Grimus

Written by Salman Rushdie

Narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds

After drinking an elixir that bestows immortality upon him, a young Indian named Flapping Eagle spends the next seven hundred years sailing the seas with the blessing-and ultimately the burden-of living forever. Eventually, weary of the sameness of life, he journeys to the mountainous Calf Island to regain his mortality. There he meets other immortals obsessed with their own stasis and sets out to scale the island's peak, from which the mysterious and corrosive Grimus Effect emits. Through a series of thrilling quests and encounters, Flapping Eagle comes face-to-face with the island's creator and unwinds the mysteries of his own humanity. Salman Rushdie's celebrated debut novel remains as powerful and as haunting as when it was first published more than thirty years ago.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781501926228

Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie (Bombay, 1947), es autor de numerosos libros, de entre los que destacan Hijos de la medianoche -que ganó el premio Booker en 1981, el «Booker de los Booker» en 1993 y, en 2008, «el Mejor de los Booker»-, Los versos satánicos, El último suspiro del moro, Joseph Anton y Quijote. Ha sido galardonado con el Grinzane Cavour y el Premio Nacional de las Artes de Estados Unidos, además de otros muchos premios. En 2007, Salman Rushdie fue nombrado Caballero del Imperio Británico por su contribución a la literatura. Miembro de la Royal Society of Literature y Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, y abanderado en la lucha por la libertad de expresión, en 2022 sobrevivió a un ataque sufrido mientras dictaba una conferencia en el estado de Nueva York.

[isabelx_21 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It should be pointed out that Flapping Eagle was averagely kind and good; but he would soon be responsible for a large number of deaths. He was also as sane as the next man, but then the next man was Mr Virgil Jones.

I could have sworn that I read this book back in the year dot when I first acquired it, but apparently not. I must have been thinking of another book altogether, as the plot was all completely new to me and not about a shepherd boy on a quest at all.

This is the story of Flapping Eagle's quest for mortality. Hundreds of years after drinking a liquid that made him immortal, he is bored with life and wants to start ageing again, so he starts looking for the mysterious peddler who gave him the bottle before leaving with his sister. an old acquaintance directs him to an island where immortals go to live when they are tired of living in the ever-changing world of mortal men, but he finds a place of stagnation and fear whose inhabitants live in the past as much as possible.

An interesting story, but for some reason it didn't really appeal, so I'm only giving it six stars.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm always fascinated with first novels: how the author tries so hard to make an impression; the youthful indiscretions; the eccentricities; the fabulous plots. Rushdie's first has all of these and more. It has a story that cannot be summarised easily without recourse to trite and inaccurate cliches, and it is one of the most inventive pieces I've ever seen. I can't wait to read more.

[p_s_patrick · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This being the sixth of Rushdie's novels that I have read, I had already made my mind up that I was going to like it. It is the first one that he wrote, and differs from the other ones I have read in not at all involving India. It has a more science fiction slant than his others, while being roughly identifiable in its magical realism tones consistent in his other works. This is one of the things that I like his books for, though it does not seem to be quite as pronounced here. I wanted to like this book, though I had heard it was his worse one. The story is quite unusual, and may not appeal as readily to those who have enjoyed any of his other works as most of the other ones they have not read would, due to its Sci-Fi, non contemporary setting. I wasn't disappointed to have read it, but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as any of his other books. Many of the things that make his other books so good are present here, but in a lesser quantity. I would not reccommend it readily to a first time Rushdie reader, as it may put them off, unless they were into Science Fiction, (which I am certainly not). The plot is sound, and I was pleased with the ending, but the depth and splendour of imagination found in the Satanic Verses, my favourite so far, was not here.

[ferebend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was Salman Rushdie's first novel and it shows in that it's far less polished than his later works. The plot is a bit confusing at times and the characters are impossible to empathize with, but there's nevertheless an interesting story presented here.

If you're looking for a better example of Rushdie's writing, go for Midnight's children. If you're just a crazy Rushdie fanatic (like me!), then go ahead and read Grimus anyway.