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A review by slumberbee
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
4.0
This is a very difficult book to rate because I have such mixed feelings about its different aspects. I’ll preface this review with the fact that I started this book because of its banning in Iran and wasn’t well versed on Indian or Muslim culture and so did find myself a little confused at some points but I also feel like I have learned a lot in regards to this.
The book started with my least favourite of the three story threads, Saladin and Gibreel in the current day. This beginning was tough to get through due to its aggressive tide of words and lack of compelling story to get me interested from the start. Rushdie had a tendency to throw words together into a sludge of confusing English which I could not enjoy from a stylistic perspective (but I think that is very much a personal taste situation). I found all the characters in the modern story line to be intensely unlikeable and it made it difficult to enjoy their story, only Saladin eventually began to be slightly redeemed but even so, not to a point where I actually liked his character, it was just better than Gibreel. Though one redeeming factor of this story thread is that I felt I got to see parts of England from perspectives I have not seen in many places before, and Rushdie made some very apt subtle and not so subtle commentary on English society.
However, the other two story threads, the dream sequences, were where I think Rushdie’s story shone. These storylines carried most of Rushdie’s theological examination while also being so much more intriguing and gripping than the main story line and really saved the book in my estimation. I particularly appreciated how Rushdie criticised organised religion while still not shying away from using fantastical elements to present the idea that while religion could indeed be true, it is not necessarily always good.
The exploration into what is good/God and what is evil/Shaitan built up most of the book which I found to be an interesting but not particularly innovative theme. However, Rushdie excelled in his exploration of organised religion. I loved the allusion to religion beginning as a positive force of belief and faith in betterment of people and community and turning into a restrictive control mechanism used by the chosen few. Rushdie also looked deeply into the masses generally using religion for personal gain or to fit in, but also how it can instead lead to negative impact when their faith blinds them to reality and even morality and how organised religions have a tendency to chew people up and spit them out broken.
Overall, definitely worth a read for the exploration of religion and the fun dream sequences but be prepared to suffer through Part 1 and its hodge-podge attack on the English language.
The book started with my least favourite of the three story threads, Saladin and Gibreel in the current day. This beginning was tough to get through due to its aggressive tide of words and lack of compelling story to get me interested from the start. Rushdie had a tendency to throw words together into a sludge of confusing English which I could not enjoy from a stylistic perspective (but I think that is very much a personal taste situation). I found all the characters in the modern story line to be intensely unlikeable and it made it difficult to enjoy their story, only Saladin eventually began to be slightly redeemed but even so, not to a point where I actually liked his character, it was just better than Gibreel. Though one redeeming factor of this story thread is that I felt I got to see parts of England from perspectives I have not seen in many places before, and Rushdie made some very apt subtle and not so subtle commentary on English society.
However, the other two story threads, the dream sequences, were where I think Rushdie’s story shone. These storylines carried most of Rushdie’s theological examination while also being so much more intriguing and gripping than the main story line and really saved the book in my estimation. I particularly appreciated how Rushdie criticised organised religion while still not shying away from using fantastical elements to present the idea that while religion could indeed be true, it is not necessarily always good.
The exploration into what is good/God and what is evil/Shaitan built up most of the book which I found to be an interesting but not particularly innovative theme. However, Rushdie excelled in his exploration of organised religion. I loved the allusion to religion beginning as a positive force of belief and faith in betterment of people and community and turning into a restrictive control mechanism used by the chosen few. Rushdie also looked deeply into the masses generally using religion for personal gain or to fit in, but also how it can instead lead to negative impact when their faith blinds them to reality and even morality and how organised religions have a tendency to chew people up and spit them out broken.
Overall, definitely worth a read for the exploration of religion and the fun dream sequences but be prepared to suffer through Part 1 and its hodge-podge attack on the English language.