Ok- so I thought I'd wait until I'd read and/or listened to more of both these authors, but what the heck. As for Rushdie- I've learned that if you're a world famous author you don't have grab your reader from the first page. You can meander around the first chapter and describe all the neighbors without saying much if you're a world famous author. IF, IF you then deliver a really compelling story. I'm not through listening to "Shalimar the Clown" yet, but I'm good and hooked. And he pops back and forth through a fifty year period like a yo-yo, but it works. However, I'm not a genius, so I need simpler stories. Still, I see the horizon.
With Eco, I learn that you can put in all sorts of obscure but fascinating details like he does of mythical beasts, fables, myths and heresies if you have a firm and relentless grasp on your story and characters at the same time.
Discipline and boldness, plus a flare for myths, that is compelling to me. Mythology was the first thing that really grabbed my interest as a teenager.
They must be good because neither of these men are really sympathetic to their female characters. And this is something that I usually don't like. But in their case, so far it's okay.
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I think it was Emerson, or maybe Thoreau who said something along the lines that if you can see the horizon, you won't get tired.
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