This may be the first novel I've read by Rushdie, and surprisingly, the storytelling never grabbed me. I read the whole thing, every last word. I slogged through all the unfamiliar words and proper nouns of a made up time and place (many, many, many of such difficult words). Victory City reads like an ancient text, but of course, it's not, but maybe that's the point? Long live Pampa Kampana...