A review by laura_trap
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

4.0

I have mixed feelings on this particular novel. It blends in the intricacies of good historical fiction and then the surreal quality of magical realism. We travel from Florence and the power of the Medicis into the Mogul East, it flowers with the exoticism of history and its players, from Akbar to Niccol Machiavelli, it's positively brilliant. Absolutely fascinating. At some of the descriptions of Sikri, I could smell the jasmine and the curry and feel the heat of the Middle East, feel the silk and gauze of their veils. I felt the burning and hedonism of Renaissance Florence under the thumb of papal and Medici power. But then towards the end it waned, the grasp of the book faded a bit and it spiraled into some odd philosophical, opium daydream, and the story dissipated. I love the dreaminess of magical realism, it blends the world of the book into something not quite tangible, weaves in the impossible, the fanciful, the magical. And here it became a waking dream that had no story, but the characters seemed to fall apart at the seams and I didn't quite enjoy that as much. Then we end with Qara Koz takes the hand of Akbar and we are shown the cyclical but impermanence of things. Salman Rushdie has a way with words and he gives us a miracle of a book, that traverses time and geography, lineages and religion and gods. At times absolutely beautiful, then sometimes haunting and sad, it's well worth the read even the push to reach the end. Akbar although told to us to be a god, an emperor, beyond the human and bordering on the divine is truly the most human in the entire book, we know the most about him and follow him as he has Niccole Vespucci unfold his story, we learn as he does. This is equally a story about three friends and a story of a Mogul emperor. Very good.