This is a very strange story that took me a very long time to read. In a nutshell, it is about Gibreel Farishta, a famous Indian movie star who may or may not be turning into the archangel Gabriel, and Saladin Chamcha, an Indian voice actor living in London who may or may not be turning into Satan. Much of the book is also devoted to the story-within-a-story of Gibreel's dreams, which take place in numerous locations and time periods. There is a much discussion of religion, politics, and society without taking a clear stance on anything. The story begins with Gibreel and Saladin falling through the air after the airplane they were on was blown up by terrorists, so you know it's going to be one trippy experience.I have pretty mixed feelings about this one. The story was reasonably satisfying, but I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it were I more familiar with the Qu'ran and Indian society. It was also a bit difficult to get into because of the writing style: Rushdie displayed a fondness for overly long, run-on sentences and a disdain for paragraph breaks, especially where dialogue is concerned. The primary reason I finished this book at all is because I read somewhere that it is one of the most commonly started-but-not-finished books of all time (though how that is measured is beyond me). This isn't a very good reason to read a book, especially one you know you are not fully understanding. I wouldn't say it was a waste of time - I enjoyed some of the characters, especially the maddening Gibreel - but I do believe there are other books I would have enjoyed more during the month it took me to finish reading this one. ( )

Confession: I'm giving up on this book. I've been trying and trying to get into it -- I gave it much longer than any other book to grab ahold of me, but it just hasn't. Maybe I'll try again after reading some other things. Maybe not.

Life is too short to endure bad fiction.The story started out interesting enough, with the characters literally falling out of the sky. It took me a awhile to get into the story, but I finally did. The problem was that every time you managed to get a hold of the basic underlying narrative it would evaporate and be replaced by a nonsensical dream sequence. The transitions between the two realities was so seamless that you frequently find yourself lost. Add all of that to the fact that you are trying to juggle the names of very foreign persons and places and it gets even worse.I think that, perhaps, to approach this book and appreciate it you have to have a working knowledge of the Koran and Persian Mythology.I also think that the book would have never been have read by as many people as it has been were it not for the controversy surrounding it. ( )

I did enjoy it having read it at the beinning of 2009. Maybe Rushdie is pointing out something rather profound with the two main characters. Our lives are just plays we are all actors in the dream and writers from Shakespeare to Rushdie are letting us know this. Life is to be enjoyed but far to many people get lost in all the drama. Why take life so seriously you will never get out of it alive. Relax, chill and enjoy. ( )

I was intrigued in the first couple of chapters and there were sections throughout the book that I liked, but it never came together for me. It was a jumble and in the places where Rushdie did try to tie it together, it was a bit confusing or contrived. The story lines for Saladin and Gibreel, the two main characters, bogged down and were uninteresting by the middle of the book, and the ending was a mess.

There was a lot of fuss about this book which I suspect is the main reason it became so successful, and I confess the chapters I liked the most were 2 and 6, which focused on Mohammed and the "early days" of Islam. I liken those parts to other books which tell of religious figures in an alternate way, e.g. "The Last Temptation of Christ", which make one think about it in a different way, and point out hypocrisy. I do think it's unfortunate that Rushdie used the name "Mahound" and was incendiary, but maybe that comes along with the package. The book would have been far better had it been more cohesive and focused. ( )