Rushdie analyzes The Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the refuge, and it's fascinating have the story of displacement and the need to build a new home, maybe one without a fixed location, seems not far from a queer reading. This book is a big old universal hug for anyone who ever felt that there's no such place as home.

Charming take on the classic film. And silver slippers!

Salman Rushdie simply gets it. His criticism of one of America's most treasured movies is spot on. Mixing arguments that include topics such as immigration as well as self concept, Rushdie proves why this 1939 masterpiece is more than just a fantasy movie.

A skinny book containing a brief analysis of the 1939 cinematic triumph (Rushdie's words, not mine) The Wizard of Oz. It is a mildly entertaining read, and will likely satisfy any curiosities you may have about looking at the iconic film from a different pair of eyes - although I imagine that these British Film Institute companions will find their way onto the shelves of only the most die-hard cinema lovers. Still, The Wizard of Oz is so time-worn that it never hurts to approach it anew.

The most interesting thing about this slender volume is the short fiction piece attached to the end, seemingly describing an auction of the pair of ruby red slippers. It offered me a quick glimpse into Rushdie's fictional writing: it turns out he's a surrealist. The short story is clever, yes, but extraordinarily bizarre and, like with all surrealism, not entirely there. This style works well in small amounts - but I wonder if, by some point, the reader would tire of surrealism in Rushdie's lengthier novels...

I thoroughly enjoyed this analysis of The Wizard Of Oz movie. Rushdie speaks of losing one's home, exile, being in a strange land & customs and of learning to believe in oneself. This is an entertaining and interesting look at the movie.

At the end, Rushdie adds a short story about the auctioning of the ruby slippers in a futuristic world. It's interesting but not as much so as the essay on the movie.

This is part of the British Film Institute's series about movies. I'd like to read more of these.

Fun little essay. Don't read the 3 pg. followup at the end.

A wonderful essay on a classic film--worth tracking down. Offers fascinating background on the making of the film (and some of the strangeness surrounding its production) but, even better, provides brilliant insights into how Rushdie thinks and feels as an artist and critic.

LOVE this series! What an interesting perspective of The Wizard of Oz. I appreciate that Rushdie loves the film and cherishes it, but also finds problems in its meaning. What is perhaps the most fascinating part of this book is that it gives insight about one of America's most iconic films, from the point of view of a foreigner.

I want to like Salman Rushie, but I can't stand his novels. I couldn't finish Midnight's Children. But I loved Haroun and the Sea of Stories. And I look for his non-fiction, like this little book. It is a fun and interesting trip through the movie that we all know...and love. Well, no--I didn't love it. Growing up, I was too scared by the flying monkeys to enjoy the movie. I did later come back to it by way of the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and all of its many sequels, which I read aloud to my kids as they grew up.
But, back to the movie...Rushdie finds lots to reflect on. E.g., when you consider what Kansas had been like, you wonder how Dorothy ever came to think that "there's no place like home." If anything, she's grown well beyond Kansas and moved on. (In fact, in a later book, she moves her family to Oz.) Rushdie says a main theme of the movie is that you can't rely on adults. I hadn't thought about that.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed his reflections on the movie. But the short book concludes with a short story he wrote about the auction of the ruby slippers. It was more intelligible than his novels, but was odd and must have been included only to make a too-short book barely long enough to be publishable as a book.

I truly am sorry, but this was a total waste of paper, time and money. Don't be fooled by the famous name.

Biased because of how much I like Wizard of Oz but this tiny book was terrific, or the first part was at least. Warning though: it is really tiny. Read it all in about an hour.

its intersting the things that you learn about the behind the cameras of the history of the movie of "The mago of oz" and how influenced in the writer.