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The Satanic Verses Paperback – 8 Jan 1998

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Salman Rushdie (Author)
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Salman Rushdie (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars 131 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Paperback: 560 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New Ed edition (8 Jan. 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0963270702
  • ISBN-13: 978-0963270702
  • Product Dimensions: 3.8 x 15.9 x 22.9 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (131 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 7,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon Review

No book in modern times has matched the uproar sparked by Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which earned its author a fatwa from Iran's Ayatollahs decreeing his death. Furore aside, it is a marvellously erudite study of good and evil, a feast of language served up by a writer at the height of his powers and a rollicking comic fable. The book begins with two Indians, Gibreel Farishta ("for fifteen years the biggest star in the history of the Indian movies") and Saladin Chamcha, a Bombay expatriate returning from his first visit to his homeland in 15 years, plummeting from the sky after the explosion of their jetliner, and proceeds through a series of metamorphoses, dreams and revelations. Rushdie's astonishing powers of invention are at their best in this Whitbread Prize winner.

Review

"'A staggering achievement, brilliantly enjoyable' Nadine Gordimer"

"'A masterpiece' Sunday Times"

"'A novel of metamorphosis, hauntings, memories, hallucinations, revelations, advertising jingles and jokes. Rushdie has the power of description, and we succumb' The Times"

"'Damnably entertaining and fiendishly ingenious. One of the very few current writers whose works are attempts at the great Bible, "the bright book of life" ' London Review of Books"

"A great novelist, a master of perpetual storytelling." (V S Pritchett)

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Customer Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 starsControversial Fiction
By Dave_42 on 20 Aug. 2011
Format: Paperback
"The Satanic Verses" is a novel which has been overshadowed by its history. Published in late September of 1988, it was on February 14th in 1989 that a fatwa was issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini against the author Salman Rushdie (Happy Valentine's Day, Salman). The claim was that the book was very insulting to Muslims, and the controversy itself caused many who had never read the book to issue strong opinions about it. It also had the effect of getting many to buy it that otherwise would not have, and stop people from buying and reading it who otherwise might have. I'm sad to admit that I fall into the latter category, having allowed the controversy to steer me away not only from "The Satanic Verses", but from all of Salman Rushdie's works. The loss has been mine.

A story dealing with immigration into a different culture, and the loss of faith, the sections which caused the controversy are the dream sequences of a man who believes he is an angel, and even in the sequence which most applies to the prophet then the names are altered, though clearly Mahound is intended to be a representation of the prophet Muhammad, it is a representation which takes place in the dream of a delusional character. So ultimately, the controversy is about a piece of fiction which includes dreams from an unbalanced mind, and that is pretty much all that needs to be said regarding the supposed blasphemy, and of course free speech still allows one to write what one will, so even if it were blasphemy the violent response to it has been nothing short of obscene.

I found "The Satanic Verses" a difficult read as I struggled with some of his terms, and the narrative structure.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsDemanding, Highly Rewarding Read
By AG on 26 July 2012
Format: Paperback
This is an amazing novel, which isn't given ample credit due to all the nonsense surrounding it.

It's not a breezy read. The prose is elaborate: expect long sentences and big words throughout. This is Rushdie's style, and some people don't like it, finding it impenetrable (or aren't bothered to penetrate it). But really get stuck in, because this is a brilliant novel.

The two main characters fall to England from an exploding plane, then undergo wacky transformations into a devil and an angel. Through their tortured London lives, Rushdie explores the migrant experience and the merging of people and cultures. Good and evil are entangled together in the characters of both men. The result is a vast, layered moral/social dialogue.

The narrative of the prophet Muhammed is genuinely brilliant. It caused a big - fatal - fuss, because it depicts Muhammed admitting the existence of the old Polytheistic deities, then taking it back. Rushdie also brings Muhammed's general reliability into question. For instance, he returns from a lonely ramble in the desert, proclaims to have been contacted by Allah, then gives orders accordingly. What's ingenius is that Rushdie never tries to convince us that Muhammed is a liar - he merely raises the prospect. We, as readers, form our own conclusions.

The story is genuinely engrossing and comic. The characters are deep and tortured. Some of the other reviewers on here seem to have been expecting a beach read. This certainly isn't - it's so much more than that!
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2.0 out of 5 starsUnique, yet confusing and frustrating
By Mr. T. Pooley VINE VOICE on 22 Dec. 2009
Format: Paperback
Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" has polarised opinion to an extent almost unprecedented in the modern era. Some people have viciously condemned the book for its "blasphemous" references to Islam and confusing narrative, while others have applauded the novel for its unique characters and clever storytelling. In reality however, although "The Satanic Verses" remains an intelligent work of fiction, it is ultimately a very difficult and frustrating read.

The story revolves around the two characters Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha who miraculously survive the destruction of an airliner jet. Upon falling thousands of feet through the sky and washing up on the shore of a small English town, Gibreel finds that he has acquired a halo while Saladin begins to develop hooves and horn-like appendages. What follows is an epic tale in which both men come to terms with their transformation, and what this all means in the world's eternal fight between good and evil.

The main problem with "The Satanic Verses" is the unique and original - yet extremely confusing - way in which it is written. Rushdie constantly shifts the narrative between numerous characters, subplots and realms of reality, which requires an awful lot of effort on the part of the reader in order to merely understand how the story is progressing. I have an A-level in English Literature and a postgraduate degree in Middle East studies and although I realise that this does not automatically make me an expert on the subject matter of this book, I believe that the difficulty I had in reading it reflects just how unnecessarily complex the storytelling is.

That said, there are a number of positive aspects to "The Satanic Verses".Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsIt is easy to see how the more

Too my chagrin I come to this volume very late in its history, but, for all that it remains fresh and perhaps even more relevant today. Read more

Published 2 days ago by kaitch
4.0 out of 5 starsQuite tough going but a good read.

This book got better as it progressed. I found that my lack of knowledge of the basics of the Islamic religious "stories" frustrated my reading slightly. Read more

Published 17 days ago by Mrs AK Hodgkiss
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

I was expecting a paperback, but got the hardback. No big deal, but just feeding that back.

Published 27 days ago by TONY MEREDITH
2.0 out of 5 starsTwo Stars

Prolix and dull.

Published 1 month ago by J. M. Andrews
4.0 out of 5 starsI enjoyed the humour

Everybody knows about it, few have actually read it... It is an interesting book in many senses of the word. Read more

Published 1 month ago by helle
3.0 out of 5 starsHard to Follow

I read this book with a view to better understanding the divisions between the faiths. As is often the case, I found myself entering a different world than I had imagined. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Herr Holz Paul
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent!

As interesting as it is controversial!

Published 3 months ago by Jonathan Jack
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

I don't see what is so controversial about it

Published 4 months ago by Colin Jackson
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Excellent

Published 6 months ago by IDOKEKE1968
3.0 out of 5 starsI started to read this thinking it was an analytical ...

I started to read this thinking it was an analytical evaluation of a set of beliefs. I suspect I will have to read some other background books before I can hope to make any sense... Read more

Published 7 months ago by J H.

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