Salman Rushdie at the New York Public Library

Last Friday I went to a discussion by Salman Rushdie of his new book, The Enchantress of Florence, hosted by Jeffrey Eugenides, who wrote Middlesex. It was at the New York Public Library.

There were some interesting points: JE told a story of how he was in London 20 years ago (before he was an author) and he looked up SR in the phone book as he wanted to go to his house and congratulate him on the book Midnight's Children. Salman Rushdie actually was still listed, so JE just showed up at his front door. He wasn't there, but his ex-mother-in-law was there, and she let him in! He wrote a note and left some rupees for him - and he never thought he would be interviewing him in the New York Public Library 20 years later!

In response to a question about Satanic Verses, SR said something like this:
"I don't think you should be killed for writing a book, no. Even Dan Brown must live."

I thought that was funny. SR also told us how he dreams really banal simple things when he is writing a book - for example, a dream about getting up and reading a newspaper and going back to bed (that may not have been it, I can't remember) but that as soon as his book is finished, his dreams become more colourful again.