places and anger and loss.
    • 2/5
      Joy keeps lending me books that I dislike in interesting ways.

      There is no doubt that this is a collection of beautiful sentences. The writing is vivid, lyrical, and evocative. Unfortunately it's mostly evocative of horror. The sections all pretty much start out "Here are some people. Horrible things happened to them. Let's examine their lives leading up to the horrible things." The Kashmir sections are the loveliest, I think, but that just makes the torture, rape, and systematic murder in them all the more gruesome.

      My other main objection is the Max Ophuls section. If I never read another book about a brilliant, multitalented Renaissance man who gets all the girls, treats all of them like commodities, behaves in general like a raging narcissist that nevertheless knows his lines and is still supposed to be a sympathetic figure it will be too soon. It made me even angrier that he was supposed to be worthy of pity because he got his throat slit in the first section. (This isn't a spoiler since it's mentioned with increasingly tedious foreshadowing every fifth sentence from the second page on.)

      So yeah, women are treated like dirt, minorities are treated like dirt, people in regions the possession of which is disputed by major powers are treated like dirt, and being treated like dirt makes people crazy. That's the takeaway. The presence of a bow- and gun-shooting, boxing, martial-artist hot female instrument of revenge in the last 75 pages doesn't balance the rest of it, really.

      Shalimar the Clown is a book filled with richly detailed pictures. They're just not pictures I want in my head.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book more than I thought it would. It worked on a number of levels, a bit oif a thriller of a story but it mined the East-West relatrionship more effectively in my mind than some of his books that more consciously seek to do so.More to follow .... as soon as I have time
    • 4/5
      After the relatively disappointing aberration of Fury this novel sees Rushdie return for his setting to the locales and interests from which he made his name. He treated with Indira Ghandi’s India in Midnight’s Children, Pakistan in Shame and Islam in The Satanic Verses, before returning to (modern) India with The Ground Beneath Her Feet. In Shalimar The Clown it is Kashmir on which he focuses. In this sense the novel’s start is misleading as it begins in California with the daughter of a former ambassador in the days leading up to his assassination by his chauffeur/factotum, the titular Shalimar the Clown. The book ranges far and wide with many digressions. In a strange resonance with the previous book that I read the ambassador, Maximilian Ophuls, [why Rushdie chose for his character the name of a film director is somewhat obscure; to me at any rate] was a (Jewish) native of Alsace forced to flee, leaving the family printing business behind, after the Germans took over in 1940. He became a leading member of the French Resistance, was involved in US-French relations, emigrating to the US at the end of the war, and was appointed ambassador to India in the 1960s. This novel is not without incident.The story arc of the book deals, though, with the relationship between Noman Sher Noman and Boonyi Kaul (both of whom, along with Max and his daughter are given sections of the book - I was going to say to themselves, but other characters pop up all the time all over the book, in typically Rushdiean profusion) and the two villages in Kashmir, Pachigam and Shirmal, where they grew up. It seems all of life is here; the picture of a community, a way of life, is detailed. The plot of the novel is almost buried at times – yet this is true of every section. And is the placid, comradely, nature of existence there before the tensions between India and Pakistan led to strife in the region a touch overplayed? Whatever, the growth of Islamic fundamentalist influence, the deterioration in the situation and the horror of communal conflict is well depicted. Neither the Pakistan backed Muslim terrorists nor the Indian Army are spared implicit criticism.When Ophuls visits the villages Boonyi seizes her chance to escape, only to end up in a different kind of entrapment. Noman meanwhile burns for revenge. He is recruited as a terrorist and suppresses his character while training. In this context the use of his name (no man) as a signifier seemed perhaps a little trite.A short review can only touch the surface of the myriad elements which go into a novel which, like this, tries to deal with a big issue. There has to be some kind of story on which to hang the subject matter but at times, here, the human dimension is lost in a surfeit of detail. Do we really, for example, need to know the history of the main characters’ parents? This is a trope which Rushdie has employed in previous books. (A similar trait annoyed me in Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead where, every time the author switched to a new viewpoint, we were treated to the character’s whole life story to that point, fatally interrupting the novel’s flow.) In Shalimar The Clown moreover, many passages are told rather in the style of a historical narration than a novel. I shall not reveal the true identity of Shalimar, even though it's not hard to guess.While I could have done without the ascent into fantasy in the final section, Rushdie’s sympathies are always in the right place and, despite the various horrors the book describes, overall it is, as perhaps all fiction should be, life–enhancing. After Fury, it represents a return to form.
