Word: bookings
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...much a thriller as a complicated parable that contains pages and pages of erudite details about such medieval phenomena as the Knights Templar, the Cathars and the Order of Assassins. And Eco steadfastly refuses to explain what his mysterious novel is all about. "This was a book conceived to irritate the reader," he says in his drafty university office, lighting up another of the 60 cigarettes he puffs every day. "I knew it would provoke ambiguous, nonhomogeneous responses because it was a book conceived to point up some contradictions...
...first days after the Ayatullah's shocking death threat, governments and the general public alike in the U.S. and Western Europe were slow to react. Who could believe that a book that practically nobody had read -- and an often obscure if sometimes brilliant one, at that -- was the catalyst precipitating a bizarre international crisis...
...West, the issue largely seemed to resolve itself into a question of free speech. But in Iran, a vastly different phenomenon was taking shape: the Ayatullah had seized upon Rushdie's book as a flaming spear with which to halt his country's creeping trend toward moderation. Within days, the "liberals" who had seemed to be in the ascendant in Tehran dropped from sight. They had been trying to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with the West in order to rebuild the country following its disastrous eight-year war with Iraq...
...called Rushdie "an insignificant writer who has attacked a great prophet." He asked, "What harm has befallen the Prophet?" In Egypt the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, Sheik Gad el-Haq Ali Gad el-Haq, noted that the net effect of the furor had been to increase the book's sales and profits "by astronomical figures." It would be far better, he suggested, if Islamic scholars prepared their own book refuting Rushdie's "lies." The English-language Egyptian Gazette argued that the Ayatullah's pronouncements "will do more to damage the image of Islam in the West than...
Instead, it has become a best seller. In the U.S. the book's first printing of 50,000 copies was sold out; a second printing of 100,000 was due in a few days, but stores reported orders of 200,000 or more...