The Satanic Verses: A Novel

published	February 4th 2000 by Picador
binding	Paperback
isbn	0312270828 (isbn13: 9780312270827)
pages	576
literary awards	1988 Booker Prize Nominee, Whitbread Prize Winner
description	No book in modern times has matched the uproar sparked by Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which earned its author a death sentence. Furor ...more [close] No book in modern times has matched the uproar sparked by Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which earned its author a death sentence. Furor aside, it is a marvelously erudite study of good and evil, a feast of language served up by a writer at the height of his powers, and a rollicking comic fable. The book begins with two Indians, Gibreel Farishta ("for fifteen years the biggest star in the history of the Indian movies") and Saladin Chamcha, a Bombay expatriate returning from his first visit to his homeland in 15 years, plummeting from the sky after the explosion of their jetliner, and proceeds through a series of metamorphoses, dreams and revelations. Rushdie's powers of invention are astonishing in this Whitbread Prize winner. [close]
date added	12-18-06 edit book

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Max rated it:

06/27/07

Read in January, 2005

Occasionally, I will go into Half Price Books and buy a book that hasn't been recommended by any one I know, by an author I've never read before, solely because of its "critical acclaim." I buy and read a book because I feel that I should, based on the general public's reaction to it.

It is a weakness.

Many months ago, I decided to buy Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. My decision was based on the controversy surrounding the book. It was thought to be so controversial, so bl...more Occasionally, I will go into Half Price Books and buy a book that hasn't been recommended by any one I know, by an author I've never read before, solely because of its "critical acclaim." I buy and read a book because I feel that I should, based on the general public's reaction to it.

It is a weakness.

Many months ago, I decided to buy Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. My decision was based on the controversy surrounding the book. It was thought to be so controversial, so blasphemous, that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa on Salman Rushdie. It became every Muslim's sacred duty to hunt down this writer of fiction and kill him. So I thought (these were the days long before the reaction to Danish comics) wow, this book pissed off people enough that they want to kill him? Wow. I must read this book. It's gotta be good.

That's what controversy does. It brings a lot of attention to something that doesn't always merit the attention.
So, when I bought Rushdie's book, I fell for the hype. Partly because it was a subject that I did have an interest in. I'm an amateur theologian, and I can't find better amusement than blasphemy. Besides that, I love Magic Realism and this book had plenty of that.

What this book did not have plenty of was editing. This book was in serious need of an editor. There were parts that were more thrilling and exciting, but overall, the writing of the book was bland and uninspired for its very interesting subject matter.

Quick Plot Summary: Two Indian ex-patriots, now living in England living very famous lives are on an airplane when it is exploded by terrorists. They survive the explosion and the fall and upon landing begin changing. The garish obnoxious one, gains a halo, becoming the arch-angel Gabreel and the prim and proper other one gains horns and goat legs. The devil's story is his reintroduction into society and the angel's story is through his dreams, he inspires the prophet Mohammad. Everything culminates into a showdown between these two entities.

But along the way, nothing happens. We have pages and pages of unnecessary background information. And then, we have more pages and pages of unnecessary background information. We keep getting filled with pages and pages of unnecessary background information. Suddenly, we're faced with a book that is much larger, and more importantly, much drier than it should be. It really does have the basis for a great story. Wonderful things happen in this book that everyone should read, but it's not worth getting through all the unnecessary to get there.

I've never taken so long to read a book. Usually, I read a book when I want to and usually that's all the time. This book, I only read in great spurts when I was sitting and waiting. I read a bunch when I was sitting and waiting at a debate tournament. I read a bunch while I was sitting and waiting monitoring my students testing. I read a bunch while I was sitting and waiting in the bathtub for my health to return. Never was there a point when I wanted to pick up this book because it was interesting and I couldn't wait to get back to the story.

