Original language:
English Translated from: English
Authors: Rushdie, Salman
Translated by: Žalytė, Danguolė
Full translated source bibliographical description:
Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, Vintage, Canada, 1997.
ISBN: 9955-08-226-7; 9786094441424
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2002
Publisher: Alma littera
Sensational novel, closing the Indian Muslim community, for the desecration of Islamic, Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran published a fatwa – a death sentence to the writer on the radio – this is what you can see in the Google search box after entering “Satanic Verses”. After reading this kind of article curiosity overcomes, the reader grabs the novel not even making a glance at the back of the book to check the description, they read the first page the ruminative gaze begins, after twenty pages they get to hundred trying to understand what his fantasy had to generate, but no understanding comes to mind, but this sense coms not in vain. This happens due to a simple reason, the person reading this novel perhaps is the westerner (you may ask, why westerner? Because in Islamic world this book is prohibited), many things he does not understand is because he has shortfall of information, because everything in the novel has a religious context, starting from the Islamic religion and ending with Veda teaching. When reading this kind of a book one should find put more about great religions, because it is a major “spice” – a religious context.
Salman Rushdie is ascribable to magical realism movement, so do not be surprised if in “Satanic Verses” one will have to read about mutants, people that transform to angels, bulls, demons, goats or something similar. Also this novel inbuilt the key character Gibreel identification with religious prophets or less the same characters identified with Islam or heroes of Veda. This novel is divided into sections, which tells the life of different characters. However, the most important thing is mentioned in all parts – alienation, he gets through Gibreel emigration from India to London, where he, as a religious person loses identity, turn away from the faith and live the lifestyle of Western culture, he returned to his homeland and gets criticism from family. It becomes like a contradiction: the man turned away from the faith plays in a religious films. And that’s just one of the hero’s life, the novel is a lot of players with different identities and perspectives. Thus, this novel will not take long for monotonous sequence of actions or express terms only through the prism of one man.