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    The Satanic Verses: A Novel
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    The Satanic Verses: A Novel
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    The Satanic Verses: A Novel
    Ebook685 pages11 hours

    The Satanic Verses: A Novel

    By Salman Rushdie

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “[A] torrent of endlessly inventive prose, by turns comic and enraged, embracing life in all its contradictions. In this spectacular novel, verbal pyrotechnics barely outshine its psychological truths.”—Newsday

    Winner of the Whitbread Prize

    One of the most controversial and acclaimed novels ever written, The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie’s best-known and most galvanizing book. Set in a modern world filled with both mayhem and miracles, the story begins with a bang: the terrorist bombing of a London-bound jet in midflight. Two Indian actors of opposing sensibilities fall to earth, transformed into living symbols of what is angelic and evil. This is just the initial act in a magnificent odyssey that seamlessly merges the actual with the imagined. A book whose importance is eclipsed only by its quality, The Satanic Verses is a key work of our times.

    Praise for The Satanic Verses

    “Rushdie is a storyteller of prodigious powers, able to conjure up whole geographies, causalities, climates, creatures, customs, out of thin air.”—The New York Times Book Review

    “Exhilarating, populous, loquacious, sometimes hilarious, extraordinary . . . a roller-coaster ride over a vast landscape of the imagination.”—The Guardian (London)

    “A novel of metamorphoses, hauntings, memories, hallucinations, revelations, advertising jingles, and jokes. Rushdie has the power of description, and we succumb.”—The Times (London)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateFeb 23, 2011
    ISBN9780307786654
    Unavailable
    The Satanic Verses: A Novel
    Author

    Salman Rushdie

    Salman Rushdie is the author of many acclaimed novels, including Midnight’s Children (winner of the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), Grimus, Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and The Sea of Stories, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown, The Enchantress of Florence, Luka and the Fire of Life, and Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights—and a collection of short stories: East, West. He has also published works of nonfiction, including Joseph Anton (a memoir of his life under the fatwa issued after the publication of The Satanic Verses), The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, and Step Across This Line—and co-edited the anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature.

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    Reviews for The Satanic Verses

