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The Satanic Verses
by: Salman Rushdie

Off The Bookshelf's Price: £17.00

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Used Price: £1.04
Collectible Price: £6.99
Third Party New Price: £17.00

Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780670825370
ISBN: 0670825379
Label: Viking
Manufacturer: Viking
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 560
Publication Date: January 01, 1989
Publisher: Viking
Studio: Viking
Sales Rank: 58518

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
No book in modern times has matched the uproar sparked by Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which earned its author a fatwa from Iran's Ayatollahs decreeing his death. Furore aside, it is a marvellously erudite study of good and evil, a feast of language served up by a writer at the height of his powers and a rollicking comic fable. The book begins with two Indians, Gibreel Farishta ("for fifteen years the biggest star in the history of the Indian movies") and Saladin Chamcha, a Bombay expatriate returning from his first visit to his homeland in 15 years, plummeting from the sky after the explosion of their jetliner, and proceeds through a series of metamorphoses, dreams and revelations. Rushdie's astonishing powers of invention are at their best in this Whitbread Prize winner.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Satanic Verses
Without wishing to become embroiled in the controversy surrounding this book, there is no doubting the quality of the writing. This book has a strong fantasy element (not goblins and dragons, but rather events that wouldn't normally occur in the 'real' world) and I have to admit I found the first 150 pages or so slightly confusing, but once I got used to Rushdies style, and the storyline, I found the rest of the book to be completely engaging. Rushdie uses very descriptive language and there are some beautiful phrases littered throughout this book which really highlight particular passages and make you stop to read them again. The story is original and quirky and I enjoyed reading a book i've heard so much about but have never read up until ... Read More:

Rating:

- Wonderfully written and a joy to read
Over the English Channel, a hi-jacked airliner explodes leaving two survivors clinging to each other as they fall. One gains a halo while the other grows horns and goat legs, acting out the ancient battle between good and evil again; but which is which?

This is a very complex book, with many interwoven themes: love, belonging and betrayal being the central ones. Different people will get many different things out of it, but what struck a chord with me was the issues of belonging, and the difficulties of standing between cultures, since this is something I feel on a day-to-day basis.

I also loved the language of the book. Rushdie has a wonderful gift for words and it was a pleasure to let the words drift over you. It also ... Read More:

Rating:

- Disappointed... :(
I bought The Satanic Verses for many different reasons.... the main one being to see why there was so much contorversy surrounding the book....

Even though the book in my opinion was very cleverly written with highly intriguing characters, I don't know, I just didn't enjoy the book. Whilst reading the book I was disappointed as I thought it would offer me more than what it did, which was hardly anything. As a Muslim, I wasn't as offended as others because I thought the book was a higly imaginative work of fiction. I found the characters in the book very intriguing and completely fell in love with the characters of the young teenage girls as I thought they were hilarious and correctly portrayed young teenagers. I liked the cross of cultures ... Read More:

Rating:

- ENTERTAINING, MEMORABLE AND WELL WORTH THE EFFORT
Definitely hard-going - after reading `The Angel Gibreel', I returned straight to the beginning and re-read so as to truly feel I was in the story - but, ultimately, worth the effort. This is a book that requires active engagement with its material and, that being the case, will leave images and thoughts in your mind long after the final page is read.

The dream sequences, while entertaining as (almost) stand-alone pieces, are woven into a similarly entertaining and dream-like narrative. Each section entertains and provokes, and each section has its own story to tell. Piece those elements together and you have very good, almost great, novel.

`Almost' due to the pace and/or length of `Ellowen Deeowen'. However, that leaves another ... Read More:

Rating:

- The biggest load of crap I have ever read!
Satanic Verses is quite frankly the biggest load of crap I have ever had the misfortune to read. Salman Rushdie is both a terrible and untalented writer (maybe the worst I have ever read), who has serious emotional problems. If it wasn't for his attack and attempted satire of Islam, making for a controversial topic, he would never have been recognised as a writer, let alone receive a knighthood for his literary services! With strange twisted plots, far too many characters and the akward writing style, I struggled to find the motivation to continue on to the end of this novel. Should you own a copy - rip it into thousands of pieces, burn it, use it for wiping your bottom next time you run out of toilet paper (you choose) - but whatever you do, don't waste ... Read More:

Books : The Satanic Verses