I guess I'm just not into the devil thing.

I have given up on the Satanic Versus. Here's why:

It was around the time Chamcha was just beginning his transformation into the devil, horns had appeared and his body was suspiciously goat-like. Specifically, though, it was the time just after he was arrested and forced to eat his own goat-like poo pellets that I was like -- I'm going to barf.

All day long, I sweat over commas, hyphens (particularly the modifying kind), words like revitalizing and rejuvenating (which some of you may not know mean completely different things), and whether my work laptop is going to get stolen after I leave for the night. So, when I'm on stinky, delayed, horrendous Muni with a brain that's been chopped into a million pieces over the last, oh, 10 to 12 hours, the last thing I want to read about is someone being forced to eat their own shit. Sorry, but I just can't do it. (That scene is Trainspotting when Ewan McGregor dives into the toilet still kind of gets to me. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww.)

And the thing is, if you know me, then you know that I'm not really into "light" reading either. I did read Eat, Pray, Love, but I hated it, apparently along with everyone else who read it, so how the hell did it get so f'ing big is my question. Oprah. Oh yeah, it was Oprah. So anyway, I like to read big torturous things just as much as the next word dork, but I can't seem to get into this book. And it's like the best book ever written, right? (Gawd I hate how saying "right?" after everything has creeped into our language, and now I feel old because this is probably how "adults" felt when "like" made its way into our vocab. Anyway.)


I did enjoy the research I had to do in order to even make it past the first 100 pages. I'm embarrassed to admit this, oh well what the hell, but I really didn't know the story of Muhammad beforehand. I was totally lost when it came to Allat, Uzza and Manat. I knew about the book's historical importance and the controversy, but I, like many other kids who went to California public schools (sorry to all my teacher friends), was pretty sheltered from most of that growing up and I hate to say it, but was not really encouraged to look at the world outside of our one-story house.



Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer says the book is "brilliantly enjoyable" -- or so says the quote attributed to her on the cover of the copy I have. I'm fully willing to admit that it's me. I'm just not Rushdie caliber I suppose.

Thoughts?