The Satanic Verses

Jumpy Joshi becomes Pamela Chamcha’s lover on the same night she hears about Saladin’s supposed death in the plane explosion. Jumpy finds himself in a difficult position when Saladin, thought to be dead, calls in the middle of the night and hangs up after Jumpy answers the phone. Pamela, half-asleep with a blackout mask over her eyes, asks who it was, and Jumpy, flustered, dismisses it as a wrong number. Left alone to wrestle with the implications of Saladin’s call, Jumpy sits up in bed, naked and anxious, sucking his thumb for comfort—a habit he has had since childhood and has never outgrown.

Jumpy struggles with guilt and fear over Saladin’s sudden reappearance. He resents Saladin for returning from the dead in such a dramatic fashion, seeing it as an indecent and operatic act. As he lies in Pamela’s bed, he reflects on how he rushed to Pamela’s side the moment he heard of Saladin’s death. When he arrived, Pamela appeared surprisingly composed, even detached. She told Jumpy that Saladin’s death would only leave a small hole in her life, which shocks Jumpy, who has been friends with Saladin since childhood and was deeply upset when he heard about Saladin’s demise.

Pamela, who had started drinking hours before Jumpy arrived, poured herself yet another drink. Jumpy, who doesn’t usually drink, joined her. As the night wore on, Pamela began to express her frustrations with her marriage to Saladin. In particular, she complained about Saladin’s obsession with his idealized version of England—a place that in his mind remains a picture-postcard fantasy of the Royal Family, cricket, and the Houses of Parliament. Pamela confessed that Saladin’s inability to see the reality of their life together created a growing distance between them.

The night of drinking led to an unexpected intimacy between Pamela and Jumpy. Jumpy, who has never felt secure with women, finds himself feeling surprisingly comfortable with Pamela. Everything is going well until Jumpy receives Saladin’s aborted phone call. Although Jumpy keeps the call to himself at first, he increasingly feels as though Saladin is still alive. When he expresses this belief to Pamela, she begins crying uncontrollably, refusing to believe her husband is alive.

This sparks a series of conversations about Pamela’s marriage to Saladin. Pamela sites one instance, in particular, that she thinks summarizes their marriage, which relates to the Falklands War. She recounts how Saladin used a metaphor of intruders in a home to justify the war, only for her to counter with a more accurate metaphor about two people claiming ownership of a house. This disagreement had been emblematic of the growing divide between them, with Saladin clinging to his idealized England.

In the morning, Pamela frantically contacts the airline to determine whether Saladin could have survived the crash. Despite the airline’s assurances that no survivors exist, she refuses to believe it. In a state of overwhelmed frustration, Pamela lashes out at Jumpy and orders him to leave. Desperate to escape the turmoil, Pamela decides to drive away, seeking solace in an expensive country hotel. As she speeds down the motorway, she reflects on her marriage to Saladin and the mismatched expectations that lead to its breakdown. She realizes that each was chasing something that the other could never provide. Pamela speeds through the rain until she hits a patch of water and loses control. The car spins out, narrowly avoiding a collision. Miraculously, she survives, though the experience frightens her.

After her near accident, Pamela arrives at the hotel, where she indulges in luxury to soothe her frayed nerves. She drinks expensive wine, eats a lavish meal, and reflects on the burdens of her past—the legacy of her conservative upbringing, her strained relationship with her parents, and her father’s disapproval, which still remains in her mind at all times. As she relaxes in the opulent surroundings, she resolves to leave Saladin and start a new life, feeling a renewed sense of freedom and determination.

Meanwhile, after being thrown out by Pamela, Jumpy seeks refuge at the Shaandaar Café in Brickhall. He sits there, trying to make sense of his feelings, wondering if he has been a fool for getting involved with Pamela. The café owner, Mr. Sufyan, teases Jumpy, trying to lift his spirits. However, the light-hearted banter does not get through to Jumpy. Eventually, Pamela and Jumpy make up and then spend seven days together making love. However, on the seventh day, someone tries breaking into Pamela’s house. Terrified, Pamela and Jumpy arm themselves with makeshift weapons and creep downstairs. When they reach the bottom of the stairs, they confront a horrifying sight—a creature covered in mud, ice, and blood that looks part human, part goat. Pamela runs upstairs in fear while screaming that Saladin died in the plane explosion.