EDITOR’S Note

THERE ARE FEW LIVING NOVELISTS WRITING IN ENGLISH who command the level of reverence that our cover subject has achieved over the past forty-two years, since his first novel, , was published in 1975. Toni Morrison is up there with him. As is Philip Roth. J. M., is a tour de force that puts current American culture and preposterous politics in stark relief. It is, in a word, . As is the interview starting on page 54, which covers a number of subjects, but the comment that made my eyes sparkle was this one, about Rushdie’s approach to the act of writing: “I’ve always had this view that you wake up every day with a little nugget of creative juice for the day and you can either use it or you waste it. My view is, therefore, you write first. Get up, get out of bed, get to your desk, and work.”