    • 4/5
      A postcolonial revenge tragedy, set in a world where beauty, laughter and tolerance have been entirely displaced by ugliness, cruelty and ideology. Beautifully written and cleverly constructed, as you would expect from Rushdie, but almost unbearably bleak in its outlook.
    • 5/5
      The very simple plot--man betrayed by wife, seeks revenge--is completely surrounded by Rushdie's beautiful language, which he uses to discuss, among other things: the history of Kashmir; the complex relationship of India and Pakistan; terrorism, its origins, effects, and perpetrators; the nature of love; folk tales and magic; and the interactions between religions, particularly Islam and Buddhism. Violence and the separation of peoples into religious, cultural, and natural groups which can be manipulated into hatred ot the "other" is explored in depth.One obstacle to easy reading is the names of the characters, which are hard for the western reader to keep straight. Another is the background cultural information used throughout the book. Certainly this is a complicated work and one that requires effort on the part of the reader, but one which will repay the careful reader for a long time.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Excellent. Made me so totally stoked to visit India and see all those great Mughal palaces. Then it's so sad when you find out that most of it is lost..
    • 3/5
      While Rushdie is an absolutely incredible writer, this story of an inside look at the conflict between India and Pakistan and the resulting creation of terrorist networks failed to grab me.
    • 4/5
      Great book. The master weaves effortlessly forwards and backwards in time; into and out of places. The weaving never seems contrived. The book becomes a serious page-turner. But this book is very different in character from earlier books like Midnight's Children and The Moor's Last Sigh - the trademark juxtaposing of comedy and brutal darkness is different - more brutality with the lighter moments more like comic relief in the gloomy reality of the world Rushdie makes us see. In fact the books does have a depressing air about it. But the ending is very satisfying. And it is a wicked read.
    • 5/5
      A very good book, though sad...
    • 3/5
      Rated R: Adult Themes; Sexual Situations; Violence
      Salmon Rushdie is an amazing author that paints a world for the reader of real cultures and places. This novel takes place over generations. It takes the reader through the historical background of the beautiful and tumultuous Kashmir region of the Indian subcontinent. It takes the reader through the struggle of a village that has been united for centuries as a community but divided by international events that ripped the community apart. It also shows how well meaning international influence can have a disastrous affect on communities where the historical background is less understood.
      It is a passionate novel of romance and loves lost and forbidden love and the disastrous effects of lust. There are several seemingly uninvolved stories that get tied up very neatly in the conclusion.
      I read this book during the time that I discovered that my marriage had fallen apart. It was a good diversion and many of the story lines helped me cope with what was going on in my life. Salmon Rushdie’s ability to paint the full spectrum of human character helped me see my world in shades of grey instead of black and white.
    • 5/5
      An amazing story that glides through World War II Austria to Kashmir in the 1960s (or is it 1970's?) to present day California. It has the suspense of the best thriller and is written with rich character development and beautiful descriptions of those diverse places and cultures. I was totally immersed to the last word of the story.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book. It has everything: love, betrayal, murder, revenge. I also learned a lot about Kashmir and its turbulent history. A very absorbing read.
    • 4/5
      I read this book in the space of about 3 days, I find Rushdies books quite easy to read compared to those from certain other authors. I would place this book on more or less equal ground with Shame and Fury, that being not quite as good as The Moor's Last Sigh, and The Satanic Verses. The plot was interesting, with enough to base a good story around, but I didn't find it quite as compelling as the two lastly mentioned Rushdie books. It was a good read, and it had me engrossed, but it was in many ways a more depressing read, like Shame and Fury, where many of the events were sad, and the whole thing was not quite upbeat enough for me. Despite these things, it is a rich and well written book and I enjoyed it, as should those who have enjoyed other books from this author. A few of the relevant contemporary issues are covered here which will either interest you, or not, (perhaps if you read for escapism). These include war, religious conflict, politics, and terrorism, and are balanced with the more classic ones of love and revenge.
    • 4/5
      Reading this novel was so effortless because of the way the words and the story and the characters was propelled forward, keeping me totally engrossed. It's amazing how some authors are able to depict such complex human interactions at the personal and societal level, and without falling into easy labelling of good vs evil. Well, OK, there are the clear 'bad guys' in the novel, but a lot of bad things come from regular people with decent intentions. Things just went wrong...and can we really blame those individuals for the choices they made?Compelling & magical. Complex, vast. The only part that wasn't so satisfying was the end--it somehow felt anti-climactic (maybe also b/c I found India/Kashimira rather flat as a character), like it was tacked on quickly after an extremely thoughtful and laborious crafting of the rest of the tale.
