'The Enchantress of Florence' has a lot of magic (or so he calls it) involved in the plot but it terribly fails to create the magic in the readers' minds that was created by 'Midnight's Children'. I usually consider myself unworthy of reviewing authors of the kind of Rushdie and Arundhati Roy, but the pathetic and contorted fairy tale I recently read left me too disappointed.
Compared to the adventures of Argalia the Turk, Sindbad's tales were far better and they had me awed at the age of ten. There seemed to be no logic behind the actions of King Akbar (as demonstrated), with his oscillations between fondness and anger for both his son and the foreigner with many names.
Lots of fleeting passion, very little true love (successful as well as failed), a lot more of flowing curtains in palaces of red-bricks, courtesans, pirates, Wars, Royal tents, witchcraft and a very very illogical theme : these are the ingredients for a fairy tale that children wouldn't understand and adults wouldn't appreciate.
But let me be optimistic- this book had one major advantage- the incomprehensible words (common in Rushdie's works) helped kick-off an idea for my mini-project this semester :)
1 comment:
Hi Shilpa
Did you buy the book or borrow it ? If bought may I borrow it and share some of the disenchantment - and thus help alleviate yours !
Best Wishes
Post a Comment