A review by meggles801
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie

challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

“We no longer need the parent-like authority figures of a Creator or Creators to explain the universe, or our own evolution into ourselves. And we, or let me more modestly say, I, have no need of commandments, popes, or god-men of any sort to hand down my morals to me. I have my own ethical sense, thank you very much. God did not hand down morality to us. We created god to embody our moral instincts.” 

I’ve never read any of Salman Rushdie’s other works, but after finishing Knife, I don’t think I’ll be able to resist reading every single piece of his writing I can find.
I’ve truly fallen in love with the style of writing from Rushdie. His witt, snarky quips, and bits of humor brought out many emotions in me. I so appreciated his blunt, realistic descriptions of what he experienced the day that his would-be assassin, whom he only refers to as “A”, failed to carry out his hateful and misguided attempt on Rushdie’s life, all over propaganda driven beliefs that began decades ago when his novel, The Satanic Verses, was published. 
Rushdie approaches this (most recent) attempt on his life in a very unique and redreshing way. I greatly enjoyed the conversation he created between himself and “A”, where he could ask him all the questions he wanted to without having to actually listen to his misguided and uneducated beliefs and religious-fueled hatred. The way he addressed the process of beginning recovery was very real, and showed that no matter who you are, this type of life-altering event can nearly break you for a time, and yet still allow you to move forward and become stronger every day.
Rushdie’s experience of being targeted for his writing is not the first, nor will it be the last in this world, as long as religion is continued to be weaponized and used as justification for terrorism and violence. We as humans must do better.