The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman RushdieMy rating: 3.25 of 5 stars
A long generational saga from India that begins during the colonial rule through the painful split into the 1990s. The Zogoiby family are wealthy Christian spice merchants. And there’s a lot of family drama. Everyone is a bit crazy. The narrator is called Moor, born as the last child eight years after his three sisters, who were born in quick succession. His mother Aurora is indeed a bright star, a famous painter who married at age 15 to a man her father’s age, and Abraham happened to be Jewish. Of course that was a problem. He takes over the family business and turns it into an empire.
The book is well written, sometimes humorous, and very witty. I did not like the book. I wanted to quit reading nearly the entire time. But it’s Rushdie and I never have read a book of his, and this one I’ve had sitting on my shelf for way too many years. So I pushed myself to read it through. I guess I’m happy to have finished, to have not wondered how the book ends, but as the rest of it, a bit ridiculous and odd.
There are many who have tagged this book as magical realism and it is a type of book that I typically don’t enjoy, but the “magical” aspect found here is not heavily handed. Some of the characters see things that aren’t there, but then just about everyone is a little bit crazy too, so it does match their character.
I’m not going to rush out and read another Rushdie book anytime soon.
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