Were it not for the digressions into post-modernist chic, I might be able to give a more resounding endorsement. Nevertheless, Levy did successfully acquaint the reader with the common court precedents for blasphemy in British law, while furnishing modern examples such as the 1976 blasphemy trial of a homosexual poet. Though the traditional branding, mutilation, and execution of blasphemers has stopped in modern-day Britain, Levy points out that the Anglican Church has argued for an extension of the outmoded blasphemy laws to other religions in the wake of the Rushdie affair. Rather than forego the Church of England's privileged status altogether, the Archbishop of Canterbury proposed the use of government coercion to protect all flights of lunatic fancy from their deserved ridicule. Needless to say, the lack of separation of Church and State in Europe, and the diluted freedom of speech provided by speech codes (e.g. laws against the expression of unpopular speech, such as Holocaust denial) surely constitute an important area of debate as far as the limitations of freedom. At present, the only US equivalent I can think of is the attempts to mold hate crimes legislation. Though certainly justice demands proper sanctions for those who violate the rights of others, this acts to punish criminals on the basis of their beliefs rather than actions. What next? Love crimes legislation that reduce a person's sentence if the jury thought they were acting for a more socially acceptable cause?

I assume from the first reviewer of this book that he hates to admit that evil has been done in the name of Christianity. He has a hard time seeing it done today, because we have a seperation of church and state. Look, this book may come as a shock to many Christian readers, but these are facts we can't deny. For example, America is a beautiful country, but in our history there is racism (KKK), the Civil War and the brutal murder of gay student, Matt Shepard. The same goes true for any other organization/country. What ever has done good, has done bad too.

This book provides a very detailed, factual account of people being killed in the name of Christianity from it's inception up to the present. You read about mennonites (anabaptists) getting executed by Protestants and Catholics, Jews being stripped of their Civil Rights, and everyone else who didn't take Jesus as their saviour. It is truly sick and stupid that the laws in those days prosecuted someone just because of a difference of opinion, espeically religious. How gruesome and brutal were Christians to people who differed with them on an opinion? Well, picture you are a Muslim, and preaching the Koran on the streets of England. First the government burns your books, since they are not pro-Christian. Second, you get whipped over 300 times until you have no flesh on your body. Third offense, you will get your tongue cut off, a "B" burned into your skin for "blasphemer", exiled or executed. Isn't that a good reason, and why our founding fathers established a seperation between church and state?

This is a good book, though very long. But, hey it's a history book, right?

The first novel written by the now famed Anglo-Indic writer, Grimus is an amazingly simple story of immortals' quest for mortality. For a simple plot, it boasts very intriguing and playful sub-plots, typical of Salman Rushdie.

The central character in the story is Flapping Eagle, an Amerindian. Orphaned by the time he was a child, he was brought up by his sister, whom he looked up to and to whom he finally lost his virginity when he turned 21. Flapping Eagle eventually set out from his small town Calf Island, becoming first a gigolo and later a sailor, roaming the seas for hundreds of years as an immortal before eventually marooning back the Calf Island, where most of the story unravels.

In the Island, he is hosted by Virgil Jones, another immortal. Eventually, the two become best of friends in their climb towards uncovering the secrets of the Calf Mountain. They settle at town called K, inhabited by other immortals and this would be where the wonderful sub-plots of violence, romance, lust and betrayal take place.

Weaved within this sub-plots, is the Grimus and his effect; An effect which would weaken and cloud the minds of the immortals and could only be nullified by an obsessive or strong thought of something. It is to Grimus, that Flapping Eagle's quest would bring him.

Although Flapping Eagle is the protagonist in this masterpiece, he rarely articulates more than necessary. In fact, his character is often overshadowed by other characters as the story opens.

I never fully understood the Gorfs and their role in this some might say, science fiction. They were the higher beings who supposedly invented machines which were used by humans.

The finale was as down to earth as the beginning was mysterious. Grimus, who was the grand architect of the Calf Island, was eventually killed by the immortal townsfolks. Flapping Eagle, I think, eventually destroyed Calf Island by destroying the machine, which created it.

