  [music |Bob Dylan "Lay Lady Lay"]I am making an entry to highly recommend Salman Rushdie. What am I saying, recommend? Command. Read him. If you think you don't have enough time, start with Haroun and the Sea of Stories, it only took me about an hour. And he has plenty of short stories (not quite as good as the novels, in my opinion) for those who lack attention spans. I've heard people complain that they can't get into him because of minute allusions, references, assumptions, etc., with which they are unfamiliar. In reading The Satanic Verses, I've wished that I knew, well, anything about Islam. I was fortunate with The Ground Beneath her Feet, because most of the references were to 1960's pop culture. Lucky me, the narrator is spends chapters inspired by Bob Dylan lyrics and creating alternate-dimension versions of Elvis and the Beatles. As for the other minute allusions, though, short of just reading more or ignoring them, I've found a couple of websites that help you out with, say, translating things from Hindu to English, explaining Bollywood lyrics, Britishisms, or London geography...Here is a reference for The Satanic Verses. And one for The Ground Beneath her Feet. I think I prefer this book to the former, but this resource isn't as helpful. I don't say that because I caught many references in this book, I say it because most of what is listed here is obvious or irrelevant. |
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