107. Fury – Salmon Rushdie

History: Published in 2001.
Plot: s Fury is about Professor Solanka's Summer of 2000 in New York City. He's come to sort things out after abandoning his wife and young son back in London. He is plagued by feelings of intense anger, triggered by a word here or a word there, which rise up like inner volcanoes and it's all he can do to keep himself in check. Like a roving camera, the narrative follows the 55-year-old Solanka as he walks the mean streets teeming with angry cab drivers and rap-talking stoop-loungers. Solanka has a lot to think about -- he's a celebrity puppeteer whose creation, Little Brain, has become a victim of commercialization. Then there's the failed marriage of his close friend, not to mention his own withering relationship with his wife and son. Solanka bounces like a pinball from one torment to the next. He is an angry, impulsive man; but he is also pitiable and, at book's end, a bit desperate for love and acceptance. Most of the book chronicles Solanka's attempts to fit himself, the odd puzzle piece, into the mosaic of society. He's none too successful ("Something was amiss with the world"), not even in the relationships he strikes up with two women that summer. He has come to America to erase himself: a fury within him, and he fears he has become dangerous to those he loves. He arrives in New York at a time of unprecedented plenty, in the highest hour of America's wealth and power, seeking to "erase" himself. But fury is all around him.
Review: I listened to this book. It was read by Salmon Rushdie himself, and I do admire the way he uses his words, but I couldn’t really get into the story line. It’s about a man in his fifties who has this beautiful wife and wonderful young son, and all these women want him. Probably the authors fantasy. And it’s also about his invention that his sexy girlfriend is using on an island?
Opening Line: “Professor Malik Sulanka, retired history of ideas, irascible dollmaker, and since his fifty-fifth birthday, celibate and solitary by his own (and much criticized) choice, in his silvered years found himself living in a
Closing Line: “I’m bouncing higher and higher!”
Quotes: “To be free of attachment and so also of anger, fear, and pain. Eat me, Professor Solanka silently prayed. Eat me, America, and give me peace.”
Rating: Mediocre.