Review: The satanic verses
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsThis controversial novel, banned in India for its alleged blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed, is a surreal hallucinatory feast. Rushdie (Midnight's Children; Shame, etc.), long a magical realist, turns finally to Islam for his jumping, off point, and his inventiveness never flags. Satan, according to an epigraph by Defoe, has no fixed place to settle, and the difficulty of telling good from evil, the way that one reincarnates into the other, is the theme of this epic tale--which contains stories within stories, dreams within dreams. It begins with the explosion of a hijacked jumbo jet; Gibreel Farishta, a Bombay movie star, and Saladin Chamcha, an exile who lives in Britain, survive their free fall from the plane. Gibreel then presides over the dream/stow worlds of his ""arehangelic other self"" after he and Saladin are transformed into angelic or satanic opponents. (They are never certain which is which.) The central story concerns Mahound, the Prophet of Jahilia who founds the religion of ""those who submit,"" which parallels Islam; another is about Ayesha, a contemporary visionary who leads a group of villagers to the sea, where she promises that the waves will part before them (they all drown, of course); yet another dream-story involves the Imam, a sort of grim Ayatollah. Such a summary does the book a disservice, however, because all of these stories and many others besides are woven together with cross-references, psychic communications, brisk farces and satires, and interconnected picaresque. Rushdie does for Islam what Mark Helprin did (a little less successfully) for New York in his Winter's Tale: peoples it with fantastic figures that always seem close to some ineffable imaginative truth--even as Rushdie fast-cuts to the next scene in his phantasmagoric dream-time world. Whether it all finally holds together or not is almost beside the point: this is an entertainment in the highest sense of that much-exploited word.
Review: The Satanic Verses
User Review - GoodreadsFor eight days we wrestled. "The Satanic Verses" and I locked in heaving struggle. At times it nearly escaped as I chased it uphill, my straining hand holding fast its heel as it wriggled; then I ...
Review: The Satanic Verses
User Review - Javier - GoodreadsFor all it's hype, I was pretty disappointed with this book. Pretty is an understatement actually. This experience reminded me of my attempted reading of Thomas Pynchon's "V." I have come to the ... Read full review
Review: The Satanic Verses
User Review - Leo Robertson - GoodreadsFinally, when all the controversy has died down, this book can finally be what it is, which is not that great. Rushdie's convoluted style allows him to get away with a lot. The worst? He's tries to ... Read full review
Review: The Satanic Verses
User Review - Stuart - GoodreadsWhat a bizarre read! I'm somewhat relieved to have reached the end of The Satanic Verses, but a tiny part of my heart is going to miss Spoono, Old Chumch! Rushdie did an excellent job of getting me to ... Read full review
Review: The Satanic Verses
User Review - Alex - GoodreadsThis is a funny entry into the magical realism genre, because maybe nothing magical happens. (view spoiler)[Ayesha's followers die. Gibreel is insane. (hide spoiler)] Rushdie uses this misty method to ... Read full review
Review: The Satanic Verses
User Review - Petra X - GoodreadsI never got past page 60 in this book. I read and forgot and reread and forgot again up unto about the fifth reading when I thought to myself that I might rate Midnight's Children as one of the ... Read full review
Review: The Satanic Verses
User Review - Petra Mwaaah - GoodreadsI never got past page 60 in this book. I read and forgot and reread and forgot again up unto about the fifth reading when I thought to myself that I might rate Midnight's Children as one of the ... Read full review
Review: The Satanic Verses
User Review - Stela - GoodreadsDavid Lodge observed somewhere that there are books you read and books you rather read about – I've often wondered during my lecture whether it's the second that applies to Rushdie's novel, with all ... Read full review
Review: The Satanic Verses
User Review - Jean-marcel - GoodreadsIt's always interesting returning to a book read years before and gaining a different perspective. I first read this my final year of highschool and it blew my mind at the time; I don't think I ... Read full review
