Exploring Shame
10:23 PM 12/4/01

Dionysio, my alter ego in www.peyups.com, wrote a review on Rushdie's Shame. I'm very happy about it. Not so much so because of the vanity and conceit thing writers are touted to possess in large quantities. I think I'm just glad to know that I still have it in me. Imagine a fisherman who leaves for Saudi, say to become a driver for a company. He comes back home one day and faces the sea with oar and net. He gets fish. He's happy to know that the fish is still there. And so is the fisherman.

Remember Salman Rushdie? He got Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa or death sentence. He also got himself a Booker Prize. The former was for his Satanic Verses and the latter, for Midnight's Children. His is an exiled mind. History has continually shown that it's the most dangerous kind.

I recommend his books to everybody concerned with the human condition and imagination. His books (I agree with this columnist in peyups) are so damn costly though. Two of his books costs as much as the whole Rosales Saga. With enough left for a snack at Powerbooks too.

Ever the F. Sionil Jose fan, I recommend the saga. But if you happen to chance upon a cheap volume (as I did with Shame), don't think twice.