The Satanic Verses: A Novel

by Salman Rushdie

book data

6,132 ratings, 3.85 average rating, 718 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		31%
4		35%
3		21%
2		7%
1		3%

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published

February 4th 2000 (first published 1988) by Picador

binding

Paperback, 576 pages

literary awards

Whitbread Award

isbn

0312270828 (isbn13: 9780312270827)

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 aside, ...more

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06/27/07

Max Ostrovsky rated it:

(review of isbn 0670825379)

bookshelves: contemporary, fantasy, fiction

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 cont...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)

Like this review? yes (16 people liked it)

4 comments

09/06/08

Choupette rated it:

bookshelves: 1001-books, own-or-access, to-be-re-read

Read in December, 2008

So here I am, stuck somewhere in that confused adolescent space between like and love. As such, I suspect a two-pronged approach is necessary.

But before that, a comment on the controversy. My main reaction is sadness that such a potentially great work of literature has been overshadowed by this. Why should Rushdie be punished for something that is this good, even if it does have its problems? It irritates me that people read it for the wrong reasons, looking for some juicy bit of sca...more

Like this review? yes (14 people liked it)

17 comments

09/06/07

Stanka rated it:

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, ...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)

Like this review? yes (6 people liked it)

5 comments

07/13/07

Cam Scribner rated it:

Read in February, 2007

At the outset, all that l that I knew about this book was that Iranian clerics had issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death back in the 1980's for 'insulting the Prophet and Islam.' The reason (and this I learned from the book) is an old Islamic legend that Muhammed briefly relaxed his strict monotheism to allow a second goddess in his religion--doing so for self-serving, political reasons, but as usual ascribing the shift to his divine revelations. After he had consolidated power, he reject...more

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12/25/07

Sheba rated it:

I can't really review Rushdie's work. I don't understand everything he writes about. But I do love him because his language and his prose and his stories are just so Indian.

He writes lushly, extravagantly, with story tripping over story, subplot over sub sub plot. Characters tromp through with no regard for their antecedents. The colors are candy pink, good luck red, and Aegean blue, and everything is crashing and tumbling into each other.

And on top, his stories are amusi...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

2 comments

08/27/07

Johanna rated it:

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: Magical Realism Fans, Neil Gaiman fans, studiers and enthusiasts of post-colonial politics

This book is not for the faint of heart. It is overwhelming in terms of plot, imagery, and its large cast of characters. However, it is completely worth it and it flows beautifully once you get in tune with the book. I bought the Satanic Verses when I was 17 and I was not ready for it--I read 15 pages and then put it away. I picked it up again 7 years later and could not put it down.

There is just....so much packed into this book. One would have to read it many many times to get the ...more

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07/02/07

Ben rated it:

Read in July, 2007

People jumping into this book blindly may soon find themselves wishing they had informed themselves somewhat beforehand. I must claim an embarrassing ignorance about just about every aspect of this daunting work at the outset: I had only the faintest whisper of a memory of having heard the phrase "satanic verses" outside of a discussion of the ever-present religiously-sanctioned hit out on the author's life. I had very little knowledge of Indian culture and none regarding the cross-cul...more

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04/26/07

Reshma rated it:

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: those who are intrigued by confusion.

Well, I just finished it. Here's the thing. I made the mistake of reading this book a few pages at a time, spread out over a long time. Not the way to read this book. If you choose to read it, commit to it. Or it will confuse you more.

The "confusion" is not a bad kind of confusion. It's the kind that, after you finish reading the book, makes you want to stand back and smile, wondering how you got suckered into this ride and how you became consumed in it. You can spen...more

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

1 comment

04/24/07

Taylor rated it:

bookshelves: desert-island-picks, favorites, fiction, own, ramble-on, recommended, the-power-of-love, to-reread

Read in January, 2004

recommends it for: those who are not easily daunted.

Here's the thing about this book that you will immediately grasp from what everyone says: it's a beast. I do not mean this in a bad sense. I mean this in the sense that it's overwhelming. It's long, complex (storylines that involve overlapping characters and storylines that don't overlap in time or space at all), dense and occasionally slow. It is not for the reader with ADD. No matter how quickly you think you might read, reading this book will slow you down. No matter how determined you are to...more

Like this review? yes (4 people liked it)

1 comment

02/23/07

Jonna rated it:

bookshelves: mostrecentreads

Read in February, 2007

recommends it for: Someone with a few free days in a row to get engrossed in it.

It's been a long time since I read Midnight's Children, and I forgot what a master of descriptive language Rushdie is. Makes me want to go read all his other works immediately.

