This is a insightful companion to Rushdie's novels. After reading Midnight's Children, the many essays in Imaginary Homelands explained a great deal to me about Rushdie's passions and blind spots.
Sure, there are some howlers in here, and Rushdie even admits as much in the intro. He trashes George Orwell and Jane Austen for their detachment from contemporary events, and then whinges about how unjust it is for inerrantist Muslims to persecute him as they have done. Of course the fatwa is barbaric but Rushdie's reaction is a bit inconsistent, given that anyone writing about Islam in the late '80s surely must have been aware of the illiberalism of some adherents. Not Mr. Rushdie, however, which makes him look a bit silly.
Beyond that, Rushdie has the annoying habit of believing that he is a polymath when he clearly isn't. He sheepishly admits to befuddlement in the face of Hawking's book on physics and cosmology, but feels quite at home imposing sophomoric economic interpretations on top of his socialist politics. And his few essays about America in this book suffer from the same myopia for which he dismisses one of Naipaul's books: he clearly draws sweeping (and fashionably Eurocentric damning) conclusions about an extremely diverse society after visiting only its two largest (coastal) cities.
However, when Rushdie sticks to politics, the theme of the immigrant and the exile, and observations on racism and social dislocation, his writing is poignant, eloquent and powerful. This book is a very rewarding companion to his novels. I recommend it highly.
