Ormus, a musical genius, was born rather unexpected. His twin brother is stillborn and Ormus himself was not expected. On the very same day, his father wants to hit a cricket ball towards a group of hecklers, but hits one of his other sons, also a twin, instead. Family life is - as is to be expected - difficult. One son is forever damaged by the blow to the head and his twin (who later becomes a serial killer) tries to choke Ormus with a pillow because he can't stand to hear him sing. It is only years later that Ormus turns back to music after this.
Vina has a difficult childhood of her own. She lives for a few years in Chickaboom, NY (which is as bad as it sounds), with her mother, step father and her sisters. Her birth father one day up and left the family for another man. Vina's mother kills the entire family and herself, save from Vina. The girl gets passed on to other families and after a short stint with her father ends up in Bombay.
Ormus and Vina meet and fall in love. Unfortunately, their paths lead them in different directions - Vina to New York, Ormus to England. He ends up in a coma after a car accident and it is Vina's voice that gets him out of it. From New York they start their run of success with the band VTO.
The world the entire story takes place in is similar to ours, but not quite the same. There is another world (with is very much like the 'real' world we know), that Ormus can see into ever since losing the eyesight in his left eye in the aforementioned car accident. There is a tear in the fabric between the two worlds and he can be in both, depending on whether or not he wears his eye patch.
He himself describes the slight differences between 'ourworld' and 'otherworld' like this:
I told you, he answers, feeling the onset of the weary blues. The same only different. John Kennedy got shot eight years ago. Don't laugh, Nixon's President. East Pakistan recently seceded from the union. Refugees, guerrillas, genocide, all of that. And the British aren't in Indochina, imagine that but the war's there all right even if the places have different names. I don't know how many universes there are but probably that damn war's in every one. And Dow Chemicals and napalm bombs. Two, four, six eight, no more naphthene palmitate - they've got another name for that too, but it burns little girls' skins the same way. Naptate.His encounters with this otherworld and his otherworldly lover Maria influence his musical genius and his way of life.
VTO eventually disband and the private relationship with Vina has been a difficult one from the start. She tries to make it as a solo artist. To start her new career, she goes on a small tour to South America. The world is plagued with a series of earthquakes at the time and one of them claims her life. The Ground Beneath Her Feet literally swallows her up.
Her death leads to spontaneous gatherings of VTO's fans in venues they played in and forces countries to declare official days of mourning. Ormus himself falls apart after her death. He starts taking drugs and stalking impersonators until he finds Mira, who sounds like Vina and dresses up like her, as well. With her, he starts a new - if shortlived - version of VTO.
He seems old beyond his years and secludes himself from the world. Eventually, he gets shot by a mysterious perpetrator (Vina? an impersonator? someone else entirely?) while outside for a strall.
In my lifetime, the love of Ormus and Vina is as close as I've come to a knowledge of the mythic, the overweening, the divine. Now that they've gone, the high drama's over. What remains is ordinary human life.
8/10
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