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 amusing, mischievous, clever, full of naughtiness and frank stupidity. And if someone rides his ass backwards through parliament, no one blinks, and Bollywood is even more bollyish and saints ride rats in homespun, and then all of sudden, his stories are so sharp, so smart, quick to cut and they leave you, well, feeling awed. Do I need to say more....

It is taxing to read Rushdie and you need time, "Verses" took me a month of straight reading; but Rushdie is a big beautiful genie of a writer and the ride is fantastic.