I had difficulty understanding the book at first, but it all made sense as I passed the middle of the book. A simple plot yet very much full of scientific fantasy and humanly follies, this book is good for a reader new to Rushdie's oeuvre. His later works would be far more monumental in literary technique, more magical in plot.

There are few living writers that gain immediate recognition as true artists in their time, along side Pynchon, DeLillo, and perhaps Vonnegut, is Salman Rushdie. Before The Satanic Verses and before the fatwa there was Grimus.

The first impression of this book, gleaned from the initial 50 or so pages is that we are face to face with an unrefined Rushdie. His penchant for dabbling in mythology, spirituality, canonical literal echoes, and Joycean word play are on full display. Being his first book, I was surprised that someone would pick up such chaotic prose as an author's debut. But trusting the author, I stuck it out. I'm glad I did.

Our protagonist, Flapping Eagle'who also goes by the names Born-From-Dead and Joe-Sue in the first handful of pages'essentially has been given the "gift" of eternal life. Staying the same age for hundreds of years, Flapping Eagle decides he no longer wants to live, but to finally die a mortal's death. He has to go to Calf Island and ascend Calf Mountain to meet Grimus, much like a mythological Wizard of Oz. That's the premise.

Along the way, Flapping Eagle befriends Virgil Jones and his lady, Dolores O'Toole. The disfigured couple are the first clue that something is dreadfully wrong on Calf Island. Jones the obese is with O'Toole the humpback. The two really are remarkable and Rushdie gets lots of mileage from the two, creating a sympathy for them that never ventures into pity.

A host of characters and themes are introduced, mythology has served Rushdie well and one gets the impression that Joseph Campbell would have enjoyed the playfulness and overlapping of Native American and Asian-Indian concepts. As we grip this overlap, Rushdie sends Flapping Eagle to find Grimus with Virgil Jones as his guide, echoing Danté.

Details quickly pile up and the writing veers in unforeseen directions. Any balance that we grasped in the first chapter is taken away in the second. The only thing that kept me reading was trust in the author. Lost as I was, I knew I was being taken on a voyage by a master, who, in his first novel, was clearly establishing himself as a master.

As obtuse as the second chapter was, then, the third chapter was very, very clear. Seemingly meaningless details from hundreds of pages prior came to make sense. Interruptions in the story, now had their place. Masks were removed. Tales were told. Resolution came into focus.

Reading Grimus is, in some respects, like putting together a puzzle. The first chapter involves turning all of the pieces face up so we see what we have to work with. The second chapter relies on our powers of observation to not only look at the pieces but, at least try to fit them together. The third chapter leaves us with about 50 pieces left of a well-defined picture and we can race to the finish line, putting everything in place. In the end, you should have seen it all along.

The greatest praise I can heap on this book is this: Rushdie teaches us how to read it. Like every great master, Rushdie has the ability to take us out of our own world, disorient us, and reorient us in a way that is not unsettling, but engaging. In the end, we feel smarter and more open minded.

Grimus should really, in hindsight especially, get a lot more attention than it does. Rarely does a writer enter the scene so accomplished and well rounded as Rushdie does with this work. Although it is his first, it certainly is better than some of his other fares, and that alone should sell you on this book.

This novel is unsettling, in the way that the short stories of Borges or Poe can be unsettling, but the increased length is matched by an increased degree. This reality, in which assorted characters pursue their perversities and obsessions, has melted a bit around the edges. The mystery and suspense elements keep it an interesting read. The integration of an extremely peculiar epistemology as a key plot element is clever, and not at all strained, as is so often the case when a book tries to deal with Big Ideas. The book is certainly not as well-polished and engaging as Rushdie's later works, but it is just as thought-provoking.

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, recent émigré to New York, a middle-aged man fleeing his past life and loves and trapped in an internal argument with his own emotions, living with alcohol and gaps in his memory.

And for the first ninety pages of this book, this portrait of the Professor and his observations about the various ills of the American culture is all we get. There is no action. There is little explication of his earlier life. There are a large number of very facile remarks about the culture, the economy, the generation gap, political non-competence, about the true rulers of the world. And we are treated to the first cornerstone of Rushdie's theme, Solanka's uncontrolled personal fury, striking out at himself and innocent by-standers.

