Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

Would have been 5 stars, but I wish there was any discussion of what an abolitionist approach to dealing with religious radicalization could be. Nonetheless, excellent.

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fanchera's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

2.25

I struggled to get through this book. While I am very sympathetic to what the author experienced, no one should ever have to face a brutal attack, have to fight for their life and be left permanently disfigured. It’s very sad that he became a victim of a horrendous attack. My issue with this book was the author’s attitude. It’s quite evident that he grew up affluent and privileged. That is neither here nor there. It was his narcissistic attitude about life in general and also how it all relates to the care he received. His expectations were quite over the top. I did not enjoy his pretentious writing and it’s obvious that he put many middle class citizens far below where he sees himself. It’s his story to tell. I just didn’t enjoy the attitude in which he spoke or how he put others so far beneath himself.

An example of something that rubbed me the wrong way. When his assailant is arrested and they are preparing for trial, he decides that he’s fine with his assailant taking a plea deal and getting out of prison after serving 30 years because, since he would be 116 years old, he would never have to worry about his assailant hunting him down again in his lifetime. But his assailant would be 54 when he would come up for parole. Which, to me, is still young enough to commit another crime, to attack another innocent civilian whose beliefs don’t align with his. To me, that’s a very selfish attitude to have, let alone admit to openly.

I am a pretty sympathetic person but as his story goes on I felt less and less toward him because he comes across as such an unlikable person. By the end I was void of much emotion at all. And for me that is very difficult to digest. How can I feel that way about someone who has been stabbed by a complete stranger 15 times?! I was more sympathetic to him as a complete stranger and less sympathetic now that I’ve had a glimpse of his thoughts and how he would see him as a lowly nurse.

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coffeenquotations's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

5.0

I will always appreciate Salman Rushdie’s works. Fiction or non-fiction, they hold many well written & universal truths without being pompous or condescending. Rushdie has done this again with Knife. A near death experience is, of course, harrowing to say the least. But a near death experience that has been hanging over one’s head & at the hand’s of someone who has chosen to hate you based on merely their idea of you is another matter. While it’s unlikely most if not almost all of us will experience something like this, I think Knife is an important read— to know what happened from Rushdie’s perspective, sure, but also for the wisdom & humanity that is within his word. These lessons could be carried into all of our lives.

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veldadraws's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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samchase112's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

Here I go again, continuing my streak of reading famous novelist's memoirs before ever picking up their fiction. This was a powerful one, about a devastating and powerful event and the life-changing aftermath. There's no question Salman Rushdie is a thoughtful, opinionated, resilient person, but his kindness, humor, and love for his family are what shone through in this memoir. While I'm not sure it will become a long-term favorite, the first half was extremely moving, and I highly recommend it.

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kjboldon's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

2.0

I am happy for Salman that he survived and sounds happy in his life and marriage, and happy for those who love him that he's alive.

I wish I found this a better book. I found it riddled with tired cliches, especially about his wife. In one sentence he says she and he bopped at a rock concert. I felt like he was writing as if magnanimous about her writing and her art, but felt an undercurrent of condescension and sexism running through it. And that condescension was greatly magnified when he tried to imagine a dialogue between himself and his would-be assassin.

Reading that section I sometimes had to stop, and I sometimes flinched from the page, at the arrogance and ego of Rushdie, even while I could tell he was doing his best to be empathic, and thought he was being magnanimous.

Terrorism is wrong, death threats are wrong and what happened to Rushdie was a tragedy. But this book didn't strike me as insightful or empathic, a complaint I've had with his other writing. It affirmed for me that he is not an artist whose work moves me.

Go in peace and love, Salman and your family. I'm sorry for what happened to you.

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kirstym25's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

3.75

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