He could never stop doing that after all. Amidst all this, Rushdie tried very hard to have a normal life – marry, raise children and write some more. The book clearly depicts the powerlessness of the heads of states of various countries and how often politics was above the written word or the author. It is almost like Rushdie is taking count of his life (which it is in a way) and not being subjective in his style. It makes the readers think and the best part according to me about the book was the way it was written in third person. What ran through my mind though while reading the book was just this: Is there really a true freedom of speech and writing? That is probably the worst that could happen to a person and Rushdie isn’t shy from talking about his deepest emotions. He wasn’t there with her when she passed on and that for me hit the chord somewhere. He could not attend his mother’s funeral. The incidents and events that took place sometimes and were related to the book were horrifying – for instance, the Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses was murdered. He is honest to the core – about his marriages, his children and his writing. Salman Rushdie is angry and is hurt and hides no emotions. The book, “Joseph Anton” is the most human that I have read this year. So did people – either for better or for worse, but they did.

The fatwa on Salman Rushdie was issued on the 14th of February 1989 – Valentine’s Day (irony much) and since then he was forced underground – moving from house to house, with the presence of armed forces – they were his shadow.Īn author who always believed in free speech and grew up with that philosophy in Bombay, with liberal parents (who later for some reason did not share liberal views), saw the world differently when the fatwa was issued. “Joseph Anton” is not just about a man who was in hiding from another man’s followers who were determined to hunt him down (as though he was an animal) and kill him, because of what he had written in his book (which the perpetrators hadn’t even read and never would). What was different about it? Why did I read it twice and enjoy it more so the second time? Strange, I thought, to myself: I cannot read the man’s fictional works but can breeze through this memoir and that too twice. I started reading, “Joseph Anton”, his memoir about a week ago and I have read it twice since then. That is the relationship I share with Salman Rushdie’s books.

I haven’t been able to cross the hundredth page. So I have a confession to make: I have not been able to complete a single Rushdie novel, except for Haroun and the Sea of Stories and I am not ashamed of it, only because I have tried reading his works time and again.

Rushdie memoir