Salman Rushdie... what do you think of his writings?

[fajfall]

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.

[Danik 2016]

I like the older works of Salman Rushdie very much specially this one and The Midnight´s Children. Shame is also interesting.They are not easy to read though because they are tipically post modern and Rushdie who is very well aquainted with oriental and ocidental legends and traditions uses a lot of references and writing techniques in his books. His novels combine History and Allegory, learned and popular genres and they are the product of a very fertile imagination.

[kev67]

I have read Satanic Verses, but I wish I hadn't bothered.

[mona amon]

I've only read Midnight's Children. I did not love it, but I thought it was quite good, and quite deserving of its "Booker of Bookers" honour. Somehow I've never felt like reading Satanic Verses, even though its still banned in my country as far as I know.

[mortalterror]

He's a bit overrated because of the fatwa and resulting celebrity. I guess I'd place his talent level around the John Updike/Norman Mailer level; good but a rung or two below the absolute best modern novelists Hemingway/Faulkner.

As far as Christopher Hitchens speaking highly of him, it probably didn't hurt that they were both militant atheists who had a lot of nasty things to say about Islam. Sometimes a writer's politics have as much to do with how we think of their work as their aesthetics. Let's remember that Hitchens was also best friends with Martin Amis and would boost his awful writing too.