The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel | Salman Rushdie | a little hard to follow, but beautiful...

The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel | Salman Rushdie | Couping a set of flippant short stories to a serious novel does not work

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The Enchantress of...

	The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel Salman Rushdie Random House, 2008 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 56 reviews view larger image
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A tall, yellow-haired, young European traveler calling himself ?Mogor dell?Amore,? the Mughal of Love, arrives at the court of the Emperor Akbar, lord of the great Mughal empire, with a tale to tell that begins to obsess the imperial capital, a tale about a mysterious woman, a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery, and her impossible journey to the far-off city of Florence.

The Enchantress of Florence is the story of a woman attempting to command her own destiny in a man?s world. It is the story of two cities, unknown to each other, at the height of their powers?the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which the brilliant Akbar the Great wrestles daily with questions of belief, desire, and the treachery of his sons, and the equally sensual city of Florence during the High Renaissance, where Niccolò Machiavelli takes a starring role as he learns, the hard way, about the true brutality of power.

Vivid, gripping, irreverent, bawdy, profoundly moving, and completely absorbing, The Enchantress of Florence is a dazzling book full of wonders by one of the world?s most important living writers.

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a little hard to follow, but beautiful poetic writing

To start with, I envy anyone who can put together words in such a beautiful way. But I had a pretty hard time following the story. I really didn't care, though, because the writing was so beautiful. If you're someone who has to understand what is going on in every aspect of the story, you might be frustrated reading this. If you can get over it and just enjoy the writing and the parts you understand, then it's definitely worth it. I loved the descriptions and the fable quality of the story.

Couping a set of flippant short stories to a serious novel does not work

There is a volume of short stories scattered throughout this novel; and a shorter novel waiting to be released.

They clutter the main story line, and hide the deeper ideas that Rushdie is exploring of the role of religion, democracy and the value of benevolent dictatorship.

The short stories are a manufacture of fairy tails writ large, with all the exaggeration and flowery language of a persian fairy tale, and none of the economy or closure of the Scandinavian type. So in the end it is like watching antelope in the Serengeti from the window of a slow moving train. They numb the brain, one loses track of all the characters flitting in and out, but (worse still) midway through the book nothing seems grounded anymore and the words become a blur.

There is a lot of story woven into the histories of the Great Khan, Tamerlane, the Medici, Machiavelli, blah blah blah, it's all too much.

Running as twin interwoven threads, and in a far more accessible prose, are the story of the Enchantress, and the musing that Rushdie places into the mouths of his thought leaders, especially the Emperor and his musing on the dichotomy of his own immortality coupled to the Godhead he represents.

Halfway through the book I stopped with the fairy tales & historical trivia and addressed myself only to Rushdie's Purpose. Then I returned to the rest, which I was then able to lift out as a set of complete short stories that enlarged on and gave context to the Purpose. Without the distraction of the fluff, I was able to deal with the ideas. Without the ideas, I was able to enjoy the fairy tales and History lessons: all of which are well researched and well (though flippantly, almost charicature-isticaly) represented.

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Decameron & Arabian Tales rolled into one

Western tales with Eastern characters (Qara Köz - "Kara Göz" in Turkish spelling, "Lady Black Eyes") meet Eastern tales of Western characters (the yellow haired European traveller -- a la Marco Polo). The plot follows Silk Road, and sometimes goes as slow as a camel. The language is pretty impressive though.

If you liked Eco's The Island of the Day Before and Pamuk's My Name Is Red, you will also like this book.

India and Italy in the 16th Century

Finally a book from Salman Rushdie that I could read and enjoy! I had tried a couple of his earlier works including the 'Midnight's Children' but found them too confusing and complex.

This is a wonderful story based in 16th century India during the time of Akbar the Great, the most well known Mughal emperor. The visitor from Florence, Italy comes to the Mughal court with a secret to tell to the emperor and the story keeps the reader enthralled throughout. The contrasting lifestyles and philosophies of the western and eastern world is beautifully brought out by the author. Mr.Rushdie's in depth understanding of history, religion, culture and philosophy is obvious and his ability to mesh them all together to bring out a great book is outstanding. Every line contains so much information that I am astounded on how much research that must have gone into this book.

This one deserves many prizes!! (maybe a Nobel?)

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