What are Your Thoughts on Salman Rushdie?

Confess!

and found others unreadable.

Left me yawning and wondering :wtf:

The dude made his career out of self promotion and pissing everyone off.

However, he sure pissed off a lot of people, so he must have done something right.

I've read some of his others, though, and I gotta say, he's hilarious! He's got a terrific sense of humor. B-)

to speak to our seminar and he had to cancel. :mad:

I definitely agree with you

If it's the one I'm thinking of - salmon over a bed of rice with a light cream sauce, right?

I thought 'Hey, that's pretty good stuff, that.'
Not reading very well today I guess.

Salman Rushie? Don't know about his books, but I love to see a guy piss off right wing nutjobs.

understand India/Pakistan. Some of his other work is not as compelling as those two books.

Generally, I think Rushdie is a good writer and one of the preeminent sources to go to if you are interested in a Middle Eastern frame of reference. He is not the best writer on that subject IMO. The best is Naguib Mahfouz.

I recommend the poetry of Kishwar Naheed... if you like poetry and want to know more about life in Pakistan...

but I agree that she has a unique voice for that society. The whole notion of feminist arabic poetry is bizzare in itself.

so it doesn't seem so strange to me...

But I respect him for what he did and think he is a very brave man.

i'm not sure why i haven't read him, probably figured it's a bunch of angsty religious stuff that wouldn't interest me, but i see some in thread say he's a fine humorist so now i'm more intrigued

the ex is marianne wiggins who apparently tired of living in safe houses after the fatwa (who wouldn't)

two exceptional novels of hers that i have read are john dollar, a desert island story, and almost heaven, which reminds me a bit of don delillo in its use of language and its affection/warmth for the characters

another well-regarded novel is evidence of things unseen, i liked it too, and it's quite moving, but the other two are just so exceptional that they blew me away and are in a category of their own

again, not into muslim or any other kind of religious angst these days, too old for that, but if rushdie has some funny stuff, i will definitely look into it

His contribution to the fiscal health of his publisher merits a certain level of marketing and other support that other writers, as good or better, do not get because they did not have the fortune (note I did not say good fortune, if you please) of becoming notorious. His writing seems self-centered to me; that is, he writes the same goddamn novel over and over again. I recommend "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" as his work that I most enjoy.

So it's not as if he wasn't on the radar of the literati for a good while before becoming famous. I can see what you are getting at with the repitiion and self-indulgence though. I like Midnight's Children best, and also really like Haroun.

Like most of the rest of his output, but I do think he is a bit overpraised due to his notority. The only one I really disliked was 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet."

and I don't know why certain people have their panties in a twist over a 20 year old book. I am willing to bet that the people burning those Rushdie effigies never read Satanic Verses.

He's very charming and very witty!