I started with the Satanic Verses because of its...err... colourful history. It was very heavy reading and I hardly understood the first reading, though the parts about Muhammad's life were were easy because I already had a background of Islam. I've watched some documentaries around the Satanic Verses and find the attention surrounding the book pretty fascinating. I'm overwhelmingly a non-fiction reader though, so I wonder where the book stands as a work of literature, as opposed to the controversy surrounding it?
I liked Shalimar the Clown, couldn't understand a thing about his book of short stories, and gave up on The Enchantress of Florence because I felt rather bored. Where does Rushdie stand in the literary world as a writer? Christopher Hitchens spoke highly of him and I respected Hitchens' opinions and intellect a lot.