    3.5/5

    1,910 ratings76 reviews

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    • 4/5
      After all the controversy I had no idea until I read this that it would be so funny.
    • 1/5
      Ya know, had though zealots in Iran just forgotten about this thing, no one would have bought another copy. This is probably the worst book I have read.
    • 4/5
      Definitely worth the read. Rushdie is a resounding, powerful storyteller.
    • 3/5
      So literary is this novel, so epic, that at times I expected heroic couplets. At other times, I wanted Leopold Bloom to stagger through the door, so strongly did I experience this as an Anglo-Indian Ulysses, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes long-winded, always a little confusing. And yes, through the extratextual infamy and the competing intertextual narratives of terror and tragedy, there is also comedy. There's a Rabelaisian bawdiness that takes joy in trampling social graces, until the bundled story-lines short-circuit once more, showering fantastical images and obscure allusions over the heads of readers. I can imagine, in fact, that this is a literature professor's dream exam text, with so much material to explain, compare, and contrast. On the other hand, it is also tempting to think that some of the wilder paragraphs would be rejected out of hand by any self-respecting creative writing group, as lacking proper form and being loquacious for the sake of loquaciousness. Compare and contrast. If you're worried about spoilers, I'm not sure if I can provide any. Given the blurred lines between dream and reality, maybe nothing happens at all. I can say, though, that the energy of the language and the muscularity of the competing visions make for a spectacular flight, even if, like any long-haul route, you may find yourself checking your watch for the arrival time before you're even half way through the first movie.
    • 2/5
      Bij deze is het officieel: Salman Rushdie is geen favoriete schrijver van mij. Ik heb nu drie boeken (gedeeltelijk) achter de kiezen en hij ligt me gewoon niet. Spetterende stijl, briljant, beeldend en een ongelofelijk creatieve verhalen verteller, daar niet van. Maar ik moet het niet hebben, het zegt me echt niks. Dat heeft - denk ik - niks te maken met de culturele afstand (want eigenlijk is Rushdie door en door westers), maar vooral met de stijl. Sorry, Salman. Overigens denk ik dat iedereen zijn mening mag uiten, ook al wordt die door anderen als blasfemisch beschouwd.
    • 2/5
      I have to admit I haven't finished it yet, but now about 60% into the book, I still couldn't get hold in the story. Yes, the images and the language is gripping and I do understand the controversy, but to be honest it is kind of dragging on. I don't know, but it becomes a chore to read it. It becomes tedious. The ideas expressed are outstanding, whether or not you agree, but for me it isn't enogh to continue to read it. I might at some point and in a time of my life, when I have mor time to spare start again and finish it truly, but as of now, I can find other, better things to read.
    • 5/5
      A master of surrealism. Easy to read in spite of the length, but with some quirks that point clearly to the author's iconoclasm not only in religion, but in writing. Few writers would be able to get away with a sentence of over 50 words, but somehow in this book, it worked. The imagery is strange, sometimes beautiful, and sometimes frightful. It would be fabulous to see someone do this as a movie, but given the fatwa the author has lived under for so long, it's unlikely anyone will ever dare.
    • 5/5
      So, this was the best book I've read for a long time. I'm putting it down after one read, realizing that there's so much more to wring out of it. More importantly, I actually want to. Having little patience for weightier literature, this was a big deal for me. Highly recommend.
    • 4/5
      I really liked the beginning of the novel, but it does get kind of gross and weird- not for the faint-hearted. Well written, engaging, terrifying. You can see why it was banned.
    • 4/5
      Salman Rushdie has an amazing gift for language... and "The Satanic Verses" really doesn't disappoint. He writes the kind of sentences you just want to linger over -- they are clever without being gimmicky and often just put together so beautifully. I really detest magical realism generally, but both of the Rushdie novels I've read were written so well I didn't mind that element at all.I actually enjoyed the story quite a bit as well. In this novel, two men survive when their plane explodes and they plummet to the ground. One takes on the characteristics of the archangel Gabriel, while the other takes on the characteristics of the devil. (As a non-religious sort, I don't have a lot of opinion on the controversy surrounding the book -- I really don't know enough about Islam to know if the book was mocking that religion or not.)The story winds about a lot and this took an extraordinarily long time for me to read as a result. But overall, I really enjoyed the book and wouldn't hesitate to read another by Rushdie.
    • 2/5
      I think this book is famous more because of its infamy than its quality. I am impressed with the author's obvious knowledge of pop and literary culture, evident from the numerous allusions and details in the novel. Otherwise I was not particularly impressed. The story drags and wanders so much I lost interest at many points. Not sure I would have read it if I had known this beforehand.
    • 3/5
      Picked it because of the controversy. Sometimes very confusing. Stories within the story. Long loops to connect them.
    • 2/5
      Bij deze is het officieel: Salman Rushdie is geen favoriete schrijver van mij. Ik heb nu drie boeken (gedeeltelijk) achter de kiezen en hij ligt me gewoon niet. Spetterende stijl, briljant, beeldend en een ongelofelijk creatieve verhalen verteller, daar niet van. Maar ik moet het niet hebben, het zegt me echt niks. Dat heeft - denk ik - niks te maken met de culturele afstand (want eigenlijk is Rushdie door en door westers), maar vooral met de stijl. Sorry, Salman. Overigens denk ik dat iedereen zijn mening mag uiten, ook al wordt die door anderen als blasfemisch beschouwd.
    • 5/5
      Cool book i ever see.. jesus bless u ...it can open my eyes about the fact
    • 4/5
      A interesting book, with plenty of thoughts to ponder.
    • 4/5
      The satanic verses is a book whose reputation precedes it. I found it an exciting read, dazzling, even, if I’m allowed such an over-used blurb cliché, for the book is all over the place and will shower you with impatient joy and breathless erudition. The main plot deals with two Indian expats in London, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, explore their love-hate relationship with London (“Ellowen-Deeowen”) and Englishness through a series of semi-mythical sequences that may or may not be in-universe fictional echoes of each other. In one layer, Gibreel and Saladin miraculously survive a fall out of a terrorist-exploded airplane in mid-flight, drop into the sea, and swim ashore, where they each meet a series of odd characters. Each finds himself developing increasingly strange and magical powers that drive them towards extremes on the good-vs-evil spectrum. Saladin grows horns, goat legs and an epic case of sulphuric halitosis; Gibreel grows a halo and hallucinates giving Islamic revelations to the prophet Mahound. (This, incidentally, pushes this book beyond “magical realism” territory and firmly into the “fantasy” genre. But that is my opinion, and not a hill I’m willing to die on.)Interspersed with their wanderings through London’s postcolonial underbelly are other stories with other protagonists. One is a Historical Fiction (-ish) retelling of the beginnings of Islam; another is a fairy tale (-ish) about the foot pilgrimage of an entire Indian village to Mecca, led by a magical, butterfly-covered girl, and who experience a series of maybe-miracles on the road. These stories (and others) are thematically related to the main event, but crossovers do happen. It is not entirely clear whether these are hallucinations, dreams, phantasms or in-universe movies, perhaps based on in-universe hallucinations, etc.. The book takes a very playful attitude to narrative -- at some point, the author himself appears in a cheeky cameo.Rushdie’s writing style is equally ebullient, with stream-of-consciousness puns and rephrasings stacked on top of each other, ADHD-like, and it relies on cleverness and sheer force of agitation to propel things forward. Motifs, themes and narrative echoes do tie things together, though, especially past the halfway mark. This was an electrifying read. The satanic verses transforms an immigrant’s belonging to a duality of cultures into a kaleidoscopic dazzle, or a funhouse, surrounded by weird copies and echoes of the self. I’m not sure if the contents quite match up to the sensational fireworks of the presentation, but style over content this is most definitely not.
    • 4/5
      Very complicated, took maybe 200 pages before I felt like I was even beginning to get the general situation. The sentences were beautiful, a lovely writer. Very challenging book, an incredible amount of detail and I feel like 90% of it whizzed past my head.
    • 1/5
      This isn't a book that requires any introduction, at least in terms of the furore and controversy surrounding it. I'd probably heard of Rushdie before I started to read for myself, such is the reputation which precedes this book. The title has been sitting at the back of my mind for a long time, so when I saw it on a bookshelf figured it was about time to dip into it.

