Perspective

Salman Rushdie tells his autobiography, Joseph Anton: A Memoir in the third-person omniscient perspective, replacing "I" with "He." Rushdie tells the book in this fashion because he, as the narrator, is recounting his own life story, tracing the events of this period of his life years after they have happened, thereby adopting an omniscient position on those events. Referring to himself as "he," Rushdie takes on an elegant form of politeness by refusing the word "I." This is also done because, for most of the novel, Rushdie is writing about his alias, Joseph Anton, rather than himself, Salman Rushdie. It is at once an autobiography, and a biography of someone else.

Tone

Salman Rushdie tells his autobiography, Joseph Anton: A Memoir in a tone that is measured, calm, and reflective, for the events of the novel happened two decades before, culminating in events that occurred only a decade...