Salman Rushdie

Rushdie's most infamous novel, Satanic Verses, is a long and very courageous work published. It was hard not to anticipate that he would anger many people, let alone orthodox Muslims, who are very easy to piss off. One of Rushdie's main characters, Mahound, lives a life in the novel parallel to that of the Prophet Muhammed, only with a small twist. In the allegory, Mahound receives certain revelations advising a certain tribe that it would be acceptable for them to keep three of their goddesses as a condition for them to accept Allah, the diety of Islam. This revelation is later repealed in the story.

The parts of the novel involving Mahound are in a dream state of one of the other main characters, Gibreel Farishta, who goes through a religious crisis. The book contains several plots that are intertwined, similar to something like Pulp Fiction. The main point is that a demon can come in the form of an angel, and an angel may be a demon in disguise.

All in all, Rushdie's ideas portrayed in this book are phenomenal. They are extremely original and also require a lot of courage to publish, considering how sensitive the material is. However, Rushdie's shortcoming is that he tends to become a little full of himself with his writing style, and overdoes it. His biggest problem is that he writes with an overly distinctive Indian flair. There are many phrases, words, and actions that would not be understood by someone unless they have an understanding of Indian culture and some understanding of Hindi. His prose is done well, but becomes very very repetitive and wordy. But nonetheless, a worthwhile read.

None of us who's read even the first chapter of 'The Satanic Verses' can forget the narration about two main characters, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, falling to earth from the height of twenty-nine thousand and two feet, (The height of Mount Everest), because the plane they have been flying in has just been blown up by the terrorists who have hijacked it. All the while they are free falling, they are talking to each other.

At one point Rushdie mentions (I don't remember the exact words, am putting it in my own words here)- Let's face it - someone falling with this velocity from this height will have problems even breathing, leave alone able to talk, or listen to anything, but let's also face this - they (protagonists) were talking.

He, however, has a compulsive need to parallel his stories around famous events, history of nations, specially India and Pakistan, or popular People/celebrities.

For example 'Midnight's Children', his, by far, the most interesting and honored work, runs along modern India's history, 'Shame' runs around post independence Pakistan with parallels drawn to family of Benazir Bhutto, and 'The Moor's Last Sigh' running along modern Indian context, with character of 'Mainduk Raja' (Frog King) clearly representing a political big-wig in India - Shiv Sena chief Bal Thakarey.

And of course, who doesn't know what parallels he drew in 'The Satanic Verses' and what soup had that put him in.

One of his short story collection - 'East-West' is also a delightful reading, with, again, parallels to some major events from modern Indian history hanging here and there.

His last novel, 'fury' is rather interesting but not typical 'Rushdian' in many senses (It's not magic realism for one).

I've yet to read The Ground Beneath her Feet so can't comments on it as yet.

Following is a list of his published fiction (Not in chronological order):

• Grimus
• Shame
• Midnight's Children
• The Satanic Verses
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories
• The Moor's Last Sigh
• East, West : Stories
• The Ground Beneath Her Feet
• fury