The Ground Beneath Her Feet

The Ground Beneath Her Feet
source
Name	The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Author	Salman Rushdie
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Novel, Magical Realism, Alternative History
Publisher	Jonathan Cape
Pub date	1999
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	480
Isbn	0-224-04060-6

The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a 1999 novel by Salman Rushdie that interweaves alternative history, love story, and mythic reimagining of 20th-century popular culture. Framed as a narrative by the fictionalized Orpheus-figure Vina Apsara and narrated by the character Ravi Anand, the book blends references to real-world figures such as Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Maria Callas, and institutions like Warner Bros., Columbia Records, and Rolling Stone. Rushdie's prose conflates the lives of fictional rock stars with events linked to World War II, the Kashmir conflict, and the rise of globalization.

Plot

The novel's plot follows the intertwined lives of two Anglo-Indian protagonists, the charismatic guitarist and songwriter Ormus Cama and the narrator and photographer Ravi Anand, as they navigate fame, exile, and loss across cities such as Mumbai, London, and New York City. Ormus partners musically with the enigmatic singer Vina Apsara to form a band whose meteoric rise parallels the careers of icons like Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and The Rolling Stones; their songs are framed as having seismic cultural effects akin to the impact of Beatlemania and the Woodstock era. Interlaced are scenes that echo episodes from the lives of public figures such as Frank Sinatra, Mick Jagger, Aretha Franklin, and Pablo Picasso, while the narrative is punctuated by historical set pieces referencing events like the Suez Crisis and the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Tragedy unfolds through personal betrayals, political violence, and a catastrophic plane crash reminiscent of disasters involving celebrities such as Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly, culminating in reflection on art's capacity to remap identity.

Themes and motifs

Rushdie explores themes of love, myth-making, exile, and the transformative power of song, invoking mythic traditions from Greek mythology alongside modern cultural icons such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Charlie Parker. Motifs of sound, earthquake imagery, and catalogues of famous events recur, connecting references to entities like BBC, MTV, NME, The New York Times, and Time (magazine) with mythic allusion to Orpheus and Eurydice. The novel interrogates identity through allusions to postcolonial figures and institutions such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, Partition of India and global diasporas centered in cities like Calcutta and Karachi. Rushdie juxtaposes celebrity culture embodied by Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson with political turbulence exemplified by mentions of Fidel Castro, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher, asking how fame reshapes historical memory and myth.

Characters

Principal characters include the narrator Ravi Anand, whose perspective echoes the memoiristic gaze of biographers like Albert Goldbarth; the magnetic songwriter Ormus Cama, styled as an icon comparable to Elvis Presley and John Lennon; and the singer Vina Apsara, whose mythic presence recalls figures such as Maria Callas and Nina Simone. Supporting figures evoke a cast of cultural archetypes: managers and producers named with nods to the practices of London Records and Atlantic Records, journalists resembling contributors to Melody Maker and Billboard (magazine), and political actors whose shadows evoke Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. Secondary characters include band members and lovers whose trajectories parallel the careers of musicians like George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Kurt Cobain, and industry figures akin to Berry Gordy and Ahmet Ertegun.

Publication and composition

Published by Jonathan Cape in 1999, the novel followed Rushdie's earlier works such as Midnight's Children, The Satanic Verses, and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Composition drew on Rushdie's long-standing engagement with global pop culture, mythology, and postcolonial history; interviews and essays from the author around the novel referenced influences ranging from Luigi Pirandello and Gabriel García Márquez to the historiographies of Eric Hobsbawm and Edward Said. The book's release occurred amid controversies that surrounded Rushdie in the 1980s and 1990s involving figures like Ayatollah Khomeini and institutions such as Penguin Books and sparked discussions in publications including The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. Critical reception invoked comparisons to novels by Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Mann, and Jorge Luis Borges, while sales and prize nominations placed it in conversation with contemporary works by Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Arundhati Roy.

Adaptations and cultural impact

The novel inspired a range of adaptations and cultural echoes: a song by U2 with lyrics credited to Rushdie, cinematic interest from filmmakers associated with studios like Universal Pictures and Focus Features, and theatrical readings staged at venues such as Royal Albert Hall and Lincoln Center. Its intertextual mapping of music and myth influenced academic studies in departments at Harvard University, University of Oxford, and Columbia University and informed scholarship in journals like Modern Fiction Studies and PMLA. The book's blending of celebrity and geopolitics has been cited in analyses alongside works by Don DeLillo and Thomas Pynchon, and referenced in documentaries about rock and roll history and postcolonial literature broadcast on networks such as BBC Two and PBS. Its cultural footprint remains visible in curricula at institutions including New York University and London School of Economics and in exhibitions at museums like the Victoria and Albert Museum that explore intersections of music, identity, and modern myth.

Category:Novels by Salman Rushdie