The Golden House

Despite laughing out loud more than I have with any other book, dnf. Do people HAVE to be weird to be interesting? I don't think so...

This was strangely my first Rushdie novel and clearly will not be the last. So many aspects of the modern life - be it political, personal, questions of identity, social are a part of the narrative and seamlessly done. Initially, it took me some time to get into it as the story telling is a little slanting, nothing is hit directly, but, once I got into it, I found it hard to put down.
I would definitely recommend the book to anyone interested in family relationships and their dynamics.

I usually don't mind Rushdie, but for some reason I just couldn't get on with this book. I thought it might have something to do with the narrator or the source material (although I have started reading the Brothers Karamazov and much prefer it), but I thought it was a fine example of the kind of lit fic that went out of fashion due to alienating readers by being overblown and pretentiously intellectual. To me, modern litfic is accessible to readers who don't have a comprehensive knowledge of obscure lit, cinema and culture. I also didn't appreciate what I saw as the token autistic video games programmer and the miserable gender fluid person. If you are going to introduce these characters, for the sake of all that is decenct explore them in a meaningful, fresh way. Two stars is a harsh rating from me, but it ends up reserved for books that waste their potential, because that is what makes me angry, when underneath all the intellectual posturing and failing characters is a better book waiting to emerge.

DNF @ 33% I think I was too ambitious to dive into this lofty, and dare I say, pretentious novel with 3 small children demanding every minute of my time. I'll have to stick to thrillers and YA for the next few years. Your time will come Mr. Rushdie.