Admittedly, I found this to be a super-complex read: all the dream sequences as well as the way the different levels of reality intertwine and even names (Ayesha, for example) and events (the changing of hair to white/silver) occur simultaneously in more than one of the levels of reality took all my powers of c...more

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10/31/08

Beth(MN) rated it:

(review of isbn 0670825379)

bookshelves: 1001-books, 2008, banned-books, eastern-hemisphere, infidelity, literary-fiction, magical-realism, pea-soup

Read in December, 2008

Salman Rushdie is a weird man. Sometimes he would write things like, “…Chamcha was going down head first, in the recommended position for babies entering the birth canal…” and “…Saladin, like a bloody lettuce, I ask you…” and he used a lot of big words I’ve never seen like “orotund” and “obsolescent” and the whole time, I kept thinking, ‘wow, Salman Rushdie made a cameo appearance in the Bridget Jones’s Diary movie and he has funny eyebrows like Jack Nicholson.’...more Salman Rushdie is a weird man. Sometimes he would write things like, “…Chamcha was going down head first, in the recommended position for babies entering the birth canal…” and “…Saladin, like a bloody lettuce, I ask you…” and he used a lot of big words I’ve never seen like “orotund” and “obsolescent” and the whole time, I kept thinking, ‘wow, Salman Rushdie made a cameo appearance in the Bridget Jones’s Diary movie and he has funny eyebrows like Jack Nicholson.’

Um. Right. This book was not an enjoyable read for me. It was dense and too long. I had to force myself to read a little bit every day because I kept picking up other books to read instead of this one. Once I made it past the first 100 pages, it became more interesting but it was still a dredge to read. I thought most of the scenes are way too drawn out. I’d have appreciated this book a whole lot more if the parts that involved Saladin and Chamcha were thinned down by a third and the parts that involved Mahound and his band of merry men and gals was beefier.

So anyway, unless you are a brainiac (and you’re probably not so quit giving yourself airs) and/or are comfortable with several facets of Indian culture and also have a comfortable working knowledge of Islam, you’re setting yourself up for failure if you decide to just sit down and noncommittally read The Satanic Verses. I don’t think that’s possible. I came close to quitting several times but didn’t, thanks largely in part to this: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/anglopho...

The document is almost 100 pages long but the way I see it, if you’re actually going to put forth the commitment to read this dang book with the intention of understanding what the hell is going on, what’s an extra 100 pages? Especially if they’ll actually help you capture and understand some of the non-transparent characters and events that fill this book. It is divided up by chapters. I read the notes before starting each new chapter and referred back as necessary.

Obviously scanning this document while I was reading the book added to the length of time it took to work my way through this book. However, I feel no shame whatsoever in admitting that this book would have been so far beyond my level of comprehension if I hadn’t had the help that I don’t even care.

I'm relieved to be done with this book. (less)

Like this review? yes (2 people liked it)

5 comments

06/26/08

Adam rated it:

Excellent. Maybe not worth a death sentence, but excellent.

Like this review? yes (3 people liked it)

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07/10/07

Radhika rated it:

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: Rushdie fans

I only picked up this book because I wanted to know what the big hullabaloo was about. It was a slog in parts and not Rushdie's best work. And yet, one must acknowledge that the man is definitely a master of his pen. This book is quite ambiguous in many ways and it is likely that the author meant it to be that way.

"Verses" refers not only to the pseudo-Koranic verses which appear in the book, but also to childish rhymes and other words spouted by various characters in ...more

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06/15/07

Victoria rated it:

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: Someone with a lot of patience

I have decided that it's time for me to leave this book. I have tried to stick with it. It jumps around way to much, has too many moments of abstract non-sensical story inserts and I often feel as though I have ADD when I pick it up. I always have to read the last few pages I read the time before in hopes of refreshing myself for the current reading session. Unfortunately because the book is so abstract, new characters constantly appear as if they have been there all along, causing immediate dis...more

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12/10/08

Ellie rated it:

I was massively underwhelmed by this. I have put off and put off reading it, and then I was told by a friend that it was her favourite book, so I thought I'd give it a go, and frankly I wish I hadnt bothered.

I found the writing pretentious, with very little story. It has the potential to be brilliant, as the bones of it is good, but there is so much waffle, rubbish and unnessessary wording that it fast becomes tedious and irritatnig.

That said its made him very rich, so go...more

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05/22/08

Photo Jenny rated it:

I read this ages ago, it seems, and in competition with the dude I was dating (he started earlier, but I had to finish first). Anyway, I was shocked by Rushdie's sense of humor. I dunno, I guess I thought the dude who had a fatwa out on him was probably going to be pretty dour. WRONG! "The Satanic Verses" is a lovely dose of mystic realism or realistic mysticism, along with a great examination of cultural identity, and the things that can go awry when you deny your peoples.

