the pencil reads

East, West is a collection of short stories by Salman Rushdie, author of the controversial book The Satanic Verses.

Did you know that Rushdie is married (for the fourth time) to Padma Lakshmi, a very sexy Indian model? See her photos here and tell me she is not gorgeous. How did Rushdie pull that off? I guess intellectual men have their own appeal. Or perhaps men on the death row by Islam... Ha!

Anyway, back to the book, the stories are grouped in three sections: those set in the East, those set in the West, and those with an infusion of both. In the East section, there is the story of a young jaunty woman at the British immigration who deliberately messed up her chances for a visa. In the West section, there is "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers", a pretty damning piece of social commentary. The last story "Courter" was really quite sweet -- the Aya of the story and the courting Grandmaster porter won my heart.

After reading this collection, I realised that my idea of East-West relations may be somewhat naive. I relate easily to this passage:

Or was it that her heart, roped by two different loves,was being pulled both East and West, whinnying and rearing, like those movie horses being yanked this way by Clark Gable and that way by Montgomery Clift, and she knew that to live she would have to choose? (209)

But I don't anything about the assasination of Indira Ghandi by her two Sikh bodyguards, or the insidous side of colonialism. I would like to read up more on both of these topics. Meanwhile, the next book by Rushdie I would like to read is Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

Posted on Monday, August 08, 2005 at 5:09 PM. :)