“If it hadn’t been for Henry and the viewers, I wouldn’t be sitting right here writing these phrases,” Rushdie says within the ebook. “That Chautauqua morning I skilled each the worst and better of human nature, virtually concurrently.”
At first it was unclear whether or not he would survive.
“The gravity of his wounds was simply insane, like one thing out of a horror movie,” stated Andrew Wylie, who has represented the creator for many years. Rushdie remained within the hospital for practically two months. Even after returning dwelling, he had vivid, horrific desires — in regards to the blinding of the Duke of Gloucester in “King Lear,” in regards to the opening sequence of the Luis Buñuel film “Un Chien Andalou,” by which a cloud drifting throughout the moon turns into a razor blade slicing a watch. He had medical appointments virtually on daily basis, completely different specialists for every affected physique half. “Everybody needed to log out on the varied restore jobs,” he stated.
Rushdie had been toying with an concept for a novel earlier than the assault. However “when, lastly, it felt just like the juice was starting to move once more, I went and opened up the file that I’d had, and it simply appeared ridiculous,” he stated. “It simply grew to become clear to me that till I handled this, I wouldn’t have the ability to write anything.”
“Knife” is a visceral, intimate ebook, in distinction to an earlier memoir, “Joseph Anton,” a 2012 ebook that was written within the third particular person, in order that the central character existed on the identical degree because the supporting gamers.
“I wished it to learn like a novel,” Rushdie defined of the sooner ebook. However “Knife” is completely different. “This isn’t novelistic. I imply, anyone sticks a knife in you, that’s fairly private. Fairly first particular person,” he stated.
