The Opposition…

Joseph Anton: A Memoir

Salman Rushdie

Discussion: 2012-Jul-Aug-Sep

Why we're reading this: September 18, 2012
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2012-Jul-Aug-Sep

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* September 2012
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 25 views

last updated Sep 29, 2012 02:37PM

* August 2012
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 23 views

last updated Sep 01, 2012 05:16PM

What Members Thought

Dec 13, 2012 Pang rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: ecomist-page-turners, 2012, memoir-biography

That was nice, but useless.

I don't know how I mustered the strength and endurance to finish this book. It was long, mostly boring, though with some funny parts ("Look, there's that bastard Rushdie in a wig!") His years under fatwa could have been summarized in an hour worth, two hours max. Then, the end. Instead he chose to go on and on about who were on his side, who were not. Or which famous people he rubbed shoulders with. It felt more like he was either giving prop to those who had stood by ...more

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Nov 21, 2022 Sergey Fursa rated it it was amazing

Brilliant.

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Jun 16, 2017 Letitia rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017-to-read

This book came during a fascinating period for me. I started it years ago but it was big and intimidating so I put it down for a bit and picked it up again last January. As I read it, I was simultaneously working with a women's NGO in Kuwait on strategies to ally with fundamentalist Muslims, reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, watching my president create a travel ban, and generally trying to tease out the role of fundamentalist religion in violence. So this provided another fascinating perspect This book came during a fascinating period for me. I started it years ago but it was big and intimidating so I put it down for a bit and picked it up again last January. As I read it, I was simultaneously working with a women's NGO in Kuwait on strategies to ally with fundamentalist Muslims, reading Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, watching my president create a travel ban, and generally trying to tease out the role of fundamentalist religion in violence. So this provided another fascinating perspective with, again, zero answers. I am also rediscovering my love of writing, and going through the mental process of a writer writing about writing spoke to me in a way that is profound at this moment of trying to churn out words that will make a difference in the world.

The tone of Rushdie's memoir will be familiar to those who read his books. He's poetic, verbose, and interestingly uses third person pronouns for himself. I'm not sure of the function of this, whether it's to give him, as the author, some distance from events, or to help soften moments that might seem somewhat narcissistic to a reader. I definitely there are shades of narcissism in Rushdie's narrative, although he tries to bring rationality and understanding of other perspectives. Which is fine, honestly, because I'm not reading Rushdie for his moral treatises; I'm reading Rushdie because of his beautiful language and contemplation of the human condition.

It was enlightening to see his isolation and time of hiding from the other side. The way events were misrepresented by press, the feeling of being hated by multiple sides of an issue. It was interesting for me to learn that he wrote both of my favorite books of his while in hiding; Ground Beneath Her Feet and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. I wonder if this period forced him into introspection and productivity that was somehow more poignant and meaningful precisely because he could not engage with the world in a normal way.

In terms of recommending this book, it's not a must-read, but it is really enjoyable for the die-hard Rushdie fan, which I am. Expect the same depth of language and long-winded narrative as you get in the novels, and you'll be happy. ...more

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