Rating: 
Summary: Fun and irony
Review: Rushdie's imagination is boundless, as is his knowledge; he wraps you in cultural or political events, ancient or recent, at a cadence that makes you gasp for breath every so often. He is at home in the Eastern and the Western world, in plate tectonics and vulcanism as well as in the pop music culture and Tequila production, just to give you a few examples. Hence my advice: Read this book in a quiet corner in quiet moments - it's worth concentrating on or you might miss a lot of the fun.The tale reminds me of a jungle painting by Rousseau - linguistic leaves and buds sprout everywhere, vines climb and extend in every direction in an incredibly dense profusion, stems, trunks and branches interweave in several layers both horizontally and vertically. As the narrator is a photographer it helps if you have a visual memory, for Rushdie often alludes to pictures that have become part of humanity's heritage, such as an LP jacket of the Beatles and photographs from the Vietnam war. Rushdie is a master of word games, of which this example: The name of the promoter of the lead singers of the band that is at the center of the plot is Yul Singh (You'll sing?); his associates carry significant names like Will Singh, Kant Singh, Gota Singh, Singh Singh, etc. Rushdie is witty, he is hilarious and sometimes ironic to the point of sarcasm and he lets his hero express his atheism in disrespectful words that may not be to everybody's taste. At some points I had the impression that Rushdie is so enamored of his writing style that he neglects to move the plot forward. But then all of a sudden the story picks up speed again and the firework sparkles anew. A thoroughly enjoyable book indeed!
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Summary: Dynamic! Its not just about rock, its about us
Review: This book is brilliant. Maybe rock and roll is the vehicle for this novel, but the voyage is about a whole lot of other things, things which touch all of us. And perhaps what we glean from the novel says more about us than about the "actual" content of the novel. Rushdie's ability to poignantly and evocatively discuss issues of identity and belonging in the context of place, culture, and religion is amazing. As a somewhat disconnected Sotuh Asian, Rushdie's work always sings to me, and no more so than in Ground.
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Summary: Give Rushdie a break!
Review: Many people who contributed reviews for this book don't seem to be real Rushdie fans, or they wouldn't complain about A. its length B. the way Rushdie goes on and on or C. that this is a light book for him. It's about rock n roll for christsake-and his sprawling treatment of it typifies the history of the music. This is-forgive me-a groundbreaking work, riffing not only on the rock arena, but skillfully delving into the art world of the 80s and Andy Warhol's universe. It's also worth noting that for an American, this book goes down much easier than other books because it's our history, not India's, he's using. Highly recommneded for Salmon virgins.
Rating: 
Summary: A good first read
Review: This was my first Rushdie novel and I must say that it hooked me. Being a photography student I was able to relate to Rai's need to photograph and have found myself feeling the same emotions. The love Ormus had for Vina and his devotion to her was touching if not odd. I found the Vina to be a complex and completely engaging character and marveled at the ability of Rushdie to totaly engulf the reader. I was barely able to put the book down and though I loved the ending, I was sad when it was done.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best works of current fiction I've read
Review: Sometimes Salman Rushdie's books are, I must confess, a bit obscure. Unless you were a comp. lit. major & also understand Indian & Muslim politics. I have no doubt that those books are "great" but they are a hard read if you want to really follow all the allusions. The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a much more accessible work that shows Rushdie's brilliance without overwhelming the reader with obscure allusions (it does, of course, help to be well read in some of the classics & in Indian history, however). Two aspects of Rushdie's strengths are most manifest -- his ability to write beautiful sentences and his ability to intertwine multiple plots together into a beautiful, elegant & coherent whole. And, of course, the book has an intoxicating ryhthm -- which goes with one of its themes -- the music of 2 of its 3 protagonists -- that keeps the reader wanting to go on, to learn more about the misadventures of the characters. I recommend this book highly. Don't be put off by any experiences you've had with other works by this author.
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Summary: It's only Rock n Roll but I write it
Review: "The Ulysses of Rock and Roll", trumpets one reviewer on the dust jacket. Maybe. I can't think of any other decent contenders for that title. Certainly Rushdie has not let his fans down if what they were hoping for was for him to sustain his reputation for daring inventiveness and great writing.This novel is the story of a rock star couple, in the vein of Ike and Tina Turner (though later on with the reclusive lifestyle of Michael Jackson), told from the perspective of a friend (and sometime lover) photographer. The settings span India (of course), England and the US; the themes include music (naturally), mysticism, insanity and loyalty. Oh, and seismology - the earthquake is ever-present, warning the reader that nothing is to be relied on, that the ground can give way beneath you at any point. Without giving away too much of the plot, the book is set in what science fiction writers would call a parallel universe, where Simon and Garfunkel are women, where Bill Clinton never makes it to the presidential candidacy (due to the premature discovery of certain extramarital liaisons), and England joins the Vietnam conflict. All the settings are beautifully portrayed, but the greatest literary trick that Rushdie uses is to use real people - mostly rock stars - as characters. U2 put in an appearance (a group called Vox Pop - referring to Bono's full name, Bono Vox, and their mid-90s album Pop) as "a promising Irish quartet"; Andy Warhol is there, with Basquiat, Lou Reed and the rest of the crowd; David Bowie is the "thin guy from England" ; and so on. The rock fan will have a lot of fun looking out for the others. The honour of most prominent real person, though, goes bizarrely to Brian Eno, portrayed as himself (a music engineer). Amazing. In a case of art imitating art, U2 have written material using lyrics from the book. The songs, in turn, are in the soundtrack to the Wim Wenders movie Million Dollar Hotel. And Rushdie goes on to feature as a character in the spy thriller The Hit List, by (real life) former British special forces operative Chris Ryan. Multimedia indeed. Where will it end? I don't care. This is great fun, and brilliant writing to boot.
