Knife by Salman Rushdie

“In the corner of my right eye — the last thing my right eye would ever see — I saw the man in black running towards me.… my first thought when I saw this murderous shape rushing toward me was: So, it’s you. Here you are”.

This attack, on August 12, 2022, and its aftermath and the physical, psychological, and emotional healing are recounted in Salman Rushdie’s new Biography, Knife.

After the publication of his book The Satanic Verses in 1988, Rushdie was under the shadow of a death order issued by the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini of Iran because the book was deemed blasphemous. Rushdie went into hiding under an assumed name in England, an experience recounted in Joseph Anton: A Memoir. The order was lifted in 1998, and Rushdie gradually resumed his life under his own identity. He has lived in the United States since 2000, residing in New York. He was to speak at an event in Chautauqua, New York, when he was attacked.

The book is divided into two parts: “The Angel of Death” and “The Angel of Life”. It contains graphic violence, pain, trauma, PTSD, and depression. But also includes themes like hope, healing, grace, humor, philosophy, literary musings, but most of all, love.

Rushdie has been one of my favorite authors since I read Midnight’s Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981. Midnight’s Children is a fantastic adventure about children born in India on the cusp of independence from Great Britain. All these children are born with special powers, but not superpowers, and they connect at the dawn of the modern nation of India with unexpected consequences. This book is considered magical realism, as are most of his books. His intelligence, knowledge of the wide sweep of history, literary prowess, and sense of humor are always on display. This book is an epic novel and a lot of fun to read.

Another of my favorites is Haroun and the Sea of Stories, 1990, written after the death order was imposed upon him. In this book, a young boy must face his fears to find the source of the stories. He must travel from Earth to the moon world of Kahani. The story is an allegory, and many of its elements deal with censorship, speech, and silence. The story contains humor, especially puns.

I heard Rushdie speak at a book signing for his book Quichote in 2019. He makes no apology for using magic in his fiction. He believes that magic and stories are important to our lives. They help us cope with reality, improve our reality, explain our reality to us, and find moments of grace and humor.

Salman Rushdie's works have always blended magic and reality, and in "Knife," he once again invites us to find moments of grace and humor amid the darkest of times.

Linda F.
North Independence Branch