The Willow in Autumn: Ryutei Tanehiko, 1783-1842 Book

This book is a reader's guide which focuses on Salman Rushdie's two most famous novels: Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses. It provides an introduction to Rushdie's writing through the body of criticism these works have generated.
First it explores the initial responses to both of these books, including the political nature of Rushdie's writing. Then the guide explores the attempts made to locate Rushdie's novels within literary and cultural traditions, exploring intertextual relations with texts such as Günther Grass's The Tin Drum, the Mahabharata and Ramayana among many others.
Another chapter examines Rushdie's engagement with history, historicism and nationhood. Theses issues are central to the postcolonial debate, therefore necessary when there is an examination of Rushdie's status as a postcolonial writer.
There is another chapter exploring the relationship between Rushdie's fiction and his treatment of migrancy and hybridity. There is also a section dedicated to Rushdie's depiction of women. And finally, the guide addresses the political and potentially offensive nature of Rushdie's writing, including the development of the so-called "Rushdie affair".
This guide will be mostly useful for scholars. Some chapters are too technical for a general reader, however, some of them are quite accessible and, I think, indispensable to western readers who lack knowledge of the history of India or Islam.