After years of side stepping his books, I finally settled on this short story collection to become better acquainted with Mr. Rushdie. Though very much aware of him since the eighties, I must admit that I have never had it clear in my mind if it was his notoriety or his status as an author that piqued my curiosity. I would rather think it was the latter, of course, and dismiss any notion that I am as easily swayed by the scandal press as any tabloid subscriber. Whatever the case may be, let me say in my defense that I only just purchased a couple of his books within the last year, so any case that may be made for my being influenced by a person's simple celebrity would be somewhat tempered by the fact that it's taken over two decades for said influence to have taken any marked effect over me.
East, West is a volume rich in color and filled with several tales on varied themes, some, I might add, quite unexpected. His writing style seems to fluctuate from one story to the next, going from plain storytelling with little embellishment - almost as plain as one might expect in a fable - to erudite analysis and speculation on popular legend. His prose is very elegant and flows gently, and he paints lovely portraits of his characters. At times I found him long winded though, and tiresome. There were a couple of stories that I considered skipping past at the halfway point, but I stuck it out due to their shortness in length. I wonder if perhaps those particular stories were intended for a purely scholarly audience, since their frame of reference seemed to require prior understanding and in depth knowledge of the matter at hand. Regardless, I have walked away with a pleasant impression of Mr. Rushdie and I look forward to reading one of his novels.
Read from May 23 to 28, 2013
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