Fury
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Even before it published, Salman Rushdie's novel Fury was the subject of controversy. Holland's literary community was livid that a novel written by a non-Dutch writer was funded by their government. Rushdie watchers will spend column inches playing "spot the unmistakable biographical references": the main character Malik Solanka is a 55-year-old Indian professor; he later comes to live in England and flees to New York, leaving his wife and young son; in America, he falls for the beautiful Neela, clearly modelled on Rushdie's partner. However, tempting as it may be to focus on the circumstances of a book, rather than the text alone, ultimately it is the prose that must speak for itself.
The Fury of the title refers both to the mid-life rage of the protagonist, who finds himself standing over his sleeping wife and son armed with a kitchen knife, and the mythological furies who tore to pieces those men whom the gods had judged. As in his previous novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet, he explores the relationship of the artist to his creation and to his audience. Solanka--Cambridge philosopher, doll-maker and possible serial killer--is the unlikely and unwilling creator of a pop-culture phenomenon that comes to represent everything he despises about modern cultural malaise. He is a part-creator of a culture he hardly understands--an anachronism. The novelist's prose reflects this alienation, but unfortunately with few insights or pleasures for the reader used to his contemporary mythological lyricism. Rushdie's pop references check-list the late 20th-century US from Clinton to OJ to the World Wide Web, and this, combined with their built-in obsolescence, renders Solanka/Rushdie's narrative strained. The urban culture of New York and Webspeak provide rich seams of traditional and new vocabularies and grammar for this most magpie-like of playful language lovers to line his literary nest with. However, in so doing, he cuts himself off from the emotional intensity and drive, combined with layered cultural complexity, that has distinguished his work, the most celebrated being Midnight's Children. Rushdie at his best is an intriguing writer; ultimately, it may be easier to extract him from the media circus that surrounds him than from the comparisons with his own compelling body of work. --Fiona Buckland --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
'Both a howl of rage and a love letter...Rushdie is a very great novelist - our greatest' Guardian; 'He writes like an angel: an erudite, playful, imaginative, wildly intelligent angel' Ruth Padel, Financial Times
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a huge Rushdie fan, I came to read Fury with high expectations, and I was not disappointed. Although the novel may lack what has become thought of as the 'traditional Rushdie style', in other words, a lively and compelling tale of relationships, contrasts between East and West and a wild array of exciting and inspiring characters, Fury should be appreciated for these differences and not blindly shunned at first glance.
Instead of becoming entwined with characters and their actions, in the novel we instead become enveloped in that most volatile of emotions, fury. The protagonist, Milak Solanka, is almost completely overtaken by his own fury and the novel deals, often in the most covert of ways, with his attempts to deal not with others and outside events, but with himself.
Compelling, undeniably interesting, almost too clever for its own good yet ultimately enjoyable, Fury is certainly one of the best books published in the last year. If it were by anyone other than the great Rushdie it would be heralded as a work of genius.
Give it a chance, throw away your preconceptions of what a Rushdie novel should be, and take Fury for the fantastic novel that it is.
Instead of becoming entwined with characters and their actions, in the novel we instead become enveloped in that most volatile of emotions, fury. The protagonist, Milak Solanka, is almost completely overtaken by his own fury and the novel deals, often in the most covert of ways, with his attempts to deal not with others and outside events, but with himself.
Compelling, undeniably interesting, almost too clever for its own good yet ultimately enjoyable, Fury is certainly one of the best books published in the last year. If it were by anyone other than the great Rushdie it would be heralded as a work of genius.
Give it a chance, throw away your preconceptions of what a Rushdie novel should be, and take Fury for the fantastic novel that it is.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
For what is supposed to be a personal novel, "Fury" comes across as a book populated by authors other than Salman Rushdie. It just doesn't read like he's put any effort in at all, it is fast yet curiously devoid of any real emotion. Like a Frankenstein's monster whose stitches are coming apart, the book feels like a rag bag of different elements, none of which have a soul of their own
Lots of passages read like bad impersonations of great American writers. Rushdie is not Philip Roth so why try to borrow his bilious cynical style? He cannot get under the skin of New York so why try to be Paul Auster or Don Delillo? All the way through you wish for those writers to be writing this book, not Rushdie. This is a shame because he is normally such a mercurial writer. In "Fury" however he seems to top even Bret Easton Ellis for vapid contemporary references. What makes this even worse is the smug tone to it all. It seems to think that it is very clever when it sounds more like a man bragging in a bar.
For me, one particular passage sums up this messy novel. A back story about one of the characters (Eric [?] the jock boyfriend) is written in the pared down style of Raymond Carver and Richard Ford. The story is very reminiscent of both writers and the characters surnames are Ford and Carver. I think you are supposed to think this is clever and ironic but it sounds like showing off.
Rushdie is so much better than this,so much so that "Fury" feels like a bit of a cheat. Maybe this book was a way of getting something off his chest before embarking on a major work. I hope so
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the second Rushdie book I have read, and despite almost being put off the author by his self absorbed attitude, my faith has been renewed. Fury is an excellent book with some fantasic 'one liners' which really made you sit upright and think. His ability to stike a chord with the readers own life experience is amazing, even though the plot is far fetched, relevancy is still maintained. A great read - and I feel a slight sense of loss that closing the book waves goodbye to the main character.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
not my favourite Rushdie
Fury is Salman Rushdie's 8th novel. Professor Malik Solanka, historian and doll-maker, is living in New York, alone, voluntarily celibate, angry and afraid. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Cloggie Downunder
A master of the storytelling art
Perhaps the greatest modern writer serves up a flourish of literary prowess and snobbery all injected with the usual lucid expression of the keenly observed. Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2009 by G. C. Brown
My First Rushdie Novel!!!
A really enjoyable read!!! From the beginning Rushdie's narration is driven from the perpective of his protagnist Malik Solanka(a philosopher cum popular dollmaker) a character,... Read more
Published on 4 July 2007 by Soprano2099
Its Rushdie, therefore it is brilliant
This is Salman Rushdie's most autobiographical novel. It is also his most readable. Fury tells the story of Cambridge Philosopher turned legendary doll maker Malik Solanka who is... Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2007 by Sam J. Ruddock
More like mildly annoying
I suppose it was worth reading, it keeps bumping along, but there are way too many loose ends in Fury to make it thoroughly recommendedable. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2006 by 2cleverbyhalf
Make sure you've got a dictionary
As a Salman Rushdie fan I thoroughly enjoyed this book as its filled with his trademark very amusing anecdotes on society and people. Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2003 by Elizabeth Taylor
The Doll-Man Cometh
This novel consists of the thoughts, impressions, and actions of one Professor Malik Solanka, rich and marginally famous from his invention and marketing of the Little Brain dolls,... Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2002 by Patrick Shepherd
Not his best, yet........
As a big Rushdie fan, I came to read Fury with high hopes and these were certainly not dashed. Rather than the overwhelmingly character-based and lovable epic of 'The Ground... Read more
Published on 3 Oct 2002 by "littlejeni"
An intelligent and entertaining read if you stick with it!
This was my first Rushdie novel and I was relieved to find that it was a great read.
I must admit my initial impression was that the novel was pretentious and inaccessible. Read more
Published on 3 Oct 2002
An enjoyable and unfairly criticised work
Although perhaps not up to the standard of his previous novels "Midnight's Children", "Shame" or "The Moor's Last Sigh" (which also received a fair... Read more
Published on 11 July 2002 by "paellataffy"
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