      Some years ago, whilst taking part in a brief course on the history of modern India, I picked up Rushdie's Midnight's Children and thoroughly enjoyed it. The style was lucid, inspiring, at times witty, the plot meaningful, its events engaging and powerfully written. Unfortunately, The Satanic Verses is in comparison an utter disappointment. The book is simply difficult to like, try as one might. Rushdie's writing, despite still being very imaginative, colourful, even amusing, is for the most part unnecessarily convoluted. The book's plot is divided into various threads spanning time, space and reality, with enough levels, characters and subplots that the reader has to pay extreme attention not to become lost. Some of the characters go under different names, or names are shared among different characters, while the main characters undergo enough physical alterations, that trying to juggle the figures in your imagination becomes a feat in and of itself.

      Written style aside, should you find yourself able to understand Rushdie's message – and thanks to the written style it's easy not to 'get' – I simply can't find very much worth recommending. If you are looking for examples of novels centred on the interplay of good and evil, issues of identity or multiculturalism, the parody of religion, or even merely novels featuring magic realism, there are simply so many better, easier, and more enjoyable works available, even from Rushdie's own pen, that this work wouldn't get a look in.

      As other reviewers have said, were it not for the fatwa this book should probably have disappeared off most people's radars without much word of comment. That it didn't is unfortunate, since I don't think this book particularly lends itself to many people, yet so many pick it up to find out what all the fuss was about. It is a frustrating and convoluted read, and while there are beautiful and intriguing passages which reminded me of what made Midnight's Children so enthralling, these are ultimately pretty small fish for sieving through 500 other pages of nigh-on impenetrable packaging.
    • 4/5
      This book gained serious attention when I was a teenager. I honestly believe most of it was hype. But true to the fact that people were hurt…even killed over it is sad. Now. Why was this book so controversial and why did the Muslim world hold it in such disdain? The story hem haws back and forth between fictional accounts of Muhammad’s up and coming. KEY WORD..FICTIONAL. The Satanic Verses was a very difficult and heavy read. But with that being said. It was a good story, a very good story. The relationship that develops with the two protagonists after their survival from an aerial terrorist bombing brings many things to light. Mental illness, self-worth, the meaning of life and everything in between. Some parts of seem almost like a Muslim version of a Monty Python skit. Be prepared to have your brain microwaved. I do not know yet if this book will deter me from reading any of Rushdie’s other books. I have to let the inflammation in my brain go down.
    • 4/5
      Most people focus on the criticism of Islam, especially through the depictions of 'Mahound' and 'Gibreel' the archangel, but I think the meat of the book comes through its portrayal of immigrant and racial tensions in the UK at the time of publication. That's where the narrative shines, showcasing a reality beset by crises in racial, religious, and political identity.

