Title: Shalimar the Clown
Author: Salman Rushdie
Context: Shalimar the Clown (2005) is a post colonial novel by Salman Rushdie. The novel derives its name from the Shalimar Gardens located in the vicinity of Srinagar, Kashmir, India. Around four years were taken by Salman Rushdie to write the novel. The story is about one of the makers of the modern world and a counterterrorism chief, named Maximilian Ophuls.
Synopsis: Max Ophuls is a character born in a Jewish family at Strasbourg and completed his education in Paris. Max is known to be a traveler, a raconteur, a polyglot cosmopolitan and an adventurer. Maximilian Ophuls has a mysterious figure as his driver who is called Shalimar the clown. He is his Muslim driver from Kashmir who is also the subsequent killer. Maximilian Ophuls has an illegitimate daughter India. There is a woman who links them and reveals everything which explains it all finally.
This epic narrative Shalimar the Clown moves to Kashmir, France and England from California and returns back again to California. All through the story there are stories of demons luring princesses from their houses. Besides this there are legends of kings who have no choice but to protect their kingdoms from evil. Love is also explained as mortally dangerous, uncommonly beautiful, gained and lost.
Other works by the Author:
Novels (Fiction)
1975 – Grimus
1981 – Midnight’s Children
1983 – Shame
1988 – The Satanic Versus
1995 – The Moor’s Last Sigh
1999 – The Ground Beneath Her Feet
2001 – Fury
2008 – The Enchantress of Florence
2015 – Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
2017 – The Golden House
2019 – Quichotte
Collections
1994 – East, West
1997 – Mirrorwork: 50 Years of Indian Writing 1947-1997
2008 – The Best American Short Stories
Children’s Books
1990 – Haroun and the Sea of Stories
2010 – Luka and the Fire of Life
Essays and Nonfiction
1987 – The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey
1990 – In Good Faith
1992 – Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981-1991
1992 – The Wizard of Oz: BFI Film Classics
1998 – Mohandas Gandhi
1999 – Imagine There is No Heaven
2002 – Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction
2004 – The East is Blue
2009 – A fine pickle
2012 – In the South
2012 – Joseph Anton: A Memoir