Library Journal
In the four years since Ayatollah Khomeini issued a death sentence on Salman Rushdie and those associated with the publication of The Satanic Verses , numerous attempts have been made by writers and by Rushdie himself to repeal this edict. MacDonogh's collection joins Daniel Pipes's The Rushdie Affair; The Rushdie File, edited by Lisa Appignanesi and Sarah Maitland; and Malise Ruthven's A Satanic Affair (Chatto & Windus, 1990) as another plea on Rushdie's behalf. An opening essay in which the exiled author likens his fate to ``1000 days in a balloon'' is followed by 25 letters expressing solidarity, compassion, and anger. Iranian writer Fahimeh Farsaie chides Rushdie for ignoring fellow writers who have faced exile and death at the hands of political regimes. A final section contains Rushdie's reply and a chronology of the fatwa. Unfortunately, these letters will likely have more appeal as a cultural artifact than as a political document. Recommended for those libraries that own the above books on Rushdie.-- Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Westerville P.L., Ohio