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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12781.The_Satanic_Verses_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Satanic Verses: A Novel" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5191SWZDHSL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12781.The_Satanic_Verses_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Satanic Verses: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3299.Salman_Rushdie">Salman Rushdie</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18663263?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>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. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/964960?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>