It's a book I'm very familiar with via reading various Cliff Notes type summaries of it, rather than actually reading it. And all because that saying "Beauty will save the World" is so often used and usually out of context to promote art etc. rather than it's actual context/meaning that has something to do with kenosis redemptive suffering, people being created in the Imago Dei etc.
The women are insane and powerful. The ending was a downer. I tried reading Satanic Verses. Rushdie is no Dostoyevsky. I might as well start Crime and Punishment.