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Salman Rushdie

T

Token_BS_Name

New Member
I only discovered this man a few months ago when I got haroon and the sea of story streams (I always get the title wrong). Since then I've gone on to read East West, Satanic Verses, and am presently pecking away at The Ground Beneath her Feet.
Most of the time when I really enjoy a book, at some level my enjoyment comes from identifying with the author and thinking "I could have written that, I know just what you mean". With Rushdie, however, it is almost like looking at an intricate painting, knowing I could never have finished such a work, and smiling out of sheer awe. This is particularily true for me with Haroon... but to a lesser degree with all of the others also. Any thoughts on Mr. Rushdie?

Michael (token)
 
I have only read Midnight Children and loved it. I'd like to read some more. Do you think Haroon is the best, then?
 
I don't know if I would say Haroun is the best of what I've read. Satanic Verses was honestly an amazing piece of work. Both of them are really amazing in their own ways. Haroun is probably what I recomend reading first, just because it's such a quick and easy book, it really leaves you wanting more. Verses is kind of daunting. As I say, I'm just in the midst of a Rushdie craze, so there's still a lot I haven't read, but I do plan on digging deeper into his works. Both Verses and Haroun are a really interesting mix of real world and fantasy, is Midnight's Children like that also? What's Midnight's Children like? Or any of his other works, for that matter.

-M.
 
Midnight children

It has everything: it is moving, tragic, funny, written in beautiful language, magic, history and politics. It’s the story of two children who are born at midnight, at the precise moment the partition of India comes into place. The children’s parents are a rich Muslim couple and a poor Hindi one, but they are swapped at the hospital by someone who thinks she is carrying out some sort of mistaken social justice. All children bought at that particular time are magic and have special powers. The story is told by Saleem, the child raised by the rich family. I don’t know if I told you enough to make you want to read it but I am afraid of giving too much away and spoiling it for you.
 
Yeah, I definately want to read it. I'm happy you mentioned the beautiful language; it's hard to talk about Mr. Rushdie without acknowledging just how beautiful his words are. I think the thing I like most about his writing is how beautifully he can present something that is, and comes across as, ugly. If that makes sense; re-reading that sentince even I think I might be talking nonsense. If I were Salman I could likely express my ideas better.
The Ground Beneath Her Feet gets better and better each day. I'm really fighting to not fly through it.

-Michael
 
I read and liked both Satanic Verses and The Ground Beneath Her Feet. I agree about the language; I think he is one of the best authors of literary fiction writing today. It's a pity that Satanic Verses was made so famous because of the fatwa (basically, a price put on Rushdie's head) and his "inflamatory" remarks in the book about Islam. People don't realize that the book is so much bigger than that.
 
My first Rushdie experience was with Midnight's Children; after that, I read Haroun and the Sea of Stories and The Ground Beneath Her Feet almost at the same time. I have to agree about the language: he plays with language very skilfully and uses his background to weave a rich tapestry with aspects of traditional and modern culture. I like the way his novels straddle two (or more) different ways of life. I just finished Fury which is a relatively shorter novel set mostly in America. It wasn't as enjoyable (personal opinion) as MC but it was a good read nevertheless. For a while, we couldn't find Satanic Verses on the shelves here, but recently, I found a copy in one library - so I'm looking forward to that.
Haroun is definitely the most accessible of the lot, but there's so many allusions and references to storytelling and culture - not to forget the language play - that it more than makes up for its thin physical aspect.
 
KristoCat said:
I read and liked both Satanic Verses and The Ground Beneath Her Feet. I agree about the language; I think he is one of the best authors of literary fiction writing today. It's a pity that Satanic Verses was made so famous because of the fatwa (basically, a price put on Rushdie's head) and his "inflamatory" remarks in the book about Islam. People don't realize that the book is so much bigger than that.
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I read Satanic Verses too and thought it was wonderful; the pop culture puns, the blending of history in a plausible fashion, an almost mocking parallel of Lennon. I didn't see why people were having such a fit over it. Then I realized I'v never been Islamic and couldn't begin to understand from where they were coming from. Controversy always sells.
 
I have heard so much about this author that I must add him to my TBR list but which book should I start with? Satanic Verses is the book I've heard the most about, is that where I should start though?
 
I just finished Fury, and my first impression was damn I like his writing! It is my first Rushdie, and I enjoyed it tremendously. I particularly liked the way he talked about the dot com way of doing business - how the Prof got his second start with the Galileo One website. Good insight. The book might could have been retitled "The world in Context", by Salman Rushdie. :)

I will definitely read more of him.

I've first heard of Rushdie when the fatwa was issued. I was young and I remember thinking it was incredible to want to kill someone because of a book. But the Satanic Verses is banned where I come from, but I'll try and lay my hands on it someway or another, I suppose.

ds
 
Salman's Rushdie "The Moor's last Sight"

I just bought a book by Rushdie, "The moor's last sight". I scanned this forum for Rushdie and saw that actually his other works appear here - "Midnight Children" and "Satan Verses".
Did anybody read "The moor's last sight"? Is it as good as those above?
 
I read "The Moor's Last Sigh" quite a few years ago and thought it was great, though perhaps not quite on a level with the other two. Definitely well worth reading, especially if you're into Rushdie's magic realism style.
 
I've read Midnight's Children and know what you mean about identifying with authors.

What I found with Rushdie was that I could identify many of the characters and events and imagine the event happening to or around me. Not so much "I could have written that" but "That could have happened to me". Such as when he is caught being a christain, muslim and hindu - you can say oh I can imagine going along with things and it ends up like that or, the episode with "the sheet".

Except the telepathic powers - now those would be handy
 
Just ordered The Satanic Verses off of amazon, hopefully it will be here by the middle of next week. I've been doing some homework in the meantime. Interestingly enough, Rushdie has been keeping busy. He got into some trouble by stating publicly that it was his opinion that veils suck. On top of that, he's landed a plum university teaching job at Emory University. The Wikipedia page opn the book is quite interesting, especially regarding the early incorporated, then expunged, verses Rushdie titled the book after.
 
Rushdie

Token_BS_Name said:
Satanic Verses was honestly an amazing piece of work.

-M.
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Guys, most of you agree that Salman Rushdie is great. But I struggle with the Satanic Verses and I hate the book and I hate myself. In order to peace myself, I stopped reading this stupid book at home and now I read it only in a public transport on my way to work and back home. Every day I count how many pages are still there left to be read. Unfortunately, I am also still stuck with the Rushdie's "The Moor last sigh". I hate it too. I was somewhere in the middle hoping that in the next page, or a next chapter, something will suddenly start being interesting. But now with the Satanic Verses I see that I should not punish myself with Rushdie anymore. Boooooring! Give such book as a present to people you hate. They will suffer:D
 
Hate is a strong emotion. I would reserve my hate for someone who really deserves it, not a guy who wrote a book I didn't like. But hey, if it's any consolation, there are plenty of other people who hate Rushdie too. That's why he's still in hiding...
 
beer good said:
Hate is a strong emotion. I would reserve my hate for someone who really deserves it, not a guy who wrote a book I didn't like. But hey, if it's any consolation, there are plenty of other people who hate Rushdie too. That's why he's still in hiding...
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You are right, Beer Good, - hate is a strong emotion. I do not hate Rushdie for the reason that others hate him. I do not mind his views on religion. I mind just a boring writing. And unfortunately, I am now stuck with two of his books - I am somewhere at the end of "Satanic Verses" and somewhere in the middle of the "The Moor's last sigh". The Moor I will probably give up, or just skip directly to the last page. It is my little revenge for boring writers ;)
 
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