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Rushdie, Salman; Unnamed Interviewer : Collection of Original Notes and a Printout from an Interview Between Salman Rushdie and an Unidentified Interviewer, Sorrento Hotel, Seattle, Washington, January 23, 1996

Collection of original handwritten notes and a printout from a 1996 interview at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle between Salman Rushdie and an unnamed interviewer. Notes and printout dated January 23, 1996. 8 1/2" x 11." Notes: eight pages. Printout: six pages (on one folded sheet but about equivalent to six pages). The notes and printout are clean and intact except for fold lines and a few wrinkles. Each document and the entire collection are Very Good. Salman Rushdie (b. 1947) is a British-American author of Indian descent. His works often combine magic realism and historical fiction and address relations between East and West. In 2023, Time magazine named him as one of "100 most influential people in the world." The notes are presumably handwritten by the interviewer which include interview questions and notes about Rushdie and his books. The printout is a transcription of the interview with some abbreviations. This interview, presumably unpublished, sheds some light on Rushdie's thoughts after the backlash surrounding the publication of his novel, The Satanic Verses (1988). In the interview, Rushdie is candid about the subject and what has happened in his life since then. Rushdie says that the ensuing violence and threats against his life damaged the joy he got from writing. He elaborates on how the episode was painful in that he wanted to bridge disagreements with the novel, but it instead drove people apart. However, the beginning of the interview is about Rushdie's return to the public for a book tour of his latest novel, The Moor's Last Sigh (1995). Rushdie says of the tour, "It does have that great satisfaction of doing the thing that I was prevented from doing. And therefore demonstrating that in some way we've overcome the difficulty. So I think there is that desire to say, 'I'm back in business.'" He also notes how his children's novel, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990), was a turning point for him. He says, "I mean writing Haroun was my road back. It's a smaller piece of work. ... But certainly writing Haroun reminded me that I like my job. Reminded me that I would do it if nobody was paying me." The interviewer asks Rushdie about The Moor's Last Sigh which is a magic realist novel that weaves together fantastical and historical events. The book follows the life of Moraes Zogoiby (who is also called the "Moor"), a man who physically ages twice as fast as a typical person, and his connection to different women in his life including his mother, sisters, his first tutor, and his first love. Rushdie talks about how readers have viewed The Moor's Last Sigh as a complement to his widely successful Midnight's Children (1981) in that it centers upon India as a subject but tells the story from an adult perspective instead of that of a child. Rushdie delves more into The Moor's Last Sigh and says that the protagonist's accelerated aging relates to themes such as life's pace and one's mortality. Among other topics, the interviewer asks what an average day is like for Rushdie. Rushdie says that his life is relatively normal except for the need of police protection whenever he goes out in public. He understands the security measures but is frustrated with the arrangement. For example, Rushdie speaks fondly of walks he used to have between writing but says he needs to have a policeman with him now. He says, "But nevertheless it gets in the way of your work. It gets in the way of your life. It's just that--imagine having to do everything you want to do, with policemen. It's difficult.". Manuscript. Book Condition: Collectible-Very Good. Binding: No Binding

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