The Satanic Verses

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Summary: Something for everyone
Review: It is facile to suggest that this book can only be appreciated by those with a detailed knowledge of Islam or India or migration or any other single aspect of its content. This is by far Rushdie's most human novel, far more free from historical and religious metaphors than many of his others. Extremes of certainty is fundamental to us all, as is the crisis of their loss. Gibreel pursues love to fill his 'God shaped hole', Chamcha, alienated from his own culture, is brutally rejected by the Britishness to which he aspires. There is a lot here, noone gets it all but whatever religious conotations have dominated the perception of this book they are deliberate dream sequences (ambiguous in their intent perhaps but there is such a thing as benefit of the doubt) created by a disturbed mind, and very much human in context. This is not a religious book, anyone who has ever questioned a basic certainty will relate to it and learn from it. This is literature, not history, not commentary and not religious debate. Rushdie does what all great writers do, he writes about what he knows in a context of what he has experienced in an effort to link inconceivably different lives. Good and evil, continuity and transformation, experience and experience, become inexorable. Form your own opinion, but please look to the context first and the content second.

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Summary: Entertaining, involving look at postcolonial migration.
Review: If the reader is willing to set aside the controversy surrounding this book (which, I imagine has subsided since 1989), it is a fine example of the postmodern form and how the English language has been transformed by writers "colonized" by the English language. Though the magico-realism style of writing is an old trick, Rushdie's use of the idiom in today's context is effective, and his portrayal of how migrants are faced with dissolving definitions of "good" and "evil" (personified by the book's two main characters Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha)is illuminating to anyone who has experienced "migration" in any form. The book is witty and takes the reader on a journey through a lush imaginative landscape.

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Summary: totally funny, and i say that with guilt *snicker*
Review: I don't understand why this book would make any sense for anyone not familiar with both the Indian cinema and Islamic history. It is excellent writing, in a typical Rushdie style, but it can not be separated from the implications in every event and dialogue to history. With all the fervor about the book, and guilt trips from all around, I had changed the names of the characters in my head when I first read it, like saying Gibreel instead of Jibreel. Satanic verses had me rolling on the floor and running down the halls at school, laughing. And most of these hilarious scenes were tragic in reality, like death from the sound of airplanes.

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Summary: What is so heretical about it?
Review: The "death penalty" is not important (at least not for the readers). Let's neglect the whole political context of it. But, if term "Contemporary World Novel" does exist, that would be it. European, yet so oriental; vivid, yet so slow in its richness! However, Mr. Rushdie succeeded in achieving the main goal for the writer: to tell a good story

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Summary: Positive impression, but not Rushdie's greatest novel
Review: Your reviewer of the 20th February gives the impression of not having read this book. It is absurd to suggest that Mr Rushdie has merely 'stolen' and degraded a story from Islamic culture. While this may not be Rushdie's greatest novel (subjectively, I would rate it lower than both 'Midnight's Children' and 'The Moor's Last Sigh'), surely one of its most remarkable achievements is in the way in which he synthesises material from the Islamic tradition with pure fiction. It is unfortunate that this book mainly became famous through the fundamentalist reaction to it

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Summary: A poorly written book with masterpiece potential
Review: I agree that if this book wasn't so controversial it would have never been picked up by anyone at all.Although the characters are well-conceived and can trully be felt for,there are more loose ends at the end of this book than any book,movie,etc. than I'd ever seen in my life.Some of the scenes are down right superflous.I give this book a five because I think there are wonderful things and horrible things about the way it's written.Rushdie is actually a good story-teller in serious need of a good editor

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Summary: The unforgivable sin? Not reading this book!
Review: For anyone who is not Islamic, or with the Quoran, as I was not when I first read this book, it is an eye opening experience into the beauty and wonder of that belief. The imagery is breathtaking, and the overall moral nature inspiring. I can certainly understand why an Islamic fundementalist might be extremely agitated by the contents; but without this book, I might never have appreciated the faith as much. Perhaps someday someone will do as fine a job of supplying a parody of the Bible so we can see what the right wing fundemendalist Christians do about it. I can only hope for an outstanding work like this to come along again

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Read.
Review: Interesting read about self-identity, integration, prejudices..etc. in Western society, human faults/tendencies, love, faith, power, sucess..etc. from an Indian point of view. I gave it 4 stars because, although entertaining, especially the second half of the book, I find the author's writing style a little tedious at times, especially during the first half of the book and perhaps a tad haphazard. Also, it's not a book I could say I would pick up years down the road to read again.

Rating:
Summary: The Satanic Verses
Review: I had this book(I bought many books, because I didn't have test- was growing under communist regim, all satanic things were like relatives to us ) since I wasn't Muslim.Sure nothing bother me, but now I know - I lost time reading it.

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Summary: The Satanic Verses is a summary of human nature
Review: The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie is one complex novel. It's been said that one needs to be familiar with the teachings of Islam and its culture to understand the mischievous humor that enraged a certain ayatollah and sent Salman Rushdie, out of fear for his head, into hiding. But because The Satanic Verses is complex and written on several levels, there is something profound in it that will touch everyone. Anyone who has ever been on the suffering side of a prejudiced society will relate to this book. Anyone who has ever felt such intense love for a person that they will drop everything including their livelihood and travel across the globe just to be with this person will relate to this book. Anyone who has ever experienced a lifetime of such passionate self-hate and then given a second chance to redeem themselves will relate to this book. Anyone who has ever lacked faith in God and then witnessed a miracle so incredible that the experience left them speechless will relate to this book. In other words, if you've ever experienced life, you will relate to this book.