''East, West'' () is a 1994 anthology of short stories by
Salman Rushdie. The book is divided into three main sections, entitled "East", "West", and "East, West", each section containing stories from their respective geographical areas (in the "East, West" section both worlds are influenced by each other). Though Rushdie himself never divulged the exact inspirations for his stories in ''East, West'', it is commonly thought that the central themes of each of his stories are drawn from his personal experiences as an immigrant in England during the time of the ''
fatwas'' issued against his life. Rushdie weaves in many pop cultural references into his stories, just as television and Western media such as
MTV and movies like ''
Rambo'' have become popular throughout the world and on the Indian subcontinent. The influence and travels of Indians and Indian culture is also shown in the West.
Contents
''East''
*''Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies'' - A young woman attends the Consulate so she may join her husband from an
arranged marriage in England, only to derail her interview with incorrect answers, in order to remain in India as an independent woman.
*''The Free Radio'' - Examines government attempts during the State of Emergency to address high birth rates with sterilisation of poor men.
*''
The Prophet's Hair'' - A
moneylender is driven mad after finding a stolen lock of the Prophet's hair. His family enlists an infamous burglar to steal it, in the hopes that the moneylender will regain his sanity once he is separated from the hair.
''West''
*''Yorick'' - A fictionalised account of the childhood life of
Prince Hamlet
Prince Hamlet is the title character and protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Hamlet'' (1599–1601). He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew of the usurping King Claudius, Claudius, and son of King Hamlet, the previous King of Denmark. At ...
and his father's court
jester Yorick, that then proceeds to influence the events of the widely recognised play Hamlet by
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
.
*''At The Auction of the Ruby Slippers'' - Various members of a destitute world attend an auction to bid for the
ruby slippers of
Dorothy Gale in ''
The Wizard of Oz'', in the hope their transformative powers will help them achieve personal and political ends.
*''Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella of Spain Consummate Their Relationship (Santa Fé, AD 1492)'' -
Christopher Columbus waits in desperation for his patron Queen Isabella to agree to sponsor his voyage to the edge of the known world, i.e. to discover the Americas.
''East, West''
*''The Harmony of the Spheres'' - The protagonist reflects on his relationship with a friend whose
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...
leads to his suicide.
*''Chekov and Zulu'' - Two friends with codenames
Pavel Chekov and
Hikaru Sulu are involved in a mission to collect intelligence on radical Sikhs in Britain following
Indira Gandhi's assassination.
*''The Courter'' - A teenage boy retells the story of the Indian woman who raised him and his siblings, and her relationship with the 'porter' of their building, whose title she mispronounces as 'courter'.
{{Rushdie
1994 short story collections
Jonathan Cape books
Short story collections by Salman Rushdie
Short stories set in India
Fiction about arranged marriage
Fiction about Indian diaspora
Cultural depictions of Indira Gandhi