Salman Rushdie's "Knife"

By Nilima Sinha, Library Committee

Salman Rushdie’s Knife is a sobering read.  It is a detailed account of the attack on August 12, 2022, in which Rushdie was stabbed on stage by a young man from the audience.  I remember being horrified after watching it on TV.  The irony was that it happened at the Chautauqua Institute in New York which fosters intellectualism, creativity and free speech where Rushdie was slated to speak about the importance of keeping writers safe.  It was part of the City of Asylum Pittsburgh project which offers refuge to writers who are unsafe in their home countries. 

The book details his treatment and recovery.  Nobody thought he would live to tell this story. He had multiple, serious wounds.  He lost an eye but did survive. The book is a love story as well.  Rushdie lovingly talks about his fifth wife, Rachael Griffith, who was by his side through the entire ordeal and was a true partner in his road to healing.
 
The book is also a meditation on life. At first Rushdie appears to have been changed to a humble and modest person, but by the end of the book he is his erudite, arrogant, egotistical self.  In this context, however, I believe it is a good thing. Rushdie discusses James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Milan Kundera, Naguib Mahfouz, Gunter Grass, Saul Bellow and many other giants of literature and then he quotes Jodi Picoult, which made me laugh out loud because many of my book-loving high school friends who are now scattered all over the world passionately dislike Jodi Picoult.
 
 I read The Satanic Verses eons ago after the Khomeini fatwa. At that time, I found the book totally unreadable. I loved Midnight's Children.  I also enjoyed The Moor's Last Sigh, which inspired me to visit the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi to see the impressive Amrita Sher-Gil collection.
 
Even though I found one book unreadable, I have mostly enjoyed Rushdie’s writing.  The Coffman library has Knife, The Satanic Verses and The Moor's Last Sigh.
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