Salman Rushdie Interviews: A Sourcebook of His Ideas

Without some insight into his thinking process, Salman Rushdie’s complex novels remain baffling even to the well-read. This volume puts forward a selection of significant statements made by Rushdie during the last two decades in the 20th century. Given in response to questions by authors, scholars, and journalists, they illuminate the life and work of this contraversial novelist. Gathered here are Rushdie’s utterances, ordinarily hard to locate if only because, originally published in journals now defunct, they lie buried in archives across three continents. The material included in this collection ranges from biographical snippets, though literary explications to political dicta and historical analyses. Taken together, they make up a psycho-biography of the writer who, in our age, has emerged as the archetype of the romantic artist - tyrannized and tormented, yet refusing to abandon either his position of his art. The core of Rushdie’s ideas embedded in the interviews comes as a mine of information, especially valuable for students and scholars. Accompanied by annotations and a detailed index, the interviews offer a guide to Rushdie’s seemingly impenetrable fiction.