      Unlike others, though, I'm not going to call this a classic. It's a good read, highly enjoyable for what it's worth. It's also a good lens into that particular moment in British culture, and it's still (somewhat) relevant today in 2020. With that said, the message often comes across as heavy-handed, and of course, Rushdie has written better stories since then.
    • 2/5
      I'd been curious about this book for quite a while, obviously because of the publicity and controversy surrounding it.
      My opinion: it's good. But it's certainly not worth dying for. (As a translator already has, and two others have barley survived assassination attempts).
      Interestingly, the main focus of the book is not on religion, although it plays a part.
      Mostly, I would say the book is about the experience of Indian - British immigrants. Rushdie explores the psychological conflicts through a story of two Indian men, both average, but one who's really rather a self-centered jerk. Falling from a plane which was victim to a terrorist attack, the two miraculously survive, but one becomes a sort of avatar of an angel, and one of a devil. Intertingly, the roles are reversed - the more 'decent' guy becomes the devil, growing horns, and the self-centered film star developing a halo.
      In exploring these identities, especially that of the archangel Gibreel in Islamic mythology, is where Rushdie moves into supposedly 'blasphemous' territory, including a historical depiction of Mohammed, and a strong implication by the Prophet's personal scribe that he is a fraud, making up religious rules to suit his whims. There's also a funny, satirical episode where a brothel decides to make more money by having their whores role-play the parts of the Prophet's wives.
      I suspect that Rushdie underestimated the response these scenes would get. It's pretty clear from the book that Rushdie is probably an atheist. But it's also very clear that the scenes in question are satire. They're almost incidental to the main plot of the book (which takes place in the present day), and also to the main
      idea of the book, which has to do with the concepts of "Indian-ness" and "British-ness" and personal identity.
      I'd say the novel is definitely worthwhile for its insights into human nature, but it does have a tendency to meander, and the colloquial language that Rushdie uses can occasionally come across as a bit too 'clever.'
    • 3/5
      One of those books I started many times and never finished...now I have finished it. I'm glad I read it, if only to wade through all of the things that were said about it in the wake of the controversy. Not surprisingly, it is much more thoughtful, nuanced, reflective than the impression purveyed by the hype. Scattered as a novel, I sometimes felt a little lost, but some wonderful parable-like sequences weaved through cultural and religious history.
    • 4/5
      I remember hearing about Salman Rushdie when I was a child, when news of the fatwa first broke. I was quite worried at the time, particularly when people related to the book actually started being killed. I'd always assumed he must be quite a serious writer, as it sounded like a very serious sort of topic with serious implications. It was the first time I remember hearing about a book causing such consternation, and so it's stuck with me ever since. For me, Salman Rushdie has always been that author. And now I've finally read that book. Some part of my childhood presumptions had remained, and so I was surprised to find magical realism, despite the fact I've read other books by Rushdie, and so should have had some idea what to expect. He's quite the storyteller - I enjoy the things he does with language. It's a massive book though, of interwoven timelines and dream sequences, and takes some concentration. Even with concentration I feel I lost so much of what was there. and will need to re-read a few times to come close to full appreciation.
    • 5/5
      I loved the writing in this book. I loved the difficult nature of his text. I understand that some people, some very literary people, despise his incessant amount of detail. I think it works, and works marvelously. This book is an experience and I found it wonderfully captivating.
    • 1/5
      I really tried hard to read this book - several times. I just could not penetrate it. Not a book worth dying for.
    • 2/5
      I suspect that this is brilliant fiction. I can tell that it's original and probably revolutionary. However, I lacked enough background knowledge of Islam (except for the very basics) and Indian culture to really "get" this book. I had to look up so many references that about of a quarter of the way through, I realized that this was no longer practical. The story was at times compelling, but I had this constant feeling that I just was missing everything that was truly amazing about it. There were sparkling moments, and I read it all the way through, but I wish I read it in a college class. I professor would've helped. So this "okay" rating is one of an ignorant reader and in no way reflects the quality of the writing.
    • 4/5
      I started reading this book ten years ago, and have been trying to get back to it ever since. I'm proud to say I have now read through to the end. I enjoyed the imagery, the layers of cultures and symbolism, even the plot, but the ending fell a bit flat for me. Towards the end, the characters go even crazier than usual, and the prose deteriorates to illustrate their mental decay, which reads less well than I'd like. I enjoyed reading The Satanic Verses, and might have given it 5 stars if I didn't also feel like it was a bit too much hard work, if I weren't so glad to finally be done with it.
    • 3/5
      I loved listening to this as Rushdie's word have some poetry to them. However, there were some parts that confused me as I did not understand all the religious nuances.
    • 4/5
      The books takes a lot longer to read then you think it would. It was tough to get through the beginning because it is very confusing. The timelines jump back and forth and there are a lot of dream sequences throughout the book. In the end it was completely worth it though. The characters were great (and vast), and it is a very original novel. I really like the ending as this isn't really a book you read for the plot, but it still comes together at the end.
    • 2/5
      This book did not make any sense. I think 500-page dream sequences aren't really my thing. Also, the rather loose use of English sentences was cool for the first few pages, and then it just made the book harder to read.