If this was all there was to the book, yet another look at a marginally psychotic, conflicted individual, it really wouldn't have been worth reading. Rushdie is too good a writer to fall into that trap, however, and having gotten in his licks at the American culture as he sees it, the real story can now begin. Starting with a rather unusual affair with the queen of a group gen-Xers, we are treated to an exploration of the mental effects of incest and gather some additional insight into the items that helped formed Solanka's character and his current problems. Unfortunately, incest is treated here as an absolute evil, with no exploration of alternative cultural modalities and relative levels of sin, things which would have improved the point of this section. As an outgrowth of this affair, the Professor is inspired to start a new project, and interactive web-based science fiction story.

As a story-within-a-story, this is no better than grade B pulp from the fifties. As an allegory for later events in the book and as another model for his theme, it serves a significant purpose, and it is quite believable that such a story would become immensely popular, putting the Professor back in the limelight and in contact with people from his earlier life. Here we finally get to look at the whole man, and even if it is not a very pretty picture, it is at least comprehensible.

The last section of the book is yet another level of allegory, forcefully stating in yet one more way Rushdie's theme of fury being the driving force behind creativity, murder, heroes and cowards, world domination and the battle of the sexes.

Rushdie peppers his prose with multiple literary, personality, and event references. While most of the time such references add to the content and ambience of the story, there are places here where I felt it was overdone, to where I felt that Rushdie was showing off, rather than trying to advance or add to the story. Characterization for anyone except Solanka is very sketchy, and occasionally there are characters introduced, given a fair amount of development space, and then effectively dropped from the story.

The various levels of story and allegory bounce against each other, giving more depth to this book than would otherwise have been present, but at the same time I found most of it too obvious, on par with Rushdie's too easy observations and criticisms of American culture, with a net feeling of skating on a lake, thinking the ice is all there is, when the real depth is there below your feet, if you could just get to it. As it is, this story's potential excellence remains locked below the ice, and we are left with the mild entertainment of skating in circles and figure-eights.

I started this book expecting the greatness that I had found in The Satanic Verese and Midnight's Children (both of which I actually finished unlike a lot of people who enjoy bashing them without actually getting past the first page). Rushdie is a master of style. He entertains by using unconventional punctuation and diction. He uses present day allusions on every page to weave a metaphorical tale. In Fury he develops a weak character in order to clearly define his weaknesss. The novel is a study of human character, of the emotions and ideas that drive people to do what they do. The plot is, as always, a labyrinth, but is really quite simple compared to Rushdie's other work. This book is not for everyone...hell, it may not be for anyone except Rushdie. That's why his works are so great, he writes things in a ways he understands. If you miss his allusions or metaphors, it's not going to make him feel bad...it's your loss. If you want a quick introduction to Rushdie I suggest you pick up Fury. If you want a book for an enjoyable read as you hop on a plane for your next business trip stick to Clancy and Steele.

"Fury" was my first encounter of a Salman Rushdie novel, and I was very impressed. This my friends, is great contemporary literature!

The novel is a multi leveled incursion into the life of a middle aged creative soul who is tormented by his past, trying to find salvation in the complex post modern world. You are put on a journey of exploring human relationships in and out of marriage, in and out of friendships and in and out of reality.

The story unfolds more like a web site than a traditional chronological history in written form. The reader is transported with the main character, Malik Solanka, throughout different parts of his life in the same manner as hitting links on a web page but always coming back to the home page of his present life.

On these web pages structured as literature, you will find mystery, science fiction, love, politics, social commentary, anguish, murder, sexual tension and many surprises, all in the quest of finding the authentic Self.

I also enjoyed the play and examination of the modern American (Western) culture, its hold on materialism and the quest for fame and power all the while being juxtaposed against the backdrop of traditional (Eastern) culture in India.

For me, "Fury" was a great introduction to Salman Rushdie and I look forward to stepping into the lives of his earlier works to again find his magic with the written word.