As big a fan of magic realism as I am, I was disappointed. If you're looking for a Muslim centric magic realism story that uses a lot of the same story telling techniques that Rushdie uses, I recommend a far superior story done by a far superior writer: Farnoosh Moshiri's At the Wall of the Almighty. ...less

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1 comments

Stanka rated it:

12/10/07

Read in December, 2007

I'm doing my best not to think "Here goes Rushdie again." I never read this one before although I read every other book he ever wrote. And now, to fill the gap, I am stuck with the last unread jewel, except that it's somehow lackluster because Salman doesn't age or accumulate well. I mean, the more you read him the more he sounds the same. And has this ever happened to you: that you discover in a writer just a wisp of too much wit and it's wit that bores you?
Yes, I'm reading on, with...more I'm doing my best not to think "Here goes Rushdie again." I never read this one before although I read every other book he ever wrote. And now, to fill the gap, I am stuck with the last unread jewel, except that it's somehow lackluster because Salman doesn't age or accumulate well. I mean, the more you read him the more he sounds the same. And has this ever happened to you: that you discover in a writer just a wisp of too much wit and it's wit that bores you?
Yes, I'm reading on, with strange compulsive patience that some readers acquire... Maybe we think, it'll get better or it'll reach a moment when all the nonsense will have become justified.
And then, there is the miserable expository didactic style. You don't believe me? Ok, how about this: "Now, however, change had begun to feel painful; the arteries of the possible had begun to harden."
Arteries of the possible?!? No, really, is that writing?
Or this: "...she had no confidence at all, and every moment she spent in the world was full of panic, so she smiled and smiled and maybe once a week she locked the door and shook and felt like a husk, like an empty peanut-shell, a monkey without a nut."
A monkey without a nut? Now how exactly do you imagine such a character? And is she a husk or a monkey... Or is it both?
Amendment, if you'll allow me: finally, I reached the end and must say, almost despite myself, that it is worth the effort. What happens? Various disconnected and initially confusing strands of the story come together, more or less. There is, in any case, a feeling of wholeness and an idea that seems to animate it. And it is in this "main" idea that I recognize Rushdie and realize that he has always been faithful to himself. I think he tries, here as elsewhere, to address the question of faith, but in a sense much broader than the mere religious one. What does it mean to believe something so strongly that the fiction comes to be real or reality is denied and becomes a miracle? This question matters as much to literature as it does to religion and here the two overlap. This I find to be a very powerful achievement of The Satanic Verses: to ask you when and how you believe and what the consequences of that belief may be... Or when and how you don't believe and what the consequences of that unbelief may be... So my favorite aspect of the book: the steady, intricate focus on fiction -- its reality and its delusions....less

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5 comments

George rated it:

04/29/08

Read in April, 2008

I actually ended up reading the last third of this book twice -- once by myself, and once out loud to my wife while on a long car trip. It was in that second reading that I really came to appreciate just how brilliant a storyteller Rushdie is -- I don't mean the clever jokes, the "catch 'em if you can" allusions, but the gift for writing a flowing, intoxicating story. In my opinion, this is a book that was meant to be read aloud, or "told." As one of the other reviewers here ...more I actually ended up reading the last third of this book twice -- once by myself, and once out loud to my wife while on a long car trip. It was in that second reading that I really came to appreciate just how brilliant a storyteller Rushdie is -- I don't mean the clever jokes, the "catch 'em if you can" allusions, but the gift for writing a flowing, intoxicating story. In my opinion, this is a book that was meant to be read aloud, or "told." As one of the other reviewers here mentioned, it is not a book that can be read in fits and starts -- if you try to read just a few pages at a time, you quickly become lost. As for the subject matter itself -- I thought the strongest parts of the book were concerned with the ideas of immigration, racism, and identity. His analysis of assimilation and integration is still a timely discussion, as it would have been pretty much any time over the last two hundred years (writing as an American). Chamcha struggles to become English, while Gibreel is unwilling to make any attempt, and for much of the book, you can't help but feel that Gibreel is on the right track. In the events surrounding the Granny Ripper, we are given an almost archetypal story that has been repeated throughout history. Rushdie seems equally damning of the people like Chamcha who are willing to forsake their identities to conform, and the societies that refuse to accept these people, even when they have given up everything to fit in. At times, the book reads like true satire, with a strong sense of humor mixed with just the right level of bitterness. The religious aspects are, to me, a diversion that have diluted the effect of the book by usurping any discussion surrounding it. I won't deny that religion (at least the issues of faith and truth) comprises a sizable portion of the book -- or that the treatment it does receive is certainly controversial, and could easily be construed as offensive -- but, unlike most people who've read the book probably believe, religion is not the entirety of the discussion. ...less

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