The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie

by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Salman Rushdie is a major contemporary writer, who engages with some of the vital issues of our times: migrancy, postcolonialism, religious authoritarianism. This Companion offers a comprehensive introduction to his entire oeuvre. Part I provides thematic readings of Rushdie and his work, with chapters on how Bollywood films are intertextual with the fiction, the place of family and gender in the work, the influence of English writing and reflections on the fatwa. Part II discusses Rushdie's importance for postcolonial writing and provides detailed interpretations of his fiction. In one volume, this book provides a stimulating introduction to the author and his work in a range of expert essays and readings. With its detailed chronology of Rushdie's life and a comprehensive bibliography of further reading, this volume will be invaluable to undergraduates studying Rushdie and to the general reader interested in his work.

Genres: Nonfiction

218 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Abdulrazak Gurnah was born in 1948 in Zanzibar and lives in England, where he teaches at the University of Kent. The most famous of his novels are Paradise, shortlisted for both the Booker and the Whitbread Prize; By the Sea, longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Desertion, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021 "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents".

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful in giving context to Rushdie's writing works.
Explained the Fatwa fairly well, and highlighted the particular parts of the Verses, which were so offensive to Islam.
Some chapters were highly academic, mostly a specific strain of post-colonialism. Several chapters highly enlightening, some not really relevant, as I'm not intending on further exploring Rushdie's other works. At least one chapter was a particular kind of academic discourse which illustrates the reason why academics are sometimes known as irrelevant, unable to communicate with ordinary people, highhanded.
70% of this Oxford companion was definitely worth reading (various authors), and several chapters I will consider re-reading.
Given the reaction of the Ayatollah in Iran, I hadn't realised how India centric (and ex-pats in the UK) was Rushdie's focus.
Read in conjunction with The Satanic Versus, and Attar's The Conference of the Birds.
Fascinating overview of the way Rushdie became a lightning rod for debates about free speech, including among people who often, notoriously, hadn't actually read him. I am not longer in that camp...
If anything, has diminished my feelings of empathy for Islam.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curious about this author

[Almira B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proved very helpful for my thesis.