Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002
by Salman Rushdie
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From one of the great novelists of our day, a vital, brilliant new book of essays, speeches and articles essential for our times. showcases the other side of one of fiction's most astonishing conjurors. On display is Salman Rushdie's incisive, thoughtful and generous mind, in prose that is as entertaining as it is topical. The world is here, captured in pieces on a dazzling array of subjects: from New York's Amadou Diallo case to the Wizard of Oz, from U2 to fifty years of Indian writing, show more from a tribute to Angela Carter to the struggle to film Midnight's Children. The title essay was originally delivered at Yale as the 2002 Tanner lecture on human values, and examines the changing meaning of frontiers in the modern world -- moral and metaphorical frontiers as well as physical ones. The collection chronicles Rushdie's intellectual journeys, but it is also an intimate invitation into his life: he explores his relationship to India through a moving diary of his first visit there in over a decade, "A Dream of Glorious Return". Step Across This Line also includes "Messages From the Plague Years", a historic set of letters, articles and reflections on life under the fatwa. Gathered together for the first time, this is Rushdie's humane, intelligent and angry response to a grotesque threat, aimed not just at him but at free expression itself. Salman Rushdie's first collection of non-fiction in a decade, has the same energy, imagination and erudition as his astounding novels -- along with some very strong opinions. show lessTags
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Why didn't I read Salman Rushdie sooner?? The first essay in this collection sold me on him immediately. It's a fun, interesting discussion of The Wizard of Oz, his experience with the movie, the making of the movie, its symbolism...
My favourite quote:
"What [Dorothy] embodies . . . is the human dream of leaving, a dream at least as powerful as the countervailing dream of roots . . . this is unarguably a film about the joys of going away, of leaving the greyness and entering the color, of making a new life in 'the place where there isn't any trouble' . . . it is a celebration of Escape, a grand paean to the uprooted self, a hymn - the hymn - to Elsewhere."
His essays range from rock music to his life under the fatwa.
I'm definitely going show more to try out Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Midnight's Children/ show less
My favourite quote:
"What [Dorothy] embodies . . . is the human dream of leaving, a dream at least as powerful as the countervailing dream of roots . . . this is unarguably a film about the joys of going away, of leaving the greyness and entering the color, of making a new life in 'the place where there isn't any trouble' . . . it is a celebration of Escape, a grand paean to the uprooted self, a hymn - the hymn - to Elsewhere."
His essays range from rock music to his life under the fatwa.
I'm definitely going show more to try out Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Midnight's Children/ show less
Because Rushdie is such a good writer it is enjoyable to read his thoughts on a multitude of topics; and this collection is an opportunity to do just that. While topics dear to his heart, like freedom of speech and freedom from religious persecution, get special attention, he also writes about music, politics, and religion in general. With intelligence, humility, and wit this collection is an excellent read for anyone interested in the world around them.
Savvy and relevant. I love Rushdie's slightly self-deprecating wit; he invites us into the inner circle and asks us to laugh with him, rather than at him.
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89+ Works 69,773 Members
Salman Rushdie was born in India on June 19, 1947. He was raised in Pakistan and educated in England. His novels include Grimus, Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Moor's Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown, The Enchantress of Florence, Luka and the Fire of Life, and The Golden House. His show more non-fiction works include Joseph Anton, Imaginary Homelands, The Jaguar Smile, and Step across This Line. He also wrote a collection of short stories entitled East, West. He has received numerous awards including the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel twice, the James Tait Black Prize, the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, the Booker Prize in 1981 for Midnight's Children, and the 2014 PEN/Pinter Prize. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002
- Original title
- Step Across This Line : Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002
- Original publication date
- 2002
- People/Characters
- Ahmed Sinai
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Statistics
- Members
- 757
- Popularity
- 36,924
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.95)
- Languages
- 11 — Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 25
- ASINs
- 9
