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grayjay 's review for:

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
1.0

Having read Midnight's Children and Shame already, I would not have read this if my book club hadn't picked it.

I find Rushdie's books unpleasant. While I can appreciate his unique style, and how his story is grappling with religion vs secularism, and the experience of immigrants, using absurdity and humour, I can't help feeling that what it's really about is physically and morally repugnant men using their power and influence to sleep with beautiful women.

I think what I've realized about maximalism is that I like maximalism of experience, both internal and mundane, like in the memoirs of Knausgaard and Proust, but I'm not a fan of maximalism of plot. There is so much going on and so many unhelpful tangents that I have a hard time knowing what I should care about, and the result is that I don't care about any of it.