In order to be born again, first you have to die..
Written: Jul 25 '01
Product Rating:
Pros: Forces the reader to examine who,what, why of his own existence.
Cons: A bit challenging, read this review to easily overcome any hardships!
The Bottom Line: Do not read this book because it is fashionably commendable, read it for the sheer genius of the author and because it will change your perspective on life.
wutheringcathy's Full Review: Salman Rushdie et al - The Satanic Verses
This passage from Satanic Verses is as intense, profound, and overwhelming as the story itself. A florilegium of surprisingly simple, yet touchingly true ideologies, Rushdie’s masterpiece will revolutionize your soul. In this controversial novel, the author demonstrates his amazing ability to speak to each reader personally, while epitomizing such classic controversies as; good and evil, change and tradition, love and hate, death and life.
The story begins with a hijacked plane’s explosion over the English Channel, depositing its contents of passengers and personals in the frigid waters below. This aeronautical disaster is survived solely by our two heroes (or villains- the reader is never sure which to classify this pair), Saladin and Gibreel; what follows is the story of their conflicting selves, their dreams, and the consequences involved in death’s escape. The parallel protagonists represent the extreme polarities that every one of us deals with daily; no matter who we are, where we live, or what we believe. Saladin and Gibreel seem to have much in common on the surface; both are Indian, roughly the same age, and are actors. However, while Gibreel has embraced his native land and her traditions, Saladin could not wait to escape his shameful origin and flee to England where he now lives with his English wife, rebuking his family and heritage. After the fall the riff between the two is enlarged more effectively as the two characters transform into opposing realms of reality, manipulated by an unidentified supremacy (good, or evil?). Gibreel seems to develop angelic propensities (halo and all), while Saladin metamorphosizes into the form of a symbolic devil-goat. The funny thing that happens on the way is that neither seems to be very good or very evil, but a collision of both worlds caught in a state they don’t understand. Throughout the novel, Rushdie oscillates between the real worlds of his protagonists and events that take place in the unconscious dreaming mind of the angelic Gibreel; in this realm, our hero acts as a guardian angel to ancient prophets and witnesses formation of legendary religious parables. These first hand accounts of such revered decress raises possibilities of human intervention and even creation in their birth.
Questioning beliefs, doubting religious doctrine, curiosity itself are things that are not looked highly upon highly any established culture. Disciples and citizens are expected to simply believe and think only within the boundaries the philosophies that were created long ago. Satanic Verses was not received well by most spiritual Indian natives and followers of the Koran. For his dreadful deed of writing this book and questioning his background, a price is set on the head of Salman Rushdie by the Ayatola Komeni. It is one of the most banned books in history, you can’t even buy it on Amazon or in most book stores for that matter.
It is almost an injustice that this book carries with it so much controversy. Satanic Versus is synnominized with stigmatism and damnation, it’s author associated with such villainous intelligence as Hitler and Hannibal – I think that this takes away from the literary genius of Salman Rushdie. The political incorrectness of this novel almost instantaneously gains it acceptance in the genre of ‘impressive to have read’ novels, those books that people say are amazing just to appear diverse and intelligent. However, Satanic Verses emphatically deserves its slot in the bookshelf of fame based on the sheer eloquence of the parody of life and religion this novel represents.
While the book was challenging, it was not impossible. I am by no means an expert on Indian tradition or Islamic parables, and one doesn’t need to be to read this book, but I did find some help in some notes downloaded from the following site; http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/anglophone/satanic_verses/. I would highly recommend this book to anyone- it is one of those books everyone should read within their lifetime. Satanic Versus will leave the reader pondering one of the greatest quintessential question of mortal eternity, “What kind of idea am I?”; and the leave with him the task of finding the answer.
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