Shalimar the Clown

By: Salman Rushdie

Narrated by: Aasif Mandvi

Length: 18 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

From Salman Rushdie, New York Times best-selling author, Booker Prize-winner, and one of the great voices in contemporary literature, comes a majestic novel that solidifies the author's right to a Nobel Prize, which Kirkus Reviews says "he deserves more than any other living writer".

When Maximilian Ophuls is murdered outside his daughter's home by his Kashmiri Muslim driver, it appears to be a political killing. Ophuls is the former U.S. ambassador to India and America's leading figure in counter-terrorism. But there is much more to Ophuls and his assassin, a mysterious man calling himself "Shalimar the Clown", than meets the eye. One woman is at the center of their shared history, a history of betrayal and deception that moves from World War II Europe to the troubled Kashmir region to contemporary America.

Rushdie effortlessly weaves a series of interconnected narratives to form a sweeping and ambitious tale, at once timeless and startlingly modern, that reaches back through the years and across the continents.

©2005 Salman Rushdie (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

• 2005 Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award, Fiction

"Shalimar the Clown is a powerful parable about the willing and unwilling subversion of multiculturalism." (Publishers Weekly)
"If Rushdie cannot make you see and smell and feel the loveliness of life in Kashmir, he does, finally, make a commanding story of its loss." (The New York Times Book Review)
"A masterly deployment of interconnected narratives spanning six decades....Dazzling....A magical-realist masterpiece." (Kirkus Reviews)
"A cogent descriptor of Rushdie's sheer and magnificent talent. His beautifully metaphoric language and sly sense of humor keep his complex plot, with its layers of personal and cosmic meaning, tightly woven." (Booklist)

Loved it

What did you love best about Shalimar the Clown?

Aasif Mandvi brought Rushdie's book alive. Having already read many of Rushdie's books I was reticent to listen to one thinking it would not have the same feeling. I was happy to find that Mandvi was an addition to the telling. The story has all the best of a Rushdie story, humor, irony, history and human drama told with wit and insight. It is the one audio book I have listened to more then once. If Mandvi narrated all his books I would purchase them all again in audio format just here him read them.

Amazing

While it took me a couple chapters to get into, and an initial fear of the length of the book, but once invested the hours flew by and I could go for another 18 hours

Rushdie’s Return to India

What did you love best about Shalimar the Clown?

The writing. I thought the prose was excellent.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Probably the Iron Mullah – he’s an excellent caricature. The title character was also very well done.

Have you listened to any of Aasif Mandvi’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, I haven't.

If you could take any character from Shalimar the Clown out to dinner, who would it be and why?

I'd have to go with India Ophuls.

Any additional comments?

This is the first Rushdie book that I have either read or listened to and I was highly impressed with his writing. Also, the slow transformation of the title character into a terrorist was handled very well.

very disappointing

There are so many things wrong with this book that I'm having problems organizing which to talk about first. There is no climax. There's lots of death and killing and what should be acction, but no actual climax. I don't care one way or another about any of these people either. All the characters are the same. They speak in the same unnatural- for either Americans or Brits- way. They all seem to suffer from the same sorts of fatalism. The only character who seemed genuine was a minor actor who was shallow and unlikeable, but at least he was real. There's also a lot of loose ends. I understand that you can't make on-going geo-political problems wrap up nicely, but something could end. Anything would have been helpful. Finally, as someone studying the law I can say without reservation that the most important courtroom scene would never have happened. Finally, I'm not into magical realism. If you are, this won't bother you, but I dislike fortune telling and telepathy being set out as a part of the real world in which we all live lives free from such weird happenings.

I hated this book

After hearing so much about Salmon Rushdi, I thought I would get this book. But I regret doing so. The book is wordy, repetitive, and self-aggrandizing. I felt that rather than actually telling his story, he wanted to impress the reader with all he knows about the religious, cultural and historical aspects of this region - which is substantial. He knows a great deal, but much of what he writes is to make sure his audience knows how much he knows. The reader does a good job - uses many accents from various countries that he makes believable. But I found the book to be brutal and bogged down in details that don't add much to the story. If you are thinking about this book, I wouldn't waste the money.

Slow Plot

I am in a third of the way into this and am about to give up. I have just not gotten into the characters and all of the background history. Keeping the characters straight is difficult. There is almost no dialog and the plot is very slow paced.

contrived and tedious

I have to dissent from the majority opinion. I found both major and minor characters completely lacking in interest, and Rushdie never really lets you view inside their heads or peer into their souls. Amb. Ophals is a multinational Renaissance Man (he's rich! he's handsome! he's charming! He holds degrees in economics and law! and multiple passports! oh, and he paints like Matisse!) who happens to be a scoundrel where women are concerned, but his character is one-dimensional throughout, and the alleged charm & intellect never quite come through. His affinity for India and the Kashmir issue materializes out of nowhere, simply becoming another addition to his stellar resume. One day he is running the affairs of Europe, the next day he is advising Indira Gandhi on how to run HER country. His daughter, also named India, is likewise lacking in depth and sympathy: her first thought upon seeing her father's bleeding body is to worry about the mess the housekeeper will have to clean. Where critics see a wonderful multicultural allegories, I just see contrived and random events all of which serve to underscore that Ophals can't keep it in his pants. If you're looking for a great read and a love poem to India, I'd highly recommend, instead, Shantaram, which is also available on Audible.

Didn't know it was sexual and crude

What disappointed you about Shalimar the Clown?

After 33 minutes of listening, I turned it off because I'm not interested in the crude, sexual references ("Do you take it in the ass?") and I can only guess that it continues throughout the book. The description of the book should include the highly sexualized nature of the character, India, and the kind of language that is used. I'm listening to this in my office at work and it's just not something I want coming out of my speakers, plus, it's just not what I was expecting or that I wanted to listen to.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Never got there.

Any additional comments?

There is probably a very good story here and no doubt Salman Rushdie is a talented wordsmith but I had no idea his writing, or at least this book, was sexually explicit. Just not what I was looking for and now my monthly subscription fee has been wasted.

Just couldn't get into it

I restarted this book 3 times and got "lost" each time. I usually listen while exercising and that may have distracted me but the story of Shalimar as a child was confusing and weird. I never finished the book. I wouldn't bother to download this.