The Satanic Verses: A Novel

A great deal has been written since 1988 about Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which, aside from the obvious sensationalism regarding the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's fatwa, much of the commentary has been academic and speculative in nature. Pundits discuss Rushdie's penchant for migrant alienation, and use of magic realism. Others wax poetic regarding Rushdie's ability to weave political and spiritual themes together into a literary melange, while others state unequivocally The Satanic Verses is a metaphor of the prophet Muhammad's life.

I do not claim to be an academic titan. Nor do I claim to be a spiritual guru. What I am is an avid reader who relishes literary provocation. Salman Rushdie has done just that. Provoked me. And allowed me epiphany.

My journey with Rushdie's The Satanic Verses began in October. Only this morning (December 27) have I finished this epic work. And upon closing the black, cloth cover I smiled, experiencing a sense of literary completion and edification I have not known in many, many years. Was this an easy journey? No. Reading Rushdie's novel is not for the faint of heart. The language is dense, rich, much of it in stream-of-consciousness and an Indian patois, and in fact one memorable sentence, which left me breathless, I realized upon review was one entire page long.

I was constantly amazed Rushdie took all grammatical landmarks and demolished them, using language, metaphor and simile to create tension, dream-state and yet still remain highly communicative. I am ashamed to say as an editor and publisher, had this manuscript come across my desk I would likely have returned it to the author after the first few pages. Yet I wonder if I would indeed have done just that, because I kept reading the novel after the first few pages, not because it was Rushdie (I have closed a book before on well-respected authors), but because there was something of mystery in what he presented.

What is The Satanic Verses about? Only Rushdie himself can honestly and accurately answer that question. What I took away from this gigantic work is indeed what the pundits have made commentary, but as well I found a simple allegorical tale of mankind's inner journey to understand what it is to be human and whole. Rushdie himself writes in the voice of Chamcha that the Satanic verses (doggerel to torment his counterpart Farishta) were his own sin and regret, and that because of his inability to curtail his own inner demons he fed Farishta's madness and thereby responsible for Farishta's ultimate undoing.

I will look forward to reading The Satanic Verses again in a year or two. It is a novel and a pilgrimage worth revisiting, and one I am honoured to have as part of the foundation our personal library.

To fully enjoy this book a reader needs to be aware of many other sources. From Dickens, to William Blake, to the Qu'ran, the more widely you have read the more of this book you will enjoy.
That is not to say that it is not worth reading unless you have read the Qu'ran etc, but a good working knowledge of world religions and western literature will aid in the enjoyment of this book.
Like I said in my title, not a terribly exciting read, as it was slowly paced, and not always moving in a linear fashion. In spite of all this it was a well written book with interesting characters, so well worth a read.

Salman should have used the alternate working title for this novel: 'Implied Satanism for Marketing Boost'. I don't get the sensationalism. Unless people burned his book as a way of saying thanks for wasting their time.

The breathtakingly real start to this novel continues through streams of consciousness and virtual reality before it spirals precipitously into a state of narcissistic mentality. Or is it the reverse? As Farishta and Saladin, along with the rest of the Indian diaspora, struggle with the bland, beautiful integration into colonialist culture, paradoxes abound. Good and evil, Islam and Bollywood, reality and insanity, past and present, all push the reader into a state of confused, contented, substance.