That Salman Rushdie is one of our greatest contemporary writers is not the point of contention here. But if you look beyond all that immense literary talent, Rushdie the man, fails to impress equally.
Going by the accounts of his impressive list of ex-wives and girlfriends – and at times his own memoir Joseph Anton – the man seems to be that exemplary guy mothers warn their daughters about.
“A Bad Investment”
That’s what Rushdie apparently told the most famous of his wives, Padma Lakshmi, when she refused sex because of a painful medical condition. While he painted her as someone with “majestic narcissism”, Lakshmi in her memoir Love, Loss and What We Ate, says that Rushdie is jealous, egoistic and needed sex frequently.
When his glamorous wife was pictured on the cover of Newsweek, and delightedly showed the magazine to Mr Rushdie, he responded by saying, “The only time Newsweek put me on their cover was when someone was trying to put a bullet in my head.”
“Salman Is Dysfunctional And Immature”
After his divorce with Padma Lakshmi, among the many women Rushdie dated was American actress Pia Glenn. According to her accounts, published in Daily Mail, the author pursued her for months, but backed out soon after she fell in love and moved in with him.
Glenn found him still obsessed with Padma and wearing a huge ego on his sleeve. “I’d wake up next to him and he’d be sitting up on bed scrolling through stories and reviews about himself on his iPhone... he set up a Google alert for himself to tell him when there was anything new.”
The worst part? He broke up with her over email. And called her “bowl of crazy” in an interview.
“Five-year-old Genius”
That’s how wannabe starlet Devorah Rose described Rushdie after their short-lived entanglement, which he vociferously denied. That is till Facebook messages between him and the socialite were leaked online, as reported by Daily Mail.
According to New York Post, the socialite also shared how Rushdie messaged her on Facebook calling her “gorgeous and hot”, but threw down the towel when there was no sex even after four dinner dates.
He Likes His Trophies
And he likes them young and glamorous. Check out the string of famous women Rushdie has been linked to in the last few years. The latest? Laura Gomez Eastwood, ex-wife of Clint Eastwood’s son, Kyle.
We are not dismissing Rushdie’s literary genius. His books are wonderfully written. But then, there are so many other wonderfully written books and so many other genius authors. Not all of them treat women, ‘not nicely.’
It is interesting how a lot of the times creative geniuses fail in the basic tenets of humanity in their personal lives. And Rushdie seems to be no different.
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