“Victory City” - Salman Rushdie

 ✍🏾 I’m not going to put too fine a point on this, but VC is the latest Rushdie novel and was published after the horrific attack that attempted to silence him. VC is nothing short of a glorious tribute to the written word.

✍🏾 In VC, Rushdie takes us to the fictional, 14th century south Indian city of Bisnaga. A young girl who witnesses atrocities, is endowed with the powers of the goddess to magic a city into existence; her task is to free the women of the area from the bonds of patriarchy. 

✍🏾 VC is written as a translation of an ancient epic recounting the history of Bisnaga from its very creation to its tragic end. The sweeping saga often blurs the lines between magic and reality; per Rushdie, it is based on accounts of the very real Vijayanagar empire.

✍🏾 Rushdie foreshadows cultural tensions present in modern India (caste, religion), but also lays out scenarios before things became divisive, where cultures and religions coexisted without incident.

✍🏾 Ever the student of philosophy, Rushdie eloquently describes Hindu concepts of Atman and Brahman, in the unique Rushdian cadence. Here, we have a quote from the character Vidyasagar, expounding on the core tenets of Hindu philosophy.

✍🏾 I loved the evolution of the relationship between Pampa Kampana and Madhava acharya. VC is right up there with “Midnight’s Children” and “The Satanic Verses” in my personal power ranking of Rushdie novels. 

✍🏾 Ooof. The final line in “Victory City.” It gets you right in the chest.