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julesdmuells 's review for:
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
by Salman Rushdie
informative
fast-paced
Salman Rushdie was in his 70s, awaiting publication of his 21st book, and going onstage to speak about ensuring the safety of controversial writers, when a man rushed the stage and stabbed him 15 times. This is his memoir of the event and the year that followed.
Unfortunately, the premise is more interesting than the book.
He provides details of what he remembers of the attack, then details the weeks and months of recovery of physical therapy afterwards. He spends a chapter having an imaginary conversation with his attacker, making up what he would say; in this chapter you remember he's a novelist. Toward the end he pivots from his personal experience to a condemnation of letting your politics and your religion interact, and says religion is worthy of disrespect. A lifelong atheist and now a man who's been blinded and traumatized by a Muslim man, I can understand this response to his experience, but personally I hadn't found the book terribly compelling and now I soured on it toward the end.
Felt more like a journal he needed to write for his own sake in the pursuit of healing, rather than a book interesting and instructive for others to pick up.
Unfortunately, the premise is more interesting than the book.
He provides details of what he remembers of the attack, then details the weeks and months of recovery of physical therapy afterwards. He spends a chapter having an imaginary conversation with his attacker, making up what he would say; in this chapter you remember he's a novelist. Toward the end he pivots from his personal experience to a condemnation of letting your politics and your religion interact, and says religion is worthy of disrespect. A lifelong atheist and now a man who's been blinded and traumatized by a Muslim man, I can understand this response to his experience, but personally I hadn't found the book terribly compelling and now I soured on it toward the end.
Felt more like a journal he needed to write for his own sake in the pursuit of healing, rather than a book interesting and instructive for others to pick up.