Shalimar the Clown

The most poignant moment in the book, for me, comes from Olga Volga the potato witch. "As to myself," she says, "I live today neither in this world nor the last, neither in America nor Astrakhan" (9). Seemingly irrelevant, this conversation with Olga Volga is tinted with loss, with exile. She goes on to say that she lives "in the country of lost happiness and peace, the place of mislaid calm." Rushdie seems to have taken special care when crafting these few short lines. It seems almost as if he is speaking in his own voice. Rushdie himself is no stranger to exile, both personally and politically. He has walked around with a death sentence hanging over his head since the late 80's and is the given reason for the British breaking political ties with the Iranians.

-- Ian Herman