The Satanic Verses

I finished it!

Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death after the publication of his book, The Satanic Verses.  His novel follows the lives of two actors, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, starting with their fall from a hijacked airplane over England.  Not only do they survive their fall, they transform into a living incarnation of an angel (Gibreel) and devil (Saladin), to the point where they take on the physical characteristics of each: a halo for Gibreel and a goat-like body for Saladin.

After losing their divine/fallen characteristics, they attempt to regain their normal lives; however, they are obsessively drawn toward each other - both for purposes of revenge.  For Saladin, he wishes to destroy Gibreel's life the way his was ruined.  When Saladin returned to his home in his goat form (after being brutally beaten and humiliated by the police), he discovers his wife in bed with his friend.  He left his home and stayed at a bed & breakfast above the Shaandaar Cafe.  His presence causes a disturbance in the dreams of the people living nearby, forcing him out of the B&B and into a club called Hot Wax, where he has a hissy fit in the basement and regains his human form.  At this point he's determined to destroy Gibreel.

Gibreel, the Golden Boy who fills Saladin's days with misery, has problems of his own.  He finds himself haunted by an ex-mistress, who flung herself (and her children) off of her apartment complex after Gibreel ended it to fly to England to find Alleluia Cone.  And after wandering throughout London in a daze, he miraculously ends up on Alleluia's doorstep, much to his relief.  After a huge fight, Gibreel storms out in a jealous rage and is convinced that he is the archangel Gibreel (granted, talking to the Man Upstairs helped sway his opinion) sent to convert the world.  He tries for a while, but ends up back with Alleluia and his agent, Sisodia.  He has visions (one involving a girl by the name of Ayesha who tells the people of her village to go on a pilgrimage to the ocean; another involves the prophet Mahound) which Sisodia figures can be used as screenplays to boost Gibreel's return to the movie world.

At this point their paths cross again at a party: Gibreel, heavily medicated, describes his perfect life to Saladin but reveals his jealous streak when Gibreel beats Saladin's friend (who is sleeping with Saladin's wife) over the head with an oar!  In a bid to ruin his perfect relationship, Saladin plants the seeds of doubt in Gibreel's mind, causing Gibreel to destroy Alleluia's apartment, and their relationship.  Gibreel ends the night treking through town, again influenced by the notion of being an avenging angel and leaving a path of fire and destruction behind him.  Finding his enemy, Saladin, at the Shaandaar Cafe, he realizes the truth and yet somehow manages to forgive Saladin, to the point of carrying him out of the burning building.

Finding forgiveness from a man he was determined to ruin, Saladin decides that it is time to go see his father, who is now on his deathbed.  Caring for his father has given him a new view on life, so when Gibreel comes to him the night of his father's funeral and points a gun at him, Saladin is scared.  Gibreel then turns the gun on himself and ends his nightmares.  Saladin, who has re-adopted his real name Saladduhin Chamchawalla and has reconnected with a fling-turned-love feels pity towards the man who seemed so perfect, but was haunted to the point of killing his lover and taking his own life.

Wow - was this book ever difficult to wade through.  Salman has a poetic way of writing that is very beautiful to read, but has caused this book to be at least 4 times longer than it would've been if he spoke more plainly.  The story has a tendency to jump around from one man's view point to another and then it will jump back in time to explain the story up until that point.  It also goes into detail about the visions that Gibreel has and which I'm not entirely sure if they were dreams or something more.  I don't understand certain aspects of the story, like whether it was a coincidence that certain names from Saladin's life were repeated in Gibreel's dreams; if Saladin's wife and lover were set up to take the blame for a terrorist group or if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

I imagine this is a book where several reads are necessary to understand the whole story - as long as you have a dictionary, a science dictionary and several religious texts nearby so you can put the stories in to context.

I enjoyed this book very much: I love the way he writes and I like the way he challenges you to think while reading.  As you go through the book there are several "ah-hah!" moments where you feel like you're finally starting to understand the storyline.  And then he promptly switches directions, leaving you scrambling to catch up again.  I was a little surprised when Gibreel and Saladin have their confrontation in the burning building only to have them forgive eachother.  There was so much buildup at that point and I was really excited to see how it would end.  By the time the end did come, it was anticlimatic and out of the blue.  And the revelation of Alleluia's death was a shock.  I had read the Wiki-version of the story, so I knew that it ended in tragedy but it definitely didn't happen the way I expected!

In short, don't read it if you expect an easy read, but I thought it was worth the trouble.

In The Works: The Satanic Verses

The next book to be read for the Banned Book Club is called The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie.  I'm about half way through and am, so far, enjoying the book.

The story can be confusing at times, especially at the beginning.  It also jumps around a little in the timeline, so by the time you've figured out what's going on, it's switched again.  However, despite that, I am enjoying it. 

It starts out with the main characters falling out of the plane and it leaves them there to go on to their respective childhoods and formative years.  It also explains about how they ended up on the plane in the first place, and about the terrorists who end up denotating a bomb onboard.  It then jumps to a desert town where water is evil and considered the destroyer; in this town there is a Messanger by the name of Mahound who has been consulting with an angel, Gibreel.  The story then takes us back to where the two main characters have landed, unharmed, upon a beach in England and meet an elderly woman.  Gibreel stays with her and Saladin is arrested.  At this point, Gibreel has a halo and Saladin has grown horns and hooves.  Both eventually make their way back to their respective homes in London proper.

Like I said, a little confusing.  However, because the story jumps around so much, I find myself compelled to keep reading on, to know how they got to that point.  How did Gibreel end up being an angel in the middle of nowhere when he's currently living in London?  And whatever happened to Saladin?  See, now I'll have to keep reading to find out!