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A review by greeniezona
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
4.0
I don't remember precisely where or when, but this ook was another impulse buy when I was bored in a bookstore. I'm always willing to take a chance on Salman Rushdie -- even his books that I wasn't entirely crazy about were usually enjoyable or interesting enough in some way that made them feel worth my time and investment as a reader. Also, I confess that I was drawn in by the good cover design -- the rich colors and antiqued gold look. So I bought it.
With my crazy life, it's difficult to ever give a book my undivided attention, and that was definitely a detraction in this case. For Enchantress sprawls across continents and generations, with unfamiliar names that sometimes seem to blend together. I often found myself having to flip back to remind myself which character was which.
On the other hand, there were portions of this book that were absolutely entrancing, when the story called to me every time I had to put the book down, and these sections flowed beautifully with Rushdie's magical lyricism.
But there was so much in this book that it was occasionally weighed down by its riches. Transitions from story to story, place to place and time to time sometimes seemed abrupt. Some details never seemed to connect to the tapestry and left me wondering why they'd been included at all. Then there was that ending -- strange, troubling and lacking in poetry.
In balance, I'd say that the strengths of those delightful passages were enough to earn The Enchantress high marks in my book. Had the rest of the novel lived up to these moments, it could have been near perfection.
With my crazy life, it's difficult to ever give a book my undivided attention, and that was definitely a detraction in this case. For Enchantress sprawls across continents and generations, with unfamiliar names that sometimes seem to blend together. I often found myself having to flip back to remind myself which character was which.
On the other hand, there were portions of this book that were absolutely entrancing, when the story called to me every time I had to put the book down, and these sections flowed beautifully with Rushdie's magical lyricism.
But there was so much in this book that it was occasionally weighed down by its riches. Transitions from story to story, place to place and time to time sometimes seemed abrupt. Some details never seemed to connect to the tapestry and left me wondering why they'd been included at all. Then there was that ending -- strange, troubling and lacking in poetry.
In balance, I'd say that the strengths of those delightful passages were enough to earn The Enchantress high marks in my book. Had the rest of the novel lived up to these moments, it could have been near perfection.