Salman Rushdie

Midnight's Children-The Satanic Verses

by David Smale

Paperback, 208 pages

English language

Published Sept. 6, 2002 by Palgrave Macmillan.

ISBN:: 978-1-84046-253-1

The Booker Prize-winning Midnight's Children (1981) marked a decisive commercial and critical upturn in Salman Rushdie's career as a novelist. The instantly recognisable face of postcolonial literature, Rushdie now finds himself in a unique position in global culture, following the fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini on publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988. This novel has brought down the weight of fundamentalist politics on a writer regarded as a paradigm of postmodernism, and become the very real embodiment of a multitude of debates at the heart of contemporary criticism. In this Readers' Guide, David Smale traces the critical reception of this fascinating writer by examining the changing responses to his two best-known works. As a novelist and icon, Rushdie has embraced both 'popular' and 'high' culture; reflecting this, the Guide brings together both academic criticism and journalism to investigate the passions and preoccupations of Rushdie's many critics, steering the …

1 edition

Eduardo Santiago reviewed Salman Rushdie by David Smale

Review of 'Salman Rushdie' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

What a slog. Pretentious, long-winded, annoying. I found myself wondering how this could be the same author as [b:Victory City|61111246|Victory City|Salman Rushdie|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1670259879l/61111246.SY75.jpg|96232966]. (Likely answer: forty difficult years).

Maybe it would help if I knew more about India’s history and culture. Or if I liked florid ornate excessive circumlocutious language. Or if I were more tolerant of moronic religions and stupid vain shallow self-absorbed people. But that’s not me, and I am clearly not the target audience.

In a delicious coincidence, halfway through my reading I stumbled into a conversation with a remarkable young person who was drawing parallels between this book and [b:The God of Small Things|9777|The God of Small Things|Arundhati Roy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1590282886l/9777.SY75.jpg|810135] and who urged me to just not bother with this one, and rush to pick up that one. Unfortunately, it turns out I already tried and DNF’ed it... with similar gripes about flowery prose. …

Clément Martin reviewed Salman Rushdie by David Smale

Review of 'Salman Rushdie' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

What an incredible magical surrealist voyage through the history of India and of the people who lived in it. Stunning. A remarkable achievement.

maco reviewed Salman Rushdie by David Smale

Review of 'Salman Rushdie' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A winding story surrounding a Bangladeshi and an Indian (Bombay) actor. One, Gibreel, believing himself and potentially becoming the angel Gibreel (Gabriel); the other Saladin becoming a devil. The line between reality and fiction is blurred to the point that it ceases to exist. It brings the same question as "1984": if everyone believes something to be true, does that make it true? If everyone believes a religious event to have occurred, did it? If everyone believes a girl to be a prophet, is she?