The Satanic Verses a reflection of the author’s dilemmas." The work is an "albeit surreal, record of its own author's continuing identity crisis." Ally said that the book reveals the author ultimately as "the victim of nineteenth-century British colonialism." Rushdie himself spoke confirming this interpretation of his book, saying that it was not about Islam, "but about migration, metamorphosis, divided selves, love, death, London and Bombay." He has also said "It's a novel which happened to contain a castigation of Western materialism. The tone is comic." After the "Satanic Verses" controversy developed, some scholars familiar with the book and the whole of Rushdie's
The Satanic Verses controversy but "to sing on, in spite of attacks". But in June, following the death of Khomeini, he asked his supporters "to tone down their criticism of Iran". His wife, Marianne Wiggins, reported that in the first few months following the fatwa the couple moved 56 times, once every three days. In late July Rushdie separated from Wiggins, "the tension of being at the centre of an international controversy, and the irritations of spending all hours of the day together in seclusion", being too much for their "shaky" relationship. Late the next year Rushdie declared, "I want to reclaim my life",