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A review by drifterontherun
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
5.0
After reading so many mixed reviews of this book, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I loved it! Not just loved it, I actually think that this may one-up 'Midnight's Children' for me. While that "Booker of Bookers" winner is certainly a more complex, somewhat more frustrating read, I was absolutely captivated by the ease in which 'The Enchantress of Florence' caught me in her magical web. This book is Rushdie through and through, which is to say that it's magical realism meets historical fiction with a bit of philosophy thrown in. To put it into terms of classic works of literature, it's '1001 Nights' meets 'Invisible Cities'.
Like all of Rushdie's novels, I get a bit lost somewhere not far after beginning, the multiple characters and unveiling plot lines serving to sweep me off my feet and leave me unconsciously reading for 50 pages or so, only to find my way into a richly decorated labyrinth somewhere not long after. Rushdie, like Umberto Eco, requires his readers' patience before the spell can be cast, and I do hope that you stick with this book until it sucks you in as well!
I won't bother summarizing the action, you can read the summary for that, but I will say that if you like Rushdie's other novels, or the works of Italo Calvino and the aforementioned Eco, you will certainly enjoy this. Why it doesn't enthrall the other posters here as it did me, I am without a clue. But truly, this is a book that speaks to you and continues to do so long after it's been shut, when night has fallen and your dreams are awash with thoughts of Rushdie's 'Enchantress'.
Like all of Rushdie's novels, I get a bit lost somewhere not far after beginning, the multiple characters and unveiling plot lines serving to sweep me off my feet and leave me unconsciously reading for 50 pages or so, only to find my way into a richly decorated labyrinth somewhere not long after. Rushdie, like Umberto Eco, requires his readers' patience before the spell can be cast, and I do hope that you stick with this book until it sucks you in as well!
I won't bother summarizing the action, you can read the summary for that, but I will say that if you like Rushdie's other novels, or the works of Italo Calvino and the aforementioned Eco, you will certainly enjoy this. Why it doesn't enthrall the other posters here as it did me, I am without a clue. But truly, this is a book that speaks to you and continues to do so long after it's been shut, when night has fallen and your dreams are awash with thoughts of Rushdie's 'Enchantress'.