MADRID, 16 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The writer Salman Rushdie settles accounts in ‘Knife, meditations on an attempted murder’ after the attack he suffered on August 12, 2022 by a person who stabbed him twelve times during a conference, with a memoir in which he recognizes that there are still days when he feels “embarrassed” by his “no reaction” at that moment.
“Why didn’t I fight? Why didn’t I flee? I stayed still like a piñata and let him destroy me. Am I so lazy that I couldn’t make even the slightest attempt to defend myself? There are days when I feel embarrassed, not to mention ashamed , in the face of my zero reaction and no attempt to defend myself,” confesses the author of ‘The Satanic Verses’ in the memoirs collected by Europa Press, which will be released this Tuesday in the United States and the United Kingdom and in Spain will be published this Thursday of the hand of Random House.
Rushdie was attacked by Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old man armed with a knife, during a conference in upstate New York. After the assault, the writer ended up with damage to his liver and hands, in addition to losing his right eye in a recovery process that he also narrates in the book.
The event took place thirty-three years after the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him for his novel ‘The Satanic Verses’, accusing him of blasphemy and calling for his murder. Rushdie explains in ‘Cuchillo’ that two days before the attack he had a premonitory dream in which he was attacked and, therefore, he did not want to go to the conference.
Throughout the pages of ‘Cuchillo’, the writer refuses to address his assailant by his first name, referring to him as ‘A.’ because he says that he has seen him “as an ass”, but also as an “aggressor” or “potential murderer”. “I still see the moment in slow motion,” says Rushdie, who nevertheless admits that his memories of the following days are less clear.
“I see myself standing up and turning towards him. I raise my left hand in a defensive gesture. He plunges the knife into my hand and after that he stabs me several more times, in the neck, in the chest in one eye, everywhere. I notice that my knees are failing and I collapse,” he remarks in ‘Cuchillo’.
During the attack, which, as Rushdie recalls, lasted 27 seconds, the aggressor “slashed randomly, stabbed and slashed as if the knife had a life of its own.” One of the writer’s last memories of that moment is how he saw himself in a pool of blood and thought he was “dying.” “It wasn’t dramatic, or even particularly horrifying. It was a neutral feeling, so to speak,” he notes.
However, he also has words of gratitude for all those who helped him repel the attack, such as businessman Henry Reese, who ran across the stage and grabbed the aggressor. “That morning I experienced, almost simultaneously, the best and the worst of human nature,” Rushdie celebrates.
Divided into two parts, the subsequent pages of ‘Cuchillo’ focus on the author’s recovery and assimilation process after the attack suffered. For example, Rushdie recounts the worst moments following the loss of an eye – and how he had to decide whether to have the eyeball removed or maintain preventive care -, in addition to revealing that at one point during his recovery he was wrongly diagnosed with a prostate cancer.
There is also a section in which he has an imaginary conversation with ‘A.’ during his stay in prison and awaiting sentencing. “I wanted to interview him, sit alone and say, ‘Well, let’s see, tell me.’ I wanted him to look me in the eyes (well, the only one I had left) and tell me the truth,” she says.
After the attack, Ruhsdie confesses that he made the decision that he would not change his attitude towards life – “the only way not to look like a bomb with legs was to behave, in public and frequently, as if there was absolutely nothing to fear”, he admits – and also celebrates being alive. “There were mistakes along the way, but I’m glad I lived this life and I’ve tried to live it as best as possible,” she says.
Likewise, the author reaffirms his “discussion about God” after the attack, ensuring that his atheism “remains intact.” “None of that has made me a believer and in this second chance at life that is not going to change,” concludes Ruhsdie, who highlights that he already has his “own ethical sense” and that God “did not bequeath morality” to human beings. .
