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laurel_martin 's review for:
The Satanic Verses
by Salman Rushdie
I really need to stop reading books with magical realism when I know I don't like that style... This is on me. I think this book was objectively well-written and it had themes/messages that I found really powerful and relevant. I love the investigation of religion and morality, agency and fate, colonialism, sexism, etc. However, I did not really enjoy reading it.
This is the third Rushdie book I've read, and probably the one I was able to understand the most. My brain revolts at the beginning of magical realist novels because it is asked to do so much work to understand the narrative beneath the crazy, sporadic words. It just seems like the fanciness (dare I say pretentiousness?) detracts from the ability to voice truth and develop beloved characters. In the Satanic Verses, this was mainly a problem in the first third of the novel, but it got much more coherent as it went on.
This is the third Rushdie book I've read, and probably the one I was able to understand the most. My brain revolts at the beginning of magical realist novels because it is asked to do so much work to understand the narrative beneath the crazy, sporadic words. It just seems like the fanciness (dare I say pretentiousness?) detracts from the ability to voice truth and develop beloved characters. In the Satanic Verses, this was mainly a problem in the first third of the novel, but it got much more coherent as it went on.