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A review by jessrock
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
5.0
I freely admit that I'm giving this book too many stars because the writing is just that beautiful. Parts of the book are slow going and the story is not always as compelling as it could be. But the writing!
The book flows back and forth between the early 1500s, when a mysterious Italian man appears in an Eastern city and enchants that city's king with his personality and his story-telling, and several generations before, when an ancestor of the king was abducted from the city and traveled to Persia and Italy with her servant, a mirror image of herself. The two stories begin to blend together as people in the king's court become obsessed with the Hidden Princess and as the Hidden Princess's consorts are revealed to have direct connections to the mysterious stranger. The king begins to question how much he can trust the stranger, and whether it's more important to seek truth or creativity. The whole thing feels like a waking dream. Did I mention it's absolutely gorgeous to read?
The book flows back and forth between the early 1500s, when a mysterious Italian man appears in an Eastern city and enchants that city's king with his personality and his story-telling, and several generations before, when an ancestor of the king was abducted from the city and traveled to Persia and Italy with her servant, a mirror image of herself. The two stories begin to blend together as people in the king's court become obsessed with the Hidden Princess and as the Hidden Princess's consorts are revealed to have direct connections to the mysterious stranger. The king begins to question how much he can trust the stranger, and whether it's more important to seek truth or creativity. The whole thing feels like a waking dream. Did I mention it's absolutely gorgeous to read?