Salman Rushdie: The man with a golden memory
PROFILE | Rushdie's near-brush with Algren comes to mind at Chicago presentation
'I have to admit the first thing that leaps into my mind is my very odd Chicago connection," acclaimed author Salman Rushdie said as he settled into an easy chair in a corner of the ninth-floor reading room at the Harold Washington Library Center, shortly before he received the 2009 Carl Sandburg Literary Award Thursday evening.
''It's what I call my strange near-miss with Nelson Algren.''
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)
The writer explained it all dated back to 1981, shortly after the publication of his first major novel, Midnight's Children, ''and also when I met Kurt Vonnegut for the first time.''
Rushdie's introduction to Vonnegut was through Vonnegut's second wife, photographer Jill Krementz, ''and they very kindly invited me out for a weekend visit to their house in New York -- in Sagaponack on Long Island.''
Just as Rushdie was heading to the Vonneguts, his publisher sent over a group of clippings of recent reviews of Midnight's Children.
''And much to my amazement, one of them was from the Chicago Tribune, written by Nelson Algren,'' Rushdie said. ''I remember being very impressed and slightly surprised that he was still around, and very proud of the fact that I had got a good review from Nelson Algren -- a writer I admired so much.''
When Rushdie shared all this with the Vonneguts, they smiled and told the young writer there was a wonderful coincidence: Algren had recently bought a house near the Vonneguts, and they had been invited to a housewarming party.
Vonnegut went to call Algren to see if they could bring their houseguest to the party but quickly returned to tell a stunned Rushdie and Krementz that Algren had just died of a heart attack in that new house.
''Of course, we were all horrified, but then it struck me -- that review of my book had to be one of the last if not the last thing Algren had ever published. So, in a weird little way, I have always felt this connection to him.''
Rushdie said receiving the Carl Sandburg Award did make him reflect on other Chicago authors and his own career of novel writing that has spanned more than 35 years.
''First of all, most writers do have a sense of the history of literature, and when someone is giving you an award with Carl Sandburg's name on it -- and you see who else has received it -- you are proud just to be on that list.
As for writers with strong Chicago connections, he quickly added his affection and admiration for Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow, ''certainly one of the major writers I have always loved reading."
''I read his work with a lot of attention, but I remember being surprised once -- when I was on a book tour here -- going into a bookstore and there being so little of his work on the shelves," Rushdie said. ''It made me sad because I thought he would be well-read here and the shelves should be jam-packed with his books.''
According to Rushdie, this year has been ''something of a revelation for me in other ways. For some reason, it seems to be the year for people giving me these things,'' he said, alluding also to his recent receipt of the St. Louis Literary Prize. ''The only problem with these wonderful honors is you don't want to think of it as a gold watch. It is a nice recognition for a long period of work, but you also want it to be a bit of an encouragement to do more as well.''
Along those lines, Rushdie is pursuing a new form of writing for him: script writing. He has taken on the daunting task of turning the 650-page, Booker Prize-winning Midnight's Children into about 150 pages of screenplay.
''But it is an interesting discipline -- as maddening as it can be -- because it forces you to truly get to the essence of the story you are trying to tell.''
Deepa Mehta, the Indian director and screenwriter best known for her ''elements'' film trilogy, especially ''Water,'' will direct.
Rushdie is excited about this new chapter in his professional career.
''Not only do Deepa and I have a longtime friendship and now a close working relationship, but I'm thrilled by how she's involving me in every decision -- including casting and design. She wants me on the set for every day of shooting, and that's very unusual for a writer. So basically, we're going to make this film together.''
Rushdie is committed to exploring as many new experiences and meeting as wide a range of people as possible these days.
''I'm happy I'm not in some ivory tower or stuck in one particular professional box," he said. ''In my view, the more rooms a novelist can visit or get into the better. That's true whether it's an Irish pub or Yankee Stadium or a university -- or even a party with Madonna.
''When I get those chances, I always go.''