A Lazy Sunday & A Book

There have not been very many of them this year so far. And I doubt there will be many ahead. It is hard (busy) work getting married!

After having borrowed a book from the library for well over 9 weeks(!!) I finally managed to finish it today. It was waiting for such a day I guess. When I was not jibing away to the computer or out in the market or attending to the Sunday socials. As if I was left out of all this so that I could just sit back and get absorbed in the book without any distractions :)

Well what can I say about the book - The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie, a lot has been written about it already. To be honest, I had to refer to Wikipedia to recognise the portions in it which inspired the 'fatwa' against the author. As a non-Muslim person I fail to see anything anti-religion in. In fact if at all, it does through various anecdotes establishes the presence of God and His power of 'directing' the worlds we assume we are in control of.

Being a resident in a country other than my own, makes me see some of the hatred spewed for immigrants in the book. I am glad though, if anything, situation has not worsened from what was written decades ago. (The economic crisis has sprouted some debates but then they are for entirely different reasons)
The characters in the book are named after those described in the Quran, and unless I read about them - Ayesha, Mishal, Suleman etc. I might not completely understand the links the author was trying to establish. For me, each of the character described are not separate people but facets of an average human being - jealously in Gibreel, revenge in Chamcha, insecurities in Allie, greed in Changez and so on. I must say I am yet to come across any other account of human nature/mind in such details. Impressed.

The book is definitely a heavy read and perhaps a re-read, but for sure it has the content to deserve it. It is my second Rushdie (Midnight's Children was first & liked better because of the non-cryptic text) and I have not been disappointed. (Even if for non-Quran reading folks like me will have to keep going back to Google to get the connections sorted!)

By the way, while I was reading, the clouds came & rained. Guess it is time for me to hit the high street :)