FRIDAY READING FORUM

Marc Thomas, Leigh E. Rich

The Satanic Verses by Salmon Rushdie
3:30-5:00 pm Fridays, September 27 through November 22

The Satanic Verses appeared in 1988. Called “the most ambitious novel yet published to deal with the immigrant experience in Britain,” it was a finalist for the Booker Prize. Rushdie garnered worldwide attention, however, when his ostensible blasphemy sparked Islamist violence. Iran’s Ruhollah Khomeini declared a fatwa against Rushdie, resulting in several assassination attempts. This fall, Reading Forum participants may judge the novel for themselves.

The Friday Reading Forum, established by literature professor Carol Andrews, began in 2023 and aims to examine challenging texts in a collegial group setting. Marc Thomas is a retired librarian, bureaucrat, archivist, and poet. He is the author of Surviving Fragments and Talking to the Machines and Other Poems, two collections of poetry that deal with artificial intelligence and the pandemic sequestration. He is a frequent facilitator for book clubs at TLC. Leigh E. Rich is a professor in GSU’s Department of Health Sciences. She earned her PhD in health and behavioral sciences at the University of Colorado. She has hosted the WRUU radio program Listening to Literature