Expat In Romania

Earlier this year I finished reading Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and wrote myself a "little" review on it. When I came up on it again a few days ago it dawned on me that it might be useful to anyone who, like myself, was wondering what all the hubbub was about and is considering picking it up. Don't take this post's title too seriously, any book you want to read you should read, but if you just wanted to know what all the brouhaha was for, back when it was published, then my Rushdian review, below, should help answer the question. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where do I begin? With the intro, where Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, dropping out of the sky, the lone survivors of the bombing of the hijacked airliner, Bostan , sing a tune - I forgot which -  while free-falling so that they may begin to fly rather than drop like stones into the waters off the English coast; where a lonely old lady with a storied...

This was several years ago, but a recent reddit thread brought back the memories... I finished reading Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness in a sweltering, Soviet-era bus traveling between Mangalia and the port city of Constanta , or Tomis, as the ancient Greeks had called it. It was at the height of summer, early in August, and the temperature inside the rickety old bus had to beat the 38°C reported outdoors. Sweating profusely, along with every member of Marlow's jungle expedition, but wholly immersed in their journey, I couldn't keep from running a palm across my damp brow and upper lip every few minutes, leaving dark marks of perspiration in the corners when turning the pages.  There was a period of respite, somewhere around the part where the crew boarded the river boat (but not sure if the first or the second time), as the driver had taken pity on us and opened the rear doors, allowing for the odd, lazy breeze to soothe our flushed and frazzled countenanc...