Knife, Salman Rushdie, author and narrator
Written with the same awesome skill he has shown in all of his other writings, the 75-year-old Rushdie describes, in graphic detail, the attack on his person by a radical Muslim who had attempted to kill him. He was addressing the audience in the amphitheater of the Chatauqua Institution, on August 12th, 2022. This was a place where different ideas had always been freely discussed and peacefully tolerated, for 150 years, so it was totally unexpected when the would-be assassin jumped upon the stage and brutally wielded a knife in an attempt to murder him.
Gravely wounded, Rushdie could not really understand what had happened to him, or even fathom why, since it was so many years after the original fatwa had been issued, that demanded his assassination. In 1989, after the publication of the book “The Satanic Verses”, it had been announced by the radical Islamic leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini.
Struggling to understand the motive for the attack upon him, and to discover the kind of person who would do such a thing, was what prompted him to relive the experience through this book. What could be the reason that a homicidal maniac was sitting in jail and a brilliant author was fighting for his life? Rushdie and his love, Eliza, had just married after a 5-year courtship. Their future had looked so bright with happiness, and then this darkness fell upon them.
Rushdie reads this memoir of the incident with just the perfect amount of emotion. Having attended meetings at Chatauqua in the past, myself, I easily identified with his description of the area and the environment of the venue. It is a peaceful place, made more beautiful by its purpose as a place where different minds could come together to discuss disparate and often opposite ideas comfortably and without fear. Rushdie describes his feelings before the attack. We learn of his premonition and wish to cancel the engagement. It was his honor and sense of responsibility to fulfill his obligation that propelled him forward.
As I listened to him read his own story of doom, it felt like an out of body experience. The intensity of his despair and his myriad concerns, all combined to make it feel too real, as indeed, it was too real an experience. It is a terrible story to behold. Many of his injuries caused permanent damage to him. There were so many questions to answer after the attack. Why was their no security there? I imagine they never thought it was needed since it was designed to be a place for the free exchange of ideas, and also, nothing like this had ever happened before. Why did Salman Rushdie think he no longer needed security for protection? Do fatwas die of their own accord or do they continue until fulfilled? Rushdie’s thoughts about the attack and his response to it are mesmerizing. However, at times, for me, it was a bit too descriptive, but his analysis of the perpetrator, coupled with his philosophical explanations, kept capturing my attention.
I did find his occasional political remarks to be odd, since he kept denigrating the former President Trump, though he had nothing at all to do with the attack or the time it took place. The attack occurred under the leadership of President Biden, so I wondered why he did not question his leadership instead. What was the atmosphere in the country at the time of this attack that promoted this attempted murder? That was not addressed. Perhaps, it was just a convenient place to insert his own liberal political views. In the end, fortunately, Rushdie survived and was granted his wish to return home. ( )

35. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie
OPD: 2024
format: 209-page hardcover
acquired: April read: May 27-31 time reading: 5:56, 1.7 mpp
rating: 3
genre/style: memoir theme: TBR
locations: Chautauqua, NY, Eerie, PA and NYC.
about the author: Indian-born British-American novelist, born in Bombay in 1947

This was important for Rushdie to write, and, I feel, meaningful for me to buy and read. It's not the best thing I've ever read, but it serves its purpose. Rushdie's response to this attack here is to process the experience, healing and scars, review the good things in his life, especially his family, and to take advantage of his second chance at life. Having survived, he has the feeling that this is, in a way, gravy.

He mostly disregards his attacker, explaining how his attacker became less and less important to him, as he healed and wanted to move on. There is no forgiveness. He maybe danced in front of the prison, which is kind of beautiful. But he claims the attacker has no meaning for him and doesn't feel the need to confront him. But he still could, in court, I think.

A lot of readers praise this as a really powerful book. My brain just finds that a little odd. I have no complaints about it. But it's very simple, very direct, not surprising, and not particularly enlightening except as insight into Rushdie's nonfiction voice - which I did appreciate. I do want to read some of Rushdie's novels. But it certainly is a book of the moment. And this attack on Rushdie struck many of us deeply. So it may simply be that readers need the same catharsis in reading this that Rushdie did in writing it. For that kind of reader, I can recommend this.

2024
https://www.librarything.com/topic/360386#8549397 ( )

This slim volume serves as a kind of coda to Salman Rushdie's longer memoir, "Joseph Anton", in which he described his years of hiding following the fatwa. For several years he had remained under close security in case of an assassination attempt. In the opening pages of this memoir he describes the dread thought that came to him as a man wielding a knife ran onto the stage at his New York speaking event and assaulted him in August 2022: "So it's you. Here you are." The knife attack lasted no more than thirty seconds, so there isn't much to tell. The bulk of these pages are spent on describing the aftermath, a four month recovery which had me squirming with its various tales of body horror. But other than losing an eye and some of the mobility of his hand, Rushdie emerged from his ordeal remarkably fit. As one person told him, "You are fortunate your assailant didn't know how to kill a man with a knife."

Rushdie is exploring the idea of whether, having not been killed, this incident made him stronger. While he is not so sure, I agree with his friend Martin Amis that he is at least equal to it. My fear upon hearing the news at that time, aside from concern for whether he would live, was whether he would be changed in attitude and stance. Whether anger at this unfair act might diminish him. While he struggles here to understand the meaning of what happened, he has the same tone, the same dashes of humour and free association, the same moral stance that he has always held.

The chapter in which he imagines a conversation with his attacker is, I think, the crux of this work and the portion of the story he most needed to explore. He penetrates the mind of a fundamentalist extremist: how one becomes such, what it drives one to believe, how that belief drives one to act, and - I think it very likely - how fear and despair are that person's primary motivators and will never go away after they cross the line into violence. I would only have added the thought that every time such a person dismisses a question by saying "Every believer knows this", what they are truly saying is "I don't know." I was imagining the attacker in his jail cell years from now, perhaps long after Rushdie has passed (of old age, one hopes), daring at last to pick up this book and read this chapter. I expect Rushdie has imagined it, too. ( )

I've heard Rushdie interviewed about this incident and I admit, I have not read most of his novels. Although I was familiar with his descriptions of the attack, I appreciated the reflective tone which comes across in print. In particular, I enjoyed his reckoning with yet another dramatic incident which can define him more than his work. ( )

In August of 2022, a young man with a knife attacked Salman Rushdie as the renowned author was delivering a lecture. Rushdie sustained multiple injuries and lost the vision in one eye along with the functionality of one of his hands. Rushdie’s latest book, Knife, documents what happened on that bright August morning, as well as the author’s surprising physical and psychological recovery.

For a short book, Knife is remarkably wide ranging. Rushdie goes into detail about all his ailments, both attack-induced and not, as well as his nuanced thoughts regarding religion, literature, and his fellow authors. He discusses his tabloid images as “a party animal” and “not a nice man.” In the most touching moments of this memoir, he expresses his love and gratitude towards his (fifth) wife and adult children. In my least favorite part of the book, Rushdie imagines a dialogue between himself and his attacker. This part felt like padding.

Despite Rushdie’s reputation for literary complexity, I found this memoir engaging and accessible. Highly recommended. ( )