KNIFE
By Salman Rushdie
Synopsis
From internationally renowned writer and Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring—and surviving—an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him
On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.
What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.
Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again.
Richard says
One of the best books I have read in a long time, maybe one of the best I have read ever.
This narrative by Salman Rushdie, of Satanic Verses fame, is based on the murderous assault he suffered while at a speaking engagement in Chautauqua, New York. Rushdie was attacked by a man in his 20s who supposedly thought he was fulfilling the call for a fatwa proscribed by the religious leaders of Iran. The fatwa had been declared when Rushdie wrote the Satanic Verses but was never completed.
On August 12, 2022, this man attacked Rushdie on the stage where he was about to give a talk. Stabbed 27 times. Rushdie survived…the road to recovery was tortuous and formidable, and Rushdie wrote this excellent book about it. He still suffers some lasting legacies of the attack, the loss of his right eye among the most tragic.
This book critique cannot be written as others, critiquing grammar, style, plot, story development, characters and so on. It needs to focus on the content of the book, its profound content.
Rushdie opens his narrative with an explanation of why he needed to write this book. As well, he explains why he never names his assailant but rather labels him as “A.” throughout the story.
Rushdie’s story has so many facets, so much content, it is a challenge to critique the book. Trying to write a descriptive summary would be a gross injustice to the content and to the atmosphere of the book.
His is a love story, a tragedy, a triumph of human resilience, an example of undescribable courage, a deep introspection, a critique of evil and violence, of crime and evil in the world, of political opinion and philosophical commentary and a condemnation of the assailant as part of the many malevolent persons who live among us. Yes, Rushdie covers all that.
The book contains a cascade of interesting facts. For instance, he labels as his ‘party trick’ the names of many well-known people who use their middle name rather than their first name, including Ahmed Salman Rushdie, James Paul McCartney, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Robyn, Rihanna Fenty, Fahrid Murray Abraham, Lafayette Ron Hubbard, Joseph Rudyard Kipling, Edward Morgan Forster, Keith Rupert Murdoch, Thomas Sean Connery, Rachel Meghan Markle. Interesting, isn’t it?
Rushdie is philosophical everywhere throughout the book: “…we would not be who we are today without the calamities of our yesterdays.” “What can’t be cured must be endured.” “Art challenges orthodoxy. Without art, our ability to think, to see freshly, and to renew our world would wither and die.” ” ‘the love of fate’…Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, ‘This is what I need.’ Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, and your life.” [What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.]
An interesting, if not profound, consideration Rushdie writes about is his view of religions. He is an avowed atheist but he does not deny religious practice and adherence for anyone of any religion. His castigation of religion is when it is used as a tool of subjugation, regulation and even malicious control of people. “I have no need of commandments, popes, or god-men of any sort to hand down my morals to me. I have my own ethical sense…God did not hand down morality to us. We created God to embody our moral instincts.”
Rushdie explains that he comes from a family of mostly not-religious people. His “youngest sister, Nabeelah, who died too soon, was the exception. She was devout. I have never felt the need for religious faith to help me comprehend and deal with the world. However, I understand that for many people, religion provides a moral anchor and seems essential. And in my view, the private faith of anyone is nobody’s business except that of the individual concerned. I have no issue with religion when it occupies this private space and doesn’t seek to impose its values on others. But when religion becomes politicized, even weaponized, then it’s everybody’s business because of its capacity for harm.”
When he writes about India (He is from Pakistan), he criticizes the government leaders for trying to create an overtly religious, majoritarian Hindu state rejecting the philosophies of their great leaders, Gandhi and Nehru, who eschewed all religion from the public sphere. ‘The weaponizing of Christianity in the United States has resulted in the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the ongoing battle over abortion, and women’s right to choose about their own health.’
Furthermore, in the aftermath of France’s Charlie Hebdo murders, he had written, “Religion, an ancient form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry, becomes a real threat to our freedoms. Religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam…’Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion.’
A moving statement Rushdie makes in closing is about a Doonesbury cartoon where one character tells another: “You know, I really miss September 10th.” Rushdie adds, “I really miss Aug 11th.” But I think each of us can relate to the Doonesbury character’s pine. Our world has denigraded another notch away from a world of naivete and innocence in which we lived with so much joie de vivre. No more.
Rushdie’s book is not a call to arms for retribution or unjustified punishment of his assailant, nor is it a diatribe against any world philosophy. It is a plea, an ode to appreciate the life we live, the loved ones who surround us, and the days we have in this life.
