A review by jcstokes95
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.25

 One of my most anticipated released of 2024, but one that delivered something different than expected. My overall sense of this is that Rushdie felt he needed to write this to move through the trauma of being attacked. You get the sense that he is just saying what he needs to say so he can finally be free of talking about this. Luckily, Rushdie is a very smart man and there are some sections that are really evocative. But as a whole, nothing quite comes together as a clear message of the piece. But, in a way, that’s how it’s sold, as “meditations” on the attack. 

It feels very much like reading a journal, he talks about the day of the attack and the medically traumatic aftermath. But woven in are his thoughts about aging, second chances, his own reputation, his family and the loving support of his friends. It feels very immediate, by which I mean, I often wondered if this would be a different book had he waited five years to write it. There is also a chapter solely focused on what he’d say if he could have a conversation with his attacker, which felt like the weakest part of the book to me; particularly since the other portions are absent references to him. I wonder if Rushdie felt a pressure to process this publicly. I just feel like the parts around protecting speech were far stronger than the actual conversation. 

Most compelling quote from this whole piece: 
“These sessions were where I learned the first lesson of free expression- that you must take it for granted. If you are afraid of the consequences of what you say, then you are not free.” 

I loved this sentiment, especially in an era where so many are censoring themselves in advance of political sea changes. Rushdie counts it for the cowardice it is. It reminds me of a thing Ta-Nahesi Coates said when I went to see him speak about The Message. When deciding if he should pursue the project with his wife, he talked about what he might lose things by writing on such controversial subjects. And his wife told him if they lost things for speaking truth to power, then it was “never really theirs”. 

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