Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Die Satanischen Verse by Salman Rushdie

5 reviews

needlebrook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The book only clicked for me about 200 pages in- which took me the first 28 days of July. the opening of the book is confusingly strange and I struggled to understand the scenes. 

But after the 28 days, I finished the whole book in 2 days. I enjoyed the three main plot lines unraveling with gibreel farishta at the center, eventually driving him insane. The stuff that occurs are batshit insane- and I understand how this might not be everyone's cup of coffee.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book after I really got into the groove. 

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kaiju_krispies's review against another edition

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Ah, this one feels a little embarrassing. This is regarded as one of the best books published within my lifetime. I'm a capable reader. I did not enjoy it, and I did not finish it.

I started reading it for a reading group and gratefully put it down when the deadline passed. The whole experience was one of challenge; there was not a time when I looked forward to returning to reading, only grim determination to make it a little farther. The prose is elegant and innovative, the characters are nuanced, the subject matter is rich. It simply wasn't enjoyable for me; I learned a little, but the final impression was that the book is meant to make you feel as Rushdie, and other immigrants, must often feel; rudderless and impotent, torn between opposing monstrous forces, either condemned or deified by those in power for no clear reason and with the knowledge that at any moment it might all be swept away. Now live this existence for another 1000 pages.

What the book does well is to provide deep questions to wonder over. What is the purpose of a book, or of art at all? What is the responsibility of a storyteller or his editor to the world? At least 38 people are dead because of The Satanic Verses--was it worth it? How far am I willing to go to uphold free speech and the right of artists to provoke? And ultimately, what is the purpose of that provocation, or to tell any story at all; has the needle moved on anything in response to this book's publication, for better or for worse, or is it even fair to ask a story to have a purpose beyond the author wanting to speak their version of the truth? I wonder how many people talk of this book in a world where it was regarded only with cold disdain and not righteous violence. I'll think on it more, but I do not think I will ever return to it.

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pavonini's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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steveatwaywords's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Grateful to have finally made the time to read this infamous work.

Like so much of Rushdie's writing, Satanic Verses moves so quickly and ambiguously between its symbols, motifs, and semi-dream states of magical realism, that one has barely an opportunity to take a breath, let alone pause to reflect upon all the connections made. 

Most of these connections are themselves left as more complex questions, of course. Anyone hoping to have a neat and tidy closure to any of the multiple storylines will be disappointed. Instead, we are left with questions of faith and believability, of immigrant identity, of the supernatural, of madness both personal and societal. We are not a clean or easy-to-solve people; our histories and complexes of meaning-making crowd together into mashes of chaos and regret. We are not angels or devils, entirely, but people making our choices and haphazardly meeting our consequences. 

The controversy roused by this book is obvious enough from its content: it is something the book itself addresses and anticipates. But at the same time, those who might condemn the work wholly or simply likely fail to see the larger mash-ups of human experience I just mentioned. 

Enter the water as so many for centuries have before you and will afterwards; how we emerge on the other side is entirely out choice.

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lanid's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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