The Satanic Verses

As I'm currently only able to listen to books I thought I'd take the oportunity to 'absorb' books I wouldn't normally get around to reading... however this book was absolutely beautiful from the opening sentence. It was like listening to a persian carpet, many intricate stories woven together to leave an overall piece of art. So many very visually inspiring descriptions and considering when it was written, it is even more appropriate for the current friction between various religions,and inspired me to now learn more about various religious texts.
The narrator was perfect, capturing the various characters, the only difficulty was distinguishing the characters from one another with the similar sounding names, I could have done with a short list of the characters names to familiarize myself with them, or to refer to periodically.

A well narrated tale which might well be subtitled look at me, how clever I am, it has smug running through the entire book like a stick of seaside rock , though for all that there are sections of the highest quality

Not quite what I expected, but then what book ever is? Rushdie is such a very good writer and the subject very controversial at the time of publishing, that I expected something 'unexpected'. Now that we have experienced for many years the controversial rants and media 'expertise' it seemed a little tame. However, a really good story and would recommend it to anyone.

I have avoided this book in the past due to the controversy surrounding it. Well, I am sorry that I have left it this long. Not only is it a great story but this is easily one of Salman Rushdie's better book. I find him rather prone to being wordy but here it is concise and the story telling very easy to follow. If you wish to only read one of his books, make it this one. Highly recommended. Ignore the controversy.

Highly intellectual and I'm sure a great deal of this book went over my head. For me I found it to be an interesting exploration of how we can come to be defined by other peoples opinions and expectations be they bigoted or not; along with the theme of fair-is-foul and foul-is-fair.



There is also some great humour to be found in this book.



Be prepared for the genre of magical realism though where anything can and does happen, while be treated as perfectly normal.



The narration is excellent and the humour comes across.

The Satanic Verses gives an interesting insight into the Anglo Indian community and mind-set and Sam Dastor does an excellent job narrating, his range gives each of the characters depth and a sense of uniqueness, but not being part of the Anglo Indian community I felt I was missing out on a lot of the context and motivations behind the characters actions.



Of course the controversy surrounding the content of The Satanic Verses means that a lot of people won’t even pick it up, my only suggestion would be to do your research before you purchase it, if you think you will like it then I’m sure you will love it, if its outside your usual reading spectrum then like me you might feel you missed something significant that could have made this a great read.

I attempted to read this book in print several times and really struggled. I decided to give the audiobook ago and it was great - the accents of the narrator really help to put the indian slag into perspective and the language sounds even more lyrical when read aloud. Its long, but worth a listen.

I struggled through many parts of this book and was close to givng up at times. However, I am so pleased that I stuck with it. I know a reasonable amount about the Islamic faith and this is a definite advantage. It is one of those books that stays with you for a long time after having read it.

Rushdie's the Satanic Verses is so marvellously, floridly, verbosely descriptive that it's easy at first to get lost in his moment and lose sight of the rich narrative that he is weaving. However, do stick with it. As you become familiar with the characters and the three intertwined stories, Rushdie works his magic to construct a fascinating narrative that explores good and evil. This is a wonderful book that I highly recommend.

If you were expecting an interesting tale about the evils of Islam as has been reported in the media and why a fatwa? was
placed upon the author then you'll be disappointed. Unless you are oxbridge educated with a degree in english literature and religion you won't understand it. But then again, you may be one of those artistic types who see the merits of a monkey painted canvas and will absolutely love it. I gave up after the first 30 mins. I even fast forwarded looking for a point when the gibberish stopped and the really tale began but it didn't. Only giving it one star because I have to.