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Sir Salman
Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie in 1947) remains
one of the most vital and historically relevant international novelists to
emerge in the years following World War II. The son of a Muslim businessman
based in India, Rushdie
received his formal education in England,
at the Rugby School
and the University of Cambridge; he essayed an early career in the U.K. as an
advertising copywriter, before his debut novel, the 1975 Shame, spurred him
on to immense global success as a writer. Several successive books followed
(each of which encountered tremendous critical acclaim), but Rushdie only
attained "household name" status by virtue of his weighty 1988
religious allegory The Satanic Verses, and unfortunately, for the direst of
reasons. The work, with its intimate knowledge of Islamic belief, Middle
Eastern tradition and lore, its lyrical imagery, and its supremely
challenging rhetorical style perched midway between poetry and traditional
prose, tells a controversial revisionist version of the life of the Mohammed
(with a character modeled upon that prophet). Many
Muslims found the narrative incorrigibly blasphemous and offensive even as
literary critics extolled the work to lofty heights. The work's detractors
included the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who
promptly put a fatwa on Rushdie's head, forcing the author to go into hiding
in early 1989. His exile lasted around ten years, but he remained fervently
active as a novelist during that time, and emerged on occasion to do talk
show appearances.
Following the official cancellation of the
fatwa in the late '90s, Rushdie emerged in public and began to make
appearances in films -- usually cameos as himself. These
included Bridget Jones' Diary (2001), The Rutles 2:
Can't Buy Me Lunch, and Helen Hunt's directorial debut, Then She Found Me
(2008). He also participated in the PBS miniseries Bill Moyers on Faith and
Reason (2007). ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
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