So reads The Guardian`s online headline just now, updated as of 12.56 GMT today - see
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/nov/12/salman-rushdie-john-le-carre.
How extraordinary that I should have been reading about this feud in Rushdie`s "Joseph Anton" only last night, at pp 527-531. I am thus now less than a hundred pages away from the end of this mammoth work that I began as my bed-time reading some 3/4 weeks ago. Maybe I will write more about it in my annual review; suffice it to say at this stage that this candid and detailed account of his wilderness years is indeed quite gripping. How he could have survived those years and retained his literary integrity, never mind sanity, is something to marvel at. It also gives an insight into both the politics of publishing and the politics of (state) protection, which latter turned him into a virtual prisoner. This is just a short blog to highlight the coincidence of the news story and my own journey through his splendid book for now.
RAMNIK SHAH
(c)2012
Surrey, UK
