I'd like to see them try to make a movie out of this...

I have finally finished Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses,” after several months of on-again off-again reading (pausing now and then to read more “mindless” books that required little thought), and searching for commentaries on the text that would not only help me wade through the myriad metaphors, but also translate the many random Urdu/Arabic/Hindi words scattered throughout the story. And now that I’ve finished it, I have to say – wow. I’m not sure what I expected before I started the book, but it turned out to be so different from anything I could’ve envisioned. Completing the book was like reaching the end of some kind of fantastic journey – a trip where you saw so many amazing things, and learned so many foreign customs, and collected so much knowledge and so many memories that you’re almost loath to return to your mundane, everyday existence. There were so many threads woven into this book’s story that I feel like I could re-read it immediately and catch more details I missed the first time – this is part of the reason I took so long to finish the entire book. There were days when I would read a mere 30 or 40 pages, and feel like I’d devoured a wealth of creativity and thought-provoking images. This is not the kind of book you want to speed-read… skip over a sentence, and you might miss something profound…

It’s hard to even say what the “story” was about in this book. The concrete part of the novel is thus: (and this, by the way, is a technique quite often employed by Rushdie in his writing – the use of an introductory phrase, followed by a colon: “This happened: He observed this: Listen:” etc…) Two men – Saladin Chamcha and Gibreel Farishta – are on a hijacked plane, which terrorists blow up over the English Channel. So, at thirty thousand feet or thereabouts, Saladin and Gibreel tumble out of the sky, hurtling toward the earth, obviously in a situation that no one could ever conceivably survive. So what happens? Why, they both survive, of course.

But that is where the “concrete” part of the novel ends and the “what is going on here?” part begins. After they fall to the earth, Saladin and Gibreel both undergo strange metamorphoses – of course, it’s not always clear what is supposed to be a “literal” metamorphosis, and what is merely symbolic or imagined. Saladin, the more reserved of the two, begins to change into a devil-like creature, complete with horns and hooves… while Gibreel – an outgoing, arrogant movie-star – begins to change into a halo-crowned angel (namely, Gibreel the archangel). But is Saladin LITERALLY growing horns and hooves? Does Gibreel LITERALLY have a visible light glowing around his head? Or are these descriptions meant to reflect some of the emotions the men are now internalizing after their brush with death? Is the whole thing simply an illustration of the “evil” and “good” inside all people?

At times the answers are obvious – like one particular passage where Gibreel is certain his archangel status has transformed him into something larger than life. He feels it is necessary to have the attention of the London populace, but even as he looms over the city, casting a gigantic shadow on the highway and watching tiny cars zoom below him, no one pays him any notice. So he decides to take drastic measures and heave his giant feet onto the highway, where he is certain he will crush several cars – but at least then he’ll have everyone’s attention. What results, of course, is not Gibreel crushing a car, but rather a car almost crushing the very-normal-man-sized Gibreel. At other times, however, the answers aren’t as obvious – Saladin does, in fact, take refuge with a kind family who are willing to hide him even when he begins to take on the form of a man-goat, and they do seem to see in him the same things he sees in himself. Eventually, though, his appearance returns to normal – although the “evil” that was awakened inside him later appears again in an attempt to destroy Gibreel.

Saladin and Gibreel take on an “archenemy” type relationship – Saladin hating Gibreel because the latter man never attempted to help him during his bizarre metamorphosis… and Gibreel, convinced he is the archangel, certain the changed Saladin is his enemy. And woven within the entire novel are Gibreel’s “dreams” – stories within the story that at times seem random, but upon further reflection are very subtly and skillfully intertwined to the rest of the book. There is SO much that happens in this book, and, I would guess, so many different interpretations of what everything means…

And I thought it was funny that as I neared the end of the book this morning, I came across this passage, spoken by Saladin Chamcha as he attempted to secure a visa: “’I’ll tell you who I am,’ Chamcha bellowed… ‘I’m the poor bastard who got blown up by terrorists, fell thirty thousand feet out of the sky because of terrorists, and now because of those same terrorists I have to be insulted by pen-pushers like you.’” Interesting, isn’t it, that I should not only read this particular passage on 9/11, but also that this book was written back in 1988? Apparently the disruption of people’s daily lives because of a handful of cowardly, moronic idiots has been a problem for quite a while now… in fact, The Satanic Verses touches on so many timely issues – racism, religious fanaticism, political disputes, actors and actresses in obvious need of rehab – that at times I totally forgot I was reading a book that was written almost two decades ago.

I’d have to say this was one of the best books I’ve ever read, if only for the fact that it’s one of the most INTERESTING books I’ve ever read – it’s unlike anything else in my personal library. I doubt I know ANYONE who would actually sit down and read the entire thing… which is too bad, because it would be fun to discuss it with someone else who’d read it. But in order to read this book, it probably helps to be slightly nutter-butter to begin with – because then all the bizarre imagery doesn’t HAVE to make sense. If it’s a bit nonsensical, so what? It is, in the end, a book about life – and since when does life make sense anyway?