I like Salman Rushdie's novels and I enjoyed The Satanic Verses. Rushdie crafts engaging sentences and compelling plots. They do meander and I get lost...then sometimes I think he wanders too far in his narrative and loses me.
More a man's writer than a woman's? Maybe just one that I enjoy but never pick as my favorite? No matter...Rushdie still gets me buying and reading.
I love Joseph Anton, however. I would even go so far as to call it among my all time favorites in the biography and autobiography genre ever. And I love the genre.
Joseph Anton was Rushdie's adopted name during his time in hiding after a Fatwa was announced (proclaiming his death and offering $1 million to whomever achieved it).
The book is great. Want to live vicariously through a best selling author with brilliant and accomplished literary friends? See how he writes and crafts his novels? Get into the hell that was his time in hiding?
He gets both mean and petty. But Rushdie also shines in his humanity and even humility (the latter word not often used when describing him). And he writes it all so brilliantly.
I've read a lot of truly great books lately. This one is a favorite and I highly recommend it. Few can so thoroughly take us into their world, for good and bad.
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