Getting into it

I'm now 200 pages into Satanic Verses--and should be further along but I forgot my book when I went to the lake this weekend--and I'm finally with the flow of the novel. The Ellowen Deeowen section did it for me, I think, with its magical realism (or Kafkaesque surrealism, really) and clear exposition of conflict (that between Gibreel and his dream, Gibreel and Rosa, and Chamcha and just about everybody). I guess I also like the exploration of love that took place in that section. One of my favorite lines ever from a novel: "The fact of being alive compensated for what life did to one."