    • 5/5
      Salman Rushdie's "Shalimar the Clown" is a masterful book that blends political intrigue, romance, revenge, and mysticism into a tantalizing, and completely satisfying reading experience. With numerous interlocking plot lines that take you as a reader all the way from beautiful Kashmir, to German occupied France in World War Two, to Los Angelos, one seems to be have a first hand look into a world magic seems possible, and at the same time a look into the most horrible of human tragedies. The themes of revenge and of hidden secrets soon to be revealed guides this novel, and compels you to keep on reading.
    • 5/5
      This is a beautiful tale about a family from Kashmir. The father is an ambassador with a modern-minded daughter in the U.S. Their earlier life in Kashmir follows them to the U.S. Wonderful prose with touches of magical realism.
    • 4/5
      The stories of Max Ophuls, his wife, his daughter and the dancer he wooed along with the husband who wants revenge.The book begins with the murder of Max Ophuls while he visits his daughter on her birthday by Shalimar the Clown. From here it follows the lives of the main characters and how their decisions and local environemnt made them the people they were at the time of the murder. You follow Max through him being seduced by Shalimars wife, the birth of this daughter and his death.You follow India on her journey to finding out about her past, her mother and what happend to her to leave her without a father.You follow Shalimar through Kashmir and the changing of his life from a trapeze artist to murderer.You follow Peggy Rhodes (Max's wife) as she loses her husband and gains a daughter only to lose her again as India finds out herpast.All of these people are linked together by Boonyi a dancer who wants to better herself and sees how it can be done. But, in the end, fails and suffers because of it.
    • 4/5
      Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie is an excellent book that, though about Kashmir (in a sense), it is eerily applicable to so much in the world, including our present Iraq debacle. It was an interesting experience carrying the book to restaurants to read during dinner while in the Arabian Gulf region - always placing the book cover down in the decidely Islamic country I was in. A great read - Rushdie seldom disappoints.
    • 5/5
      Accessible and brilliant Rushdie
    • 3/5
      The plot about the people in the book was interesting. However, I think there was too much about the politics, so much it finally got boring.
    • 3/5
      I finished this books with feelings that I both liked it and hated it. Of the characters, India was likable the whole time, Shalimar was a villian all the way through, and Boonyi and Max I both hated and loved at different points through the book. It took be about 130 pages to get used to Rushdie's writing style. I really hated the pseudo-historical nature of the plot, since I constantly had to look up the history of the events to see what actually took place and what was fabricated by the author. The events that took place in the novel, when they were not outright foretold, were heavily foreshadowed. The outcome of the book was very clear even before the middle leaving very little guesswork.
    • 5/5
      A very good and very well written novel by one of the world's most famous authors. Well--not entirely unexpected but sometimes Rushdie's work can stretch credibility. This one however is well grounded and tells us a lot about the area called Kashmir that has been disputed over by India and Pakistan since at least the 60's. In the beginning we see two different cultures more than less living in harmony with each other. Shalimar a young Muslim and Boonyi a young Hindu fall in love with each other and although there are some misgivings from their respective families--compromises are made and they eventually marry. In the meantime the Pakastani army crosses the border and is more or less beaten back by the Indian one. Then we have Mullahs start agitating over Pakistani and Muslim right to the area and gaining acolytes and the Indian army responding by stamping out these insurgencies very brutally and at the same time terrorizing the population on the whole. A wedge is now driven between Hindu and Muslim. As it works out Boonyi although she loves Shalimar is also very much attracted to the modern world outside of India and on meeting the American ambassador (Maximillian Ophuls) at a dance performance seduces and then comes to an agreement with him of more or less--sex for the good life. When the unsuspecting Shalimar learns that she has left him to become a concubine he is crushed. Without going into the background of the ambassador too much--let us just say that his barren wife is not very pleased when she learns of this new arrangement. Eventually a wedge is likewise driven between the ambassador and Boonyi. Boonyi in fact is left more or less abandoned--and forgotten she sinks more and more into depravity becoming an obese drug addict. The scandal then becomes national news but Boonyi kind of in a last act to the affair fools the ambassador into getting her pregnant. At this point the wife steps in and succeeds in hushing up the pregnancy--takes the child as her own and Boonyi goes back in disgrace to her village where she is given a place to live on her own a short distance away from her village. Now Shalimar has come under the spell of a Mullah preaching hatred against the Hindus and the West is waiting to take his revenge but he has promised not