Rating: 
Summary: Read with an open mind
Review: Many consider this book blasphemic, but despite my religious affiliation, I consider this a good piece of fiction. Rushdie's Anglo Indian paradox and words (phrases) might not be understood by readers in the Western hemisphere, but having Indian/Pakistani background, one can try to get the jest and intention of the writer. Before you discredit it, read the book for yourself with an open mind. Rushdie has a lot to offer.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm sorry I read it.
Review: When I started reading the book, I thought something wonderful was going to happen. But, unfortunately, with no sense of humor,I read thousands of words written aimlesly. I would sentence this author to death to make sure he won't write aimless work again.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellence in poetic-prose.
Review: A tidal wave of emotion and serious Islamic issues in a more ficticious manner plunge the reader of this magnificent book into a world of thoughts that can only be described by the exact words of the book itself. Some criticize this book harshly, for what reasons I can not see, because clearly, if read, the extents that Mr. Rushdie reaches, will also reach inside the reader, and these most powerful words of his written in the most profound way, will certainly move you, as they have moved me. This book is written to understand the feeling that drives his thoughts to where they are and will be driven.
Rating:
Summary: What a waste of time
Review: I belong to a book club and this was chosen as our book of the month. I thought that it was just dreadful. After reading "Midnight's Children," I couldn't believe a book of his could be so bad.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible, more Vonnegutian than Vonnegut!
Review: I haven't read a book so intense in human emotions since Slaughterhouse V. The intelligent attitudes towards religion and the conflict of good and evil truly provoke a love/hate response from the reader. However, it doesn't present a truly one-sided view of Islam, so I can hardly imagine why it would deserve a death warrant.Quite a book of our times, and likely to be remembered as a classic.
Rating:
Summary: No Stars;The Joke Book of the Century!
Review: During my twenty-two years of full-time education, with two Doctorates from six Universities in American and Europe, and with an insatiable and unquenchable thirst for reading and knowledge - The Satanic Verses is the worst book I've ever had the displeasure of purchasing and reading. I can only belive that the ayatollah must have put out his contract on Rushdie - if at all - because of his ineptmess as an author - not for his libel of Islam! Don't waste your time on this book! Sincerely, Dr. W. Eugene Neill
Rating:
Summary: Re-claiming Freedom of Thought
Review: As a reseach student on Rushdie's narratives, I'd like to make two central points about The Satanic Verses. First, the novel is an epic of migration that challenges illusions of fixed identity. Rushdie's two protagonists, Gibreel Farishta and Salahuddin who are hybrids because of their diverse cultural constructions, are able to shape British culture exactely because of their 'in-betweeness'. Their Eastern sensibility is central to participating in the project of modernity. These two protagonists, being double outsiders in the rank of intellectuals like Marx, Durkheim, Freud, James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, T. S Eliot and Kafka promote an 'emancipatory' vision of cultural interconnetedness. Second, Rushdie re-inscribes an Islamic and Arab tradition of freedom of thought established by Muslim intellectuals in the 7th century. These, mainly, philosophers, poets and theologians calling themselves Al-M'uatazilla (the word etymologically means seperatists)tried to engage with sacred material and developed a system of rationalisation. The novel is too complex for anyone to categorise as one thing. It explores so many themes of love, passion, metamorphosis, dislocation-in short, it tells so many stories from both the 'East' and the 'West' in order to remind all of us, dwellers of now a 'global village', that to be 'human' in the late 20th century is to painstakingly strive for solid grounds under our feet.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing is real, and nothing to get hung about
Review: "Satanic Verses" is probably the best novel of the last 25 years. It tackles many issues quite intelligently, like religion (as everybody knows), colonialism, fame, migration, adventure, and what life is all about. The opening scene is shocking (two men falling from a plane 30,000 feet in the air and growing angelic wings) and the ending is perhaps one of the saddest and most poignant passages ever written.
Rating:
Summary: A testament to religion in this age
Review: When I began reading this book I had no idea what it was about or about the writer. My teacher had attempted to read it but had only finished a good ten pages. After finishing I can only say how incredable it was. Salman truly proves that writing is like music. Every piece has its own complexity. Sometimes you have to be able to look beneath the surface or you can never get to a works true beauty.
Rating:
Summary: Best book
Review: I read a lot, and this is the best book I've ever read. As a Westerner who's spent a lot of time in India and studying Indian culture (as well as Islam) I truly appreciate Rushdie's cultural and religious insights. Even without that perspective, his observations on humanity are familiar to us all. A MUST READ for any educated person.
|
