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3.25 AVERAGE
3.25 AVERAGE
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This is straight-up magic from Rushdie with ne'er a dash of realism. A story of love and jinnis and loss and war.
The writing is beautiful, though, overall, the story isn't all that ground-breaking. The story is told from the perspective of those living the story including a fairy princess, several of her half-human descendants and a group of dark jinn set on conquering the work. There are even a couple of dead philosophers with opposing opinions.
The story is also told from the perspective of descendants of the human race a millennium from the time of the story. I have to say, I spent the whole book wondering why it needed to switch between the internal dialog of the characters and this 'historical' epistolary. It did wrap up with a point. It was a bit of a preachy point about living a rational life, but I'm glad that the message was tempered by a touch of regret at the loss of magic and wildness of life.
It was an enjoyable read and really unexpected from Salman Rushdie. It's not Midnight's Children, but, honestly, what is?
The writing is beautiful, though, overall, the story isn't all that ground-breaking. The story is told from the perspective of those living the story including a fairy princess, several of her half-human descendants and a group of dark jinn set on conquering the work. There are even a couple of dead philosophers with opposing opinions.
The story is also told from the perspective of descendants of the human race a millennium from the time of the story. I have to say, I spent the whole book wondering why it needed to switch between the internal dialog of the characters and this 'historical' epistolary. It did wrap up with a point. It was a bit of a preachy point about living a rational life, but I'm glad that the message was tempered by a touch of regret at the loss of magic and wildness of life.
It was an enjoyable read and really unexpected from Salman Rushdie. It's not Midnight's Children, but, honestly, what is?
In Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, Salman Rushdie takes the reader on a journey to Fairyland, where the jinn reside, and details their exploits as the Dark Jinn attempt to take over our world. The story itself is kinetic, each page packed with action
I was, however, a bit disappointed, because Rushdie stops short of delivering both the action and the thought. The first half of the story, the notion of duality and competing forces of rationality and faith in God is woven into the action of the story, seen in the swing between Ibn Rushd and Ghazali, two historical figures whose disagreement essentially starts the war between the Dark and Light Jinn. There's a playful back-and-forth through the first half of the book--the dead philosophers debate, the competing curses of risers and crushees, a magical baby who is used to mete out cold justice. Geronimo the athiest and Ella, his faithful wife. Faith and reason swirl around in the first half of the book, preparing to lead up to a larger commentary.
As the book roars towards the climax, though, Rushdie essentially gives up the theme, and just decides to go bonkers. Crazy, crazy shit happens. And it's all really entertaining! But it doesn't have the depth that the front half of the novel carries, you don't sit back and think about how he's playing with duality. As the war rages on, Dark and Light become Good and Bad, and that's a lot less interesting to muse on. The book becomes a blockbuster (and there's no shame in writing a blockbuster), but it's a bit disappointing because of what it might have been.
I was, however, a bit disappointed, because Rushdie stops short of delivering both the action and the thought. The first half of the story, the notion of duality and competing forces of rationality and faith in God is woven into the action of the story, seen in the swing between Ibn Rushd and Ghazali, two historical figures whose disagreement essentially starts the war between the Dark and Light Jinn. There's a playful back-and-forth through the first half of the book--the dead philosophers debate, the competing curses of risers and crushees, a magical baby who is used to mete out cold justice. Geronimo the athiest and Ella, his faithful wife. Faith and reason swirl around in the first half of the book, preparing to lead up to a larger commentary.
As the book roars towards the climax, though, Rushdie essentially gives up the theme, and just decides to go bonkers. Crazy, crazy shit happens. And it's all really entertaining! But it doesn't have the depth that the front half of the novel carries, you don't sit back and think about how he's playing with duality. As the war rages on, Dark and Light become Good and Bad, and that's a lot less interesting to muse on. The book becomes a blockbuster (and there's no shame in writing a blockbuster), but it's a bit disappointing because of what it might have been.
All of this was written beautifully with clear and expressive language. However, the plot was garbled in parts and the characters were difficult to separate from one another (the male characters specifically).
Edit. So I thought some more about this book after finishing it and came to the conclusion that I liked it even less than I thought. When I say that the male characters are indistinguishable from one another it comes down to them being sex-crazed figures with no definable traits other than gratuitous violence or overwrought philosophy.
Edit. So I thought some more about this book after finishing it and came to the conclusion that I liked it even less than I thought. When I say that the male characters are indistinguishable from one another it comes down to them being sex-crazed figures with no definable traits other than gratuitous violence or overwrought philosophy.
A decent fairy tale with Saramago-an details and many nested layers of stories. The language is beautiful as always. But not as poignant as his previous novels and not as funny as his recent interviews make it out to be. This would probably be a 4-star book if Rushdie didn't have such a high prior.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
In all honesty this book could have been a short story. It was extremely long with nothing that helped the book. The writing style of the author I did not like at all. He constantly made lists in his writing to show examples of things and it kept going… there was also very little dialogue and when there was sometimes it wasn’t in quotes so didn’t realize someone was talking. He would switch between third and first person. I really struggled with this read and the plot wasn’t enough to save it.
I just had to give up, after trying really, really hard to get into this book! I feel like I should like Rushdie, but he never gets there for me. I got bored, trying to follow the many many characters and sub-stories, with nothing truly engaging about it. I even re-started the book, thinking I'd not given it enough attention in a longer sitting. I stayed through something like 40% of the book or more. Normally I love a supernatural fable.
Rushdie draws heavy inspiration from the tales of Scheherazade and the 1001 Arabian Nights. In this book, a world full of magic and wonder collides with the modern world which on some level aims for rational truths.
The story goes that a portal between the worlds of Djinn (genies) and humans have reopened after laying dormant for several centuries. As a result, Djinns of all levels of moral persuasions reentered the earth to jockey for control over its fate.
There are several themes in this book which readers of Rushdie will be familiar, such as his disdain for religious dogmatism, epistemic arguments over the nature of truth, etc. In short, the book is a love letter to both atheism and rational thought. If you can't contend with those ideas, then this book is not for you. More importantly, Rushdie is most likely not your man.
The story goes that a portal between the worlds of Djinn (genies) and humans have reopened after laying dormant for several centuries. As a result, Djinns of all levels of moral persuasions reentered the earth to jockey for control over its fate.
There are several themes in this book which readers of Rushdie will be familiar, such as his disdain for religious dogmatism, epistemic arguments over the nature of truth, etc. In short, the book is a love letter to both atheism and rational thought. If you can't contend with those ideas, then this book is not for you. More importantly, Rushdie is most likely not your man.
A cute fairytale-like mish-mash of different stories coming together under the common theme of the relationship between humans and the supernatural.
Pleasant fantasy, with a few strokes of morality as the supernatural being are equated to the "darkness within" humans; then also sort of putting religion as the tool of the machinators who wish the seem the human race war against each other.
Characters aren't particularly well developed and the ending is a bit lacking both for the individuals and the story as a whole.
A fairy tale. No more, no less.
Pleasant fantasy, with a few strokes of morality as the supernatural being are equated to the "darkness within" humans; then also sort of putting religion as the tool of the machinators who wish the seem the human race war against each other.
Characters aren't particularly well developed and the ending is a bit lacking both for the individuals and the story as a whole.
A fairy tale. No more, no less.
There's some really good bits in here, but overall I'm kind of disappointed by my first Rushdie. Not really enough "there" there.