In spite of the fact that he is in hiding, it is quite impossible to escape Salman Rushdie. Here in London, the chattering classes are obsessed with every nuance of his dilemma. There is a lot of spiteful gossip, as well. At a dinner party in London last week, some fellow authors speculated on the fragility of Rushdie’s marriage even before the awful event of the Ayatollah’s death sentence that sent his wife into hiding with him for her own safety.