Rating: 
Summary: The Exterminating Angels
Review: I am sorry to say that this is not Rushdie's best work, however it could turn out to be my favorite. The manner in which Rushdie deals with the theme of exile is liberalized to include other 'outcasts,' not neccessarily of geographic and cultural dispalacement. Next, I think the novel succeeds in presenting the various kinds of love. It's not neccessarily l'amour fou that triumphs--it does in the figures of Vina and Ormus, the exterminating angels of the tale--but it's the more ordinary, flawed love that survives to tell the tale.The Ground Beneath Her Feet sounds like a transitional novel for the author. There are several instances in which the characters say their farewell to their 'imaginary homeland.' Rushdie's looking westward now. As a character in the novel claims, the East also exoticizes the West. The way Rushdie's says his farewell is with humor and an array of associations in mythlogy, high and low arts. The film critic Manny Farber distinguishes between two kinds of art, the elephant and the termite. The Ground Beneath Her Feet would be a surreal mutation of both animals--and maybe some others as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Not his best...
Review: First off, I can't speak to the classical allusions, as I'm a complete Philistine. This book didn't transport me the way Rushdie's earlier works did, and I've read them all. The passages on rock music and America just ring hollow. I didn't feel the connection with the characters and immersion in the story that's made me go back to, say, _The Satanic Verses_ again and again. Perhaps, during his period in hiding, he saturated his brain with Thomas Pynchon and David Foster Wallace, as it seems he's made a decided effort to write a maximally huge, sprawling, at times tediously madcap novel replete with hidden, acronymic conspricies. (He even weaves in a bit from "The Crying of Lot 49"!). For me, I'll still take _The Moor's Last Sigh_ and _Midnight's Children_.
Rating: 
Summary: RUSHDIE'S MOST WONDERFUL PERFORMANCE SHAKES THE WORLD
Review: What a fantastic novel. This book is just what readers around the world need. This book puts him on the top with writers who dare to go in a different world than we know. Writers like John Irving, Marques, Vonegut who take risks in writing books that boldly explore another universe where miracles still do happen. Living in a better world where people or still of flesh and blood. This is an marvelous, optimistic book written by a writer on the top of his knowledge. Like in Widow for one Year from John Irving this book has such rich characters they astonish you every bleeding second. This is this years best book for any reader who wants more than just empty bottoms. For all who don't like it, it's a shame but this is by far Rusdie's best work. My heart is filled with great memories after reading this book and although it is sometimes hard, it makes me believe a BETTER WORLD is possible. Thanks Mr. Rusdie, enjoy your life, be happy and keep on giving us such great presents ! Ronald DE SCHRIJVER BELGIUM
Rating: 
Summary: Quite disappointing
Review: Rushdie's editor was sleeping on the job...At 575 pages, this is just way too long...rushdie doesn't break any new ground on this one...the writing is tired, the characters flat and reading the entire book is a just a waste of one's time...Absolutely hollow...I guess he peaked with " Satanic Verses"...since then it's been downhill
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat disappointing
Review: This effort is simply not up to par with "The Satanic Verses," by any means. Much too disjointed and rambling. I was delighted to see another reader below recommend Glenn Kleier's novel, "The Last Day." I quite agree, Kleier is the "Salman Rushdie of Christianity," and his novel is a refreshingly irreverent work that is both shocking and thought provoking, and seems to capture the excitement that Rushdie has lost. Rushdie needs a more assertive editor.
Rating:
Summary: Dense, self-indulgent writing
Review: The book is virtually unreadable, with its very many unconnected stories. The ground beneath the feet of this tale is fast sinking.
Rating:
Summary: An Anarchy of Stories
Review: It was probably obligatory that as soon as Rushdie's book was published it would be tipped for the Booker prize this year. It is sad that a novel nowadays can be sold on the status of its author rather than on what it has to say or how it is written or how well it works.The story falls down in many ways. Its characters have a two-dimensional quality. It is difficult to believe they might be the sort of people actually existing in real life. A boy who suffocates his peers because he was jealous of his brother's singing in childhood. A half-caste girl whose father breaks up her family for another man, whose new father beats her - but this doesn't matter because he and the rest of her family are axe-murdered - and then she is sent away to an Egyptian family and finally becomes an Indian pop star. Could you believe in such people? There is an over-density in the writing. Rushdie is like a child with a blank piece of paper in front of him, on which he writes whatever comes into his mind; and what we end up with is an assorted mish-mash of unconnected stories, linguistic pyrotechnics and various rambling trains of thought. There is no editing, no sense of a clearly constructed plot that is built up through the course of the book, no feeling of any direction. The attitude to the dramas of life, to death and loss, etc, are handled in a quite flippant way, making it still harder to have any empathy with the people involved. It gives the sense that the author does not know how to convey the high and low points of life, does not know how to take control of the reader's feelings, and therefore acts as if it doesn't matter anyway. Indeed, the whole aim of Rushdie appears to be to say that nothing is important. A theme that runs through all his works is that life is based on myth. Reading him, you get the feeling that there are no great causes to believe in. His story-writing makes an anarchy of the world, casually dismissing any social mores or any objective right and wrong. At least in an earlier work like The Satanic Verses he seems to carry this off, to an extent; but here he seems to have run out of steam, and all we have is an anarchy of disconnected writing.
Rating:
Summary: Ok, but. . .
Review: A little long, a little slow, but interesting. I have to say, for a more provocative and entertaining read, I would highly recommend Rushdie's alter ego (the author known as the "Salman Rushdie of Christianity") Glenn Kleier, and his outrageous novel, THE LAST DAY. That one kept me up all night.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!!!!!!!
Review: I never thought someone would modernize my most favorite Greek myth. Sweet, entertaining, and by far the most accessible of all Salman Rushdie's books. I love the symbolism and the literal "re-interpritation of history. Keep your ears peeled for the U2 single!!! I can hardly wait being a really big U2 fan!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: a fantastic novel further proving Rushdie's genius
Review: How lucky we are to have such a brilliant writer like Rushdie. I found this book to be much different than his other work, truly demonstrating the writer's depth and talent. It's long but you'll savor every word.
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