Rating: 
Summary: Out of control.
Review: Although I have loved other Rushdie novels and admired their complexities, I found this novel disappointing on a number of levels, not least of which is its clumsiness in style. Rushdie here veers from narrative to philosophical exposition, and even polemic, sometimes within the same paragraph. He appears to distance himself not only from his characters but also from his readers. The reader is jarred to no purpose when the narrative, which already switches back and forth in time and location, is interrupted yet again for turgid philosophical ramblings which do nothing to advance the plot and seem to serve primarily to give the illusion of depth to a shallow, too-long story. At times the author patronizes both the reader and his characters: "Doorman Shetty doesn't know it, but he's echoing Plato. This is what the great philosopher has Phaedrus say in the Symposiums's first speech about love...." Two pages of philosophy follow. In the conclusion of the book, when it is necessary to tie up the loose ends, the author devotes many pages to "telling about" the action, rather than recreating it and allowing the reader to draw his/her own conclusions. In case we have missed the many parallels he has made between his characters and the classical myths, he summarizes them for us. In the final two chapters, he also shifts the focus, startlingly, to the narrator, rather than keeping it on the two characters who have been the center(s) of the novel. And even on the last page, the author feels it necessary to explain, even providing us with the unifying theme of the book, should we need it: "In my lifetime, the love of Ormus and Vina is as close as I've come to a knowledge of the mythic, the overweening, the divine. Now that they've gone, the high drama's over. What remains is ordinary human life." The delights of this book, and there are many, are so deeply hidden in verbiage and in the exaltation of theme that this reader, at least, got tired of the shrieking and longed for a simple song.
Rating: 
Summary: Still waiting for the Big One
Review: On the back cover, one reviewer was quoted as calling this novel "the best thing ever written about rock and roll." So with lofty expectations I purchased it, setting myself up for disappointment. It seems hardly to be about rock and roll at all. It's more about Salman Rushdie rewriting history to fulfill his own perverse fantasies cloaked vaguely in the guise of a rewriting of the myth of Orpheus. The idea of the world's greatest rock band coming from India, the place of Rushdie's origins, is farfetched to begin with. The original song lyrics fall flat without the music to support them. (It's a little too demanding on the reader's imagination in that way.) The overuse of puns and "clever" wordplay begins to feel, I don't know, nerdy?, not to mention annoying. There is also a lot of unnecessary background information thrown in -- like Rushdie is trying to impress the reader with all his knowledge and worldliness. I found it difficult to embrace any of the characters, and found myself mostly unmoved by the story, until the very end with the introduction of the Vina-like Mira character. But by that time it was too late to salvage my feelings of disappointment for the novel as a whole.
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Summary: salman does it again
Review: I looked forward to this book, was not disappointed, he's outdone himself, fascinating, moving, exciting, what can i say. read it!
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Summary: Finally... it has been written...
Review: I didn't think it would come to this... but I need to rave about this book! Rushdie has captured in his beautiful re-telling of the myth of Orpheus the heartbeat of the post-millenium - a world beside all possible worlds and one waiting to be born, where no 'ground' is 'safe' and yearning and love are the true bookends of life. Distinctions and duelisms are irrelevent in the world of Ormus and Vina and, like life, their story keep cycling back into each other as our real stories continue to flood into one truer fiction that is life - its all here folks! I am haunted by this one and well-worth working through. Easier to 'get into' than 'Midnight's Children' and Rock-n-Roll will never win you a Booker like the birth of post-colonial India... but I feel that when we look back, it be will *this* novel that shows the dissolving of East/West, High/Low culture, and all ideological wars in the face of love (yes... it sounds kitsche...but it is also true!)that he will be known for - maybe not taught in post-grad lit courses... but people will understand this - heck, songs are being written for goodness sake - Art begetting art. And besides... VTO is the coolest fictional band since Spinal Tap bar none! Go... stop working at your dead-end job... order the book now and reflect on things eternal for a change! A no-risk read if ever there was one.
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