Reviews for The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie

The average rating for The Cambridge Companion to Salman Rushdie based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-06-12 00:00:00 Ryan Arroyo Helpful in giving context to Rushdie's writing works. Explained the Fatwa fairly well, and highlighted the particular parts of the Verses, which were so offensive to Islam. Some chapters were highly academic, mostly a specific strain of post-colonialism. Several chapters highly enlightening, some not really relevant, as I'm not intending on further exploring Rushdie's other works. At least one chapter was a particular kind of academic discourse which illustrates the reason why academics are sometimes known as irrelevant, unable to communicate with ordinary people, highhanded. 70% of this Oxford companion was definitely worth reading (various authors), and several chapters I will consider re-reading. Given the reaction of the Ayatollah in Iran, I hadn't realised how India centric (and ex-pats in the UK) was Rushdie's focus. Read in conjunction with The Satanic Versus, and Attar's The Conference of the Birds. Fascinating overview of the way Rushdie became a lightning rod for debates about free speech, including among people who often, notoriously, hadn't actually read him. I am not longer in that camp... If anything, has diminished my feelings of empathy for Islam.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-13 00:00:00 Davidd Gongora Eloquent language and descriptions, along with a gift for telling a story. I'm really taking the time to read this book and to savor the way he crafts each sentence. So far, one of my favorite description is from "The Legend of L'ile Derniere" in which he writes, "A group of oaks at Grande Isle I remember as especially suggestive: five stooping silhouettes in line against the horizon, like fleeing women with streaming garments and wind-blown hair, -bowing grievously and thrusting out arms desperately northward as to save themselves from falling."