 | This article possibly contains original research. (May 2010) |
 First edition | |
| Author | Salman Rushdie |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy novel/Science Fiction |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
Publication date | 1975 |
| Publication place | Great Britain |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 317 pp |
| ISBN | 0-575-01871-2 |
| OCLC | 1324917 |
| 823 | |
| LC Class | PR6068.U757 G7 1975 |
Grimus is a 1975 fantasy and science fiction novel by Salman Rushdie. It was his literary debut.
The story loosely follows Flapping Eagle, a young Native American man who receives the gift of immortality by drinking a magic fluid. Thereafter, Flapping Eagle wanders the earth for 777 years 7 months and 7 days, searching for his immortal sister and exploring identities before falling through a hole in the Mediterranean Sea. He arrives in a parallel dimension at the mystical Calf Island, where those immortals who have tired of the world but are reluctant to give up their immortality exist in a static community under a subtle and sinister authority.
Published in 1975, Grimus was Salman Rushdie's first published novel. To a large extent it has been disparaged by academic critics; though Peter Kemp's comment is particularly vitriolic, it does give an idea of the novel's initial reception:[1]
- "His first novel, Grimus (1975), a ramshackle surreal saga based on a 12th-century Sufi poem and copiously encrusted with mythic and literary allusion, nosedived into oblivion amid almost universal critical derision."
- ^ "Losing the plot", Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times, 4 April 1999.