Imaginary Homelands: essays and criticism, 1981-1991

(c) 1991; New York: Viking and Granta; ISBN: 0670838047
amazon.com (you can buy the book there)

Imaginary Homelands is a collection of essays and criticism as the sub-title says. What the title doesn't make clear is the breadth and clarity of this collection. Here in one volume you have Rushdie's thoughts on everything from Umberto Eco to Commonwealth Literature. None of the essays are obtuse or incomprehensible, and all of them are revealing. If as Rushdie says "Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one." Then something different must be said about essays.

Running the gamut of feelings from rebellion (Commonwealth Literature) to the desire for reconciliation and understanding (In Good Faith), this collection is poignant, not least because it is a break from Rushdie's fantastic novels.

Contents

1. • Imaginary Homelands
   • 'Errata': or, Unreliable Narration In Midnight's Children
   • The Riddle of Midnight: India, August 1987
2. • Censorship
   • The Assasination of Indira Gandhi
   • Dynasty
   • Zia ul-Haq: 17 August 1988
   • Daughter of the East
3. • 'Commonwealth Literature' does not exist
   • Anita Desai
   • Kipling
   • Hobson-Jobson
4. • Outside the Whale
   • Attenborough's Gandhi
   • Satyajit Ray
   • Handsworth Songs
   • The Location of Brazil
5. • The New Empire within Britain
   • An Unimportant Fire
   • Home Front
   • V.S. Naipaul
   • The Painter and the Pest
6. • A General Election
   • Charter 88
   • On Palestinian Identity: A Converstaion with Edward Said
7. • Nadine Gordimer
   • Rian Malan
   • Nuruddin Farah
   • Kapuscinski's Angola
8. • John Berger
   • Graham Greene
   • John le Carré
   • On Adventure
   • At the Adelaide Festival
   • Travelling with Chatwin
   • Chatwon's Travels
   • Julian Barnes
   • Kazuo Ishiguro
9. • Michel Tournier
   • Italo Calvino
   • Stephen Hawking
   • Andrei Sakharov
   • Umberto Eco
   • Günter Grass
   • Heinrich Böll
   • Siegfried Lenz
   • Peter Schneider
   • Christoph Ransmaye
   • Maurice Sendak and Wilhelm Grimm
10. • Gabriel García Márquez
    • Mario Vargas Llosa
11. • The Language of the Pack
    • Debrett goes to Hollywood
    • E. L. Doctorow
    • Michael Herrr: An Interview
    • Richard Ford
    • Raymond Carver
    • Isaac Bashevis Singer
    • Philip Roth
    • Saul Bellow
    • Thomas Pynchon
    • Kurt Vonnegut
    • Grace Paley
    • Travles with a Golden Ass
    • The Divine Supermarket
12. • Naipual Among the Believers
    • 'In God We Trust'
    • In Good Faith
    • Is Nothing Sacred?
    • One Thousand Days in a Balloon

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