...more

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01/12/09

Whitaker rated it:

(review of isbn 0963270702)

bookshelves: contemporary-fiction

Read in January, 2009

I liked it more than I thought I would. Rushdie is ~~a bit~~ exceedingly heavy-handed with the symbolism (I mean, Indian expatriate who denies his Indian roots turns into the incarnation of evil? Come on!), but makes up for it by his pungent prose. Beware though. If sentences like, "Exit Pimple, weeping, censored, a scrap on a cutting-room floor." or "Here he is neither Mahomet nor MoeHammered; has adopted, instead, the demon-tag the farangis hung around his neck." make you cring...more

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10/16/08

Mike rated it:

(review of isbn 0670825379)

Read in January, 2009

A grand undertaking of a book...

Twenty years after controversy and confusion, I picked this book almost as an obligation, wondering if the publicity was its greatest quality. In fact, on its own, this is, in my opinion, a great novel -- a story which incorporates so many elements all the while never neglecting one or making any feel superfluous.

Politics, religion, family, good and evil, love, hate -- all these elements intertwine but never step on each other, making "...more

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09/24/08

Lokee rated it:

Generally speaking, the plot is simple. It is about two Indian Muslims traveling to England. Their plane is hijacked and explodes over the English Channel(almost but not quite in the country), but the two men, in a miracle not unnoticed by the novel's narrator, survive the explosion. The remaining story follows their lives, watching them slowly echo the lives of Gibreel and the devil respectively.

More interesting, though, is how the novel uses Rushdie's standard tangents and series...more Generally speaking, the plot is simple. It is about two Indian Muslims traveling to England. Their plane is hijacked and explodes over the English Channel(almost but not quite in the country), but the two men, in a miracle not unnoticed by the novel's narrator, survive the explosion. The remaining story follows their lives, watching them slowly echo the lives of Gibreel and the devil respectively.

More interesting, though, is how the novel uses Rushdie's standard tangents and series of building side stories to mimic the bewilderment and disassociation so often described by new immigrants attempting to assimilate into former colonizing nations. In doing this, Verses manages to confront--and suggest for the first time in any novel I'm familiar with--that bewilderment(beginning with the plane crash)is a very real means of post-colonial control. To use an example that won't give up too much of the plot, it has been suggested by more than a few critics that one of the two main characters, Farishta, suffers from something similar to schizophreniform disorder, and such suffering is not merely symbolic of disassociation but also indicative of a power means. More specifically, Farishta's insanity--or any individual's sanity--is largely a cultural marker, and as such is used as a means of isolation and exposure (i.e. we behave, act and react by way of fear of dismissal from the group, and it is cultural precedence and more, not natural or innate impulse, that delineate both behavior and sanity.) Farishta emerges from his mental problems not only alone in the cultural sense, but alone in the personal sense (you'll see how if you read the novel). Concomitant to this sort of isolation he finds himself exposed--a symptom that due to its almost passive-aggressive dynamism manages to fold in on itself and become a cause of further isolation and alienation, of further madness. Through this arc, Rushdie develops the idea that cultural mores under the guise of sanity play stand-in for the real problems immigrants,unfamiliar and unhappy with the colonizer's world and customs, face when attempting to make place in new nations. Farishta's story becomes a warning of sorts--that the concept of sanity controls either through fear--in the case of those who decide to act in accordance--or isolation, alienation and exposure--for those who like Farishta refuse to bleach their own beliefs. (Keep mind, too, that when Rushdie was writing Verses, the studies on Burma and Fascism
were coming out, and they looked at the effects of exposure as a means to total control, so this sort of reading would be very contemporary for him). A great novel.(less)

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08/31/08

Fran rated it:

Read in August, 2008

Always clever, usually erudite and often sharply politico-comical, Rushdie got death threats for this whimsical interrogation and interweaving of myths and themes and contradictions from Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Judaism. He probably had more from other faiths that I just didn't catch. Rushdie manages to get various characters -- real and (perhaps) imagined -- to coexist, or be teleported to new eras and let them have at it.

The result is a social and political essay in th...more

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polls

Run off poll: What frequently challenged or banned MODERN book should we read in July?

(We will select two books but you can read either, both or none of course.)

The Satanic Verses A Novel by Salman Rushdie

2 votes, 22.2%

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

4 votes, 44.4%

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson

3 votes, 33.3%

9 total votes

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