only his father but his father-in-law not to hurt her as long as either of them are alive--and so he seethes and then he becomes a terrorist and an assassin--vowing not only to kill Boonyi one day but also the ambassador and also the daughter of that union--India (or Kashmira). That is about the set up. As I've said it's well told and very interesting in the way it sheds light on the conflict between one religion and another--one idea of what the world should be and another. I liked it a lot and very much would recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Against a backdrop of a variety of settings and into a plot of love and revenge, Rushdie smuggles the themes of religious and ethnic intolerance, roots of terrorism and madness of political forces working to destroy peaceful existence.It took me the longest time to get into this book. I was well past the half-way point when I started being interested in what was to happen. The story seemed awfully banal, and it really gained life in the second part. The characters that we are introduced to in the first chapters of the novel seem unemotional, detached from each other and remote to the reader, even though the story itself is familiar to a Western reader and takes place mainly in California, and then in a flashback, in Europe during the Second World War. It’s only in the further chapters that the setting, Kashmir, becomes more exotic and well drawn at the same time, and the characters are more colourful and passionate. Rushdie’s writing gets more flare and the story itself is more reminiscent of Midnight’s Children- the only book by him that I finished and enjoyed. The style seemed a bit choppy, but still epigrammatic at the beginning, and improved when Rushdie entered settings and issues that he seemed to be passionate about. The style changed from a thriller-like dry and sensational and became a blend of magical realism, heroic tales with bits of comedy and farce in-between. Since a lot of the book examines the life, motives and workings of the mind of an ordinary sensitive man turned professional killer-terrorist and the feelings of his victims, I am sure a lot there comes from Rushdie’s own feelings and thoughts in the matter, and a lot of it examines the causes and motives of the 9/11 world.
    • 5/5
      An outstanding novel for book discussion groups with rich characterizations and important themes. The peaceful multi-culturalism of an idyllic Kashmiri village is destroyed by political and religious conflict. Rushdie explores many complex themes, including the cultural imperialism of fundamentalist Islam as traditional dance, modes of dress and music are oppressed. Rushdie is deserving of a Nobel prize for this and his many other fine novels.
    • 3/5
      A remarkable insider's look into the mind and motives of a terrorist, as well as that of his victim and that victim's ultimate avenger. A bit slow a times, yet Rushdie always managed to rise above the expected and recapture my interest with his searing use of language and political metaphor.
    • 4/5
      I listened to about half the book before I bought the printed version. It made a big difference to hear the unfamiliar Indian words and names spoken fluently, without my having to pause to sound them out and guess at syllabification and stress.
    • 5/5
      don't worry! No spoilers, just a synopsisthis one I'm keeping, but I very highly recommend it. In fact, it should be one of those books you must not miss and should likely be in everyone's collection. After a slow start (for me, only because I didn't know what was coming), it got to where I could not put this book down and sat in one spot reading until I finished.Shalimar the Clown was the husband of Boonyi Noman, who was a Pandit dancer in a small village of Kashmir (where the novel's core takes place, beginning in the 1960s). Max Ophuls, who wance served in the French Resistance against the Nazis, and who moved up the ladder of power in the United States ultimately serving as the American Ambassador to India during the time of Indira Ghandi. To be very brief, a whirlwind of power politicking brings Max, his wife Peggy and the entourage to Kashmir, where Max, in a nostalgic moment, has arranged for a traditional dance to be done by the Pandit actors and dancers. The lead dancer is Boonyi, who had to settle for her marriage to Shalimar earlier, and while she loves him, knows that she's only got one chance in life, and judging by the look on the face of the American Ambassador watching her dance, knows that this is it. She decides to go off with Max, and in doing so, as the author notes on page 194, "...that was how ic came about that a faithless wife from the village of the bhand pather beggan to influence, to complicate and even so shape, American diplomatic activity regarding the vexed matter of Kashmir." It is with Max's murder on the doorstep of his daughter India's apartment that the novel begins; and throughout the story we learn of a single-minded obsession on the part of Shalimar to avenge the wrong that was done to him. What sets this book apart is the look at the politics & circumstances of the demise of Kashmir, from the points of view of the villagers, the "freedom" fighters, the resistance, the generals. It is a marvelous insight to the forces that shaped Taliban and extremist rule, and the violence which shapes our world even now. Give it a read and go slowly; it is truly a book you'll want to savor.
    • 3/5
      Very different for Rushdie. American setting. More real. Still hot-button issues.