This is an amazing book. I've read and re-read this countless times. Okay - so I find Rushdie a touch arrogrant and lardy-da pretentious when I see his interviews on TV, but giving credit where it's due, this collection of non-fiction essays and personal reflections is the best collection of essays I have read to date from any author.
On the subject of the fatwa, Rushdie in an essay dated Feb 1999 writes: "Yes, all right, on February 14 it will be ten years since I received my unfunny Valentine." He describes the conflict between wanting to continue to his love of writing literature, and yet having to defend his right to live in the face of bigotry and ignorance.
Rushdie writes on a wide variety of subjects. His observations on that classic film 'The Wizard of Oz' with it's subliminal messages are sheer brilliance and extremely funny at times. On the creator of Oz: "Frank Baum did not make up the ruby slippers. He called them Silver Shoes. Baum believed that America's stability required a switch from the gold to the silver standard, and the shoes were a metaphor of the magical advantages of Silver". However, in later script changes, the shoes were changed from silver to ruby because the film was going to be produced in colour.
In other essays, he writes of his love for football (soccer), the political challenges of adapting Midnight's Children for television, the 9/11 attacks, the bible bigots who enforce the teaching of creationism in American mid-west schools, and the contrasting prospects for progress and modernity between India and Pakistan.
An excellent read. 9/10.
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