*Sigh*

The fatwa obviously had an effect on Rushdie - and the empty vessel of The Moor's Last Sigh shows that it wasn't good.
Written whilst stuck in hiding, TMLS is a shadow of everything that has gone before it; an epic tale of the Indian subcontinent but lacking the sparkle which made Midnight's Children, the rage which fuelled Shame or the sheer vivacity that defined The Satanic Verses.
A dynastic pseudo-history which, like Midnight's Children, draws heavily on the influences of Gunter Grass and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Moor's Last Sigh revolves around the character of Moraes Zogoiby ('The Moor').
But it's just not there. The round, fat phrases of Rushdie's writing are as evident as ever, and the story is populated with some of the same characters who appeared in his earlier novels.
Rather than weave the novel into a tapestry of Rushdie's fiction, though, it just serves to remind us of the heights that Salman can achieve.

A disappointment.