The novel is set in a parallel universe, as revealed in the second half of the book. Sisodia from The Satanic Verses (1988), and Aurora Zogoiby from The Moor's Last Sigh (1995), as well as settings such as Warden Road and Everest Villas. Rushdie re-introduces characters from his previous novels, including Homi Catrack and William Methwold from Midnight's Children (1981), S.S. The song was used in the 2000 film The Million Dollar Hotel, and the promotional music video featured Rushdie in a cameo appearance. The lyrics to the song, with minor changes, were adapted and recorded by U2. The title is taken from a song in the novel, composed by Ormus Cama after Vina's death.

Defined by Toni Morrison as 'a global novel', the book sets itself in the wide frame of Western and post-colonial culture, through the multilingualism of its characters, the mixture of East and West and the great number of references that span from Greek mythology, European philosophy and contemporaries such as Milan Kundera and the stars of rock'n roll. The book, while at its core detailing the love of two men, Ormus Cama and Umeed 'Rai' Merchant (the narrator of the story), for the same woman, Vina Apsara, provides a background and alternate history to the entire 1950s–1990s period of the growth of rock music. The myth works as a red thread from which the author sometimes strays, but to which he attaches an endless series of references. Published in 1999, it is a variation on the Orpheus/Eurydice myth, with rock music replacing Orpheus's lyre. George Steiner, for instance, called The Ground Beneath Her Feet 'retro in every sense of the word' because it required 'a lot of reading to achieve what those geniuses achieved earlier and better.' This is relatively mild compared to the denunciation delivered.The Ground Beneath Her Feet is Salman Rushdie's sixth novel. More recently, however, literary critics in India and in the United States have offered some strong opinions about weaknesses in his work. In Rushdie's case, given the controversial nature of his work and the number of political figures (Ayatollah Kohmeini, Indira Gandhi, Bal Thackeray) who have attacked him, critical reactions have been primarily aimed at the ideological component of his writing, or in the case of some British writers (Roald Dahl, John le Carre, Germaine Greer) at supposed defects in his character.

When an author achieves international acclaim, there is bound to be a counterreaction to the general chorus of praise.

The ground beneath her feet rushdie