Cyrus, Cyrus [Paperback]

Adam Zameenzad (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 1991

Born a Choodah, lowest of out-caste Indians, Cyrus is marked out by his sexual profligacy, supernatural intelligence and by the sign of the devil on his back. Following the deaths of members of his family, Cyrus escapes to the West and embarks on a series of fantastical adventures.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Extravagantly imaginative and acidly satiric, this epic novel by Pakistani writer Zameenzad is sure to invite comparisons with the works of Salman Rushdie. Its hero, Cyrus Cyrus, is so utterly disenfranchised that he has no real surname, and merely repeats his given name when asked to identify himself. Convicted of the murders of three children (two of them his own), he narrates an autobiography teeming with "images of sex and survival, death and after-death, madness and genius" from his prison cell in Britain--where his three consecutive life sentences are supernaturally commuted. In the manner of classic confessions, Cyrus's opus begins with his birth (in India, to the most untouchable of the untouchables). It continues with the series of cataclysms that chase him from country to country, continent to continent and, finally, to hell, where he successfully matches wits with the officials. All is related with a lustrous black humor that counterpoints the unforgiving indictment of justice, religion and society: for the disinherited, reality is as grotesque as a vision of hell. Zameenzad, who lives in Britain, is the author of three previous novels, of which only one ( The Thirteenth House ) has been published here . Surely this brilliant work will incite demand for more.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Minerva (October 3, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749399155
• ISBN-13: 978-0749399153
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,870,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Worth Your Time, September 17, 2009

By 

Feo T. "A published author . . . or I will be... (Probably shouldn't add this) - See all my reviews

Having read a long string of books that told me exactly what philosophical point to agree with and what item to stick up what orifice if I didn't, I was almost refreshed to find that this book is in a deliberately opaque style, allowing the reader to ignore its ideas and focus on the story if they so wish. Unfortunately, the story isn't much to speak of, and one gets the impression it was written purely as a vehicle for the philosophy presented. That philosophy is at once maddeningly vague, with its constant but never-quite-explained insistence that facts and truth are opposite, and painfully stupid, with what is comprehensible arguing that the sexual dynamic is unbalanced in favor of females and that fixing that dynamic will fix all the world's problems (including rape, which according to the author happens as a result of men trying to prove their own equality!) For honesty's sake, I'll admit I gave up before finishing the book--but having lasted long after the scene where the main character gets eaten by a tiger and marries the devil in another dimension, I daresay I strained my patience farther than was necessary.