I’ve enjoyed Salman Rushdie’s work from Midnight’s Children to The Satanic Verses. Languages of Truth collects Rushdie’s essays written in the 21st Century so far. In Part 1, Rushdie writes about his development as a writer, which writers influenced him, and how his writing career changed over the decades.
My favorite section of Languages of Truth is Part 2. Rushdie’s essay on Philip Roth is brilliant. He praises Michael’s favorite Roth novel, Sabbath’s Theater, and discusses Roth’s oeuvre in detail. “Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse-Five” puts that great novel into context. Writing about his friend, Harold Pinter, Rushdie’s insights into the 2005 Nobel Prize winner’s work illuminated them for me. Pinter had some harsh comments on today’s language:
“…language becomes a permanent masquerade, a tapestry of lies. The ruthless and cynical mutilation and degradation of human beings, both in spirit and body…these actions are justified by rhetorical gambits, sterile terminology and concepts of power which stink.” (p. 137)
The rest of Rushdie’s essays include reviews, interviews, and the assorted writing he did for various magazines. The quality varies. If you’re looking for thoughtful and well written essays, I recommend Languages of Truth. GRADE: B+
Table of Contents:
Part 1
Wonder Tales 3
Proteus 30
Heraclitus 47
Another Writer’s Beginnings 62
Part 2
Philip Roth 85
Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse-Five 101
Samuel Beckett’s Novels 111
Cervantes and Shakespeare 117
Gabo and I 120
Harold Pinter (1930-2008) 133
Introduction to the Paris Review Interviews, Vol. IV 143
Autobiography and the Novel 148
Adaptation 166
Notes on Sloth: From Saligia to oblomov 183
Hans Christian Andersen 195
King of the World by David Remnick 199
Very Well Then I Contradict Myself 205
Part 3
Truth 211
Courage 215
Texts for Pen 220
1 The Pen and the Sword 220
2 The Birth of Pen World Voices 224
3 The Arthur Miller Lecture, 2012 226
4 Pen World Voices Opening Night 2014 230
5 Pen World Voices Opening Night 2017 234
Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) 237
The Liberty Instinct 243
Osama Bin Laden 257
AI Weiwei and Others 261
The Half-Woman God 265
Nova Southeastern University Commencement Address, 2006 274
Emory University Commencement Address, 2015 279
Part 4
The Composite Artist: The Emperor Akbar and the Making of the Hamzanama 285
Amrita sher-Gil: Letters 302
Bhupen Khakhar (1934-2003) 309
Being Francesco Clemente: Self-Portraits, Gagosian Gallery, London, 2005 312
Taryn Simon: An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, Whitney Museum, New York, 2007 319
Kara Walker at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2009 325
Sebastião Salgado 328
The Unbeliever’s Christmas 331
Carrie Fisher 335
Pandemic: A Personal Engagement with the Coronavirus 339
The Proust Questionnaire: Vanity Fair 351
About These Texts 353
In MUST YOU GO, Antonia Fraser’s memoir about her 25-year relationship with Harold Pinter, Fraser frequently quotes passages from her diaries. Every time she makes reference to something about Rushdie (who, as you note, was good friends with Pinter), he (Rushdie) is with yet another, further, different wife. Rushdie’s writing is one thing, but his personal life (and treatment of women) is a mess. I suppose being under a fatwa will do that to a person.
Deb, I have MUST YOU GO on my shelf. Now I need to read it! I’ve read similar stories about Rushdie and his interactions with both men and women. Sure, a fatwa amps up one’s paranoia–with good reason!–but it might also accelerate narcissism and selfishness. That being said, Rushdie’s MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN is a great novel.
Yes…he wasn’t under a death sentence that whole time…
Todd, but as far as I know, Rushdie is still under a fatwa.
I must confess that I’ve never been able to get into Rushdie. Like most people who considered themselves to be serious readers back in the late 80s I took a stab at THE SATANIC VERSES, but just couldn’t get into it. Many of the topics in this book look interesting, so perhaps I’ll give it a look.
Michael, Rushdie’s fiction varies in quality. I’m a big admirer of MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN and many Rushdie’s essays. I, too, struggled with THE SATANIC VERSES.
I couldn’t read THE SATANIC VERSES either. I’ve liked some of his essays, but his personal life, not so much. MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN is on my list. I might try this when I finish the several non fiction books I’m reading now, including one you recommended – AUDIENCE-OLOGY.
Jeff, you’ll enjoy all the movie stories in AUDIENCE-OLOGY! DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS took in $450 million globally.
I have tried to read MIDNIGHT several times and like MAGIC MOUNTAIN and MIDDLEMARCH it defeats me. Maybe it’s the Ms.
Me too, with all three!
Patti, I’ve tried to read Proust’s SWANN’S WAY three times. Struck out each time around page 50.
Or the Ponderousness. But them before INFINITE JEST or anything by Vollmann. I keep meaning to get to THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN.
Todd, THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN is a steep climb.