The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

The Enchantress of Florence was my first exposure to the work of Salman Rushdie. I quickly became an awed fan, getting drawn into the world of the novel, and enjoying every minute of it. I also had that feeling of being in the presence of genius, much like I did when reading Umberto Eco. Along with that is the feeling that I’m probably not well-read and learned enough to really latch onto all of depth and allusion (also, much like reading Eco), but that going along for the ride and enjoying the story for its own sake is okay, too.

 

This novel is dreamy and magical, stuffed with images and stories woven through time. It takes place in India during the time of the Mughals, and that setting is created beautifully. The stories go back and forth from there, however, as a mysterious man from the West tells the elaborate stories of his own origin and his connection to Emperor Akbar.

This is a historical novel starring people who actually existed (there’s a bibliography at the end of the novel, demonstrating, once again, the 90% perspiration aspect of genius), but also a brilliant work of creativity. I love the language which is snappy or dreamy as required. I love the scope, which goes beyond East meets West to pretty much include the entire world. I love the ideas and the dilemmas. I even love the idea of Akbar’s imaginary queen.

I enjoyed this book the first time I read it, and I enjoyed it even more this time. I’m a great fan of stories and a story about stories is near perfection to me, especially when it has been put forward with such brilliance and skill. If I didn’t have so many other books to re-read, I would happily return to page one and read The Enchantress of Florence again immediately.

 

A Year of Books I’ve Read Before

Postscript to The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

This little book is the response written by the author following the success of The Name of the Rose (one of my favorite books ever.) In it he describes his inspiration, influence and process, leaving me dumbfounded and even more worshipful of Umberto Eco than I was before.

While I’m in awe of Eco’s smarts and abilities, Postscript to The Name of the Rose gives me a lot of insight into the 90% perspiration part of proverbial genius. Eco gives us lots of details about how he went about researching the time, place and people in The Name of the Rose. It’s a bit overwhelming to think of putting that much work into anything, but it really gives one a new idea about how something so great is created. This kind of stuff just doesn’t pop fully formed out of a savant’s head.

Eco also discusses the value of entertainment in literature and doesn’t seem to mind if some of us plebes just enjoy his work without really understanding all of the allusions or postmodern irony or any of that stuff that makes The Name of the Rose an important “text” rather than just a historical detective novel (which I appreciate). That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m going to just sit back and read Eco’s novels, blissfully ignorant, but entertained. Since he’s kind enough to let us in on his process and some of his especially learned levels of understanding of history, literature and symbolism, I’m hoping to become a more worthy reader each time I read The Name of the Rose and Postscript to The Name of the Rose.

And I will be reading them again….someday.

 

 

A Year of Books I’ve Read Before

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards

I wanted to re-read Ender’s Game before the new film was released, which is always a dangerous idea, since films made of good, well-known books often disappoint. But I was a bit nervous about reading this again for another reason: I wasn’t particularly thrilled about Ender’s Game when I read it many years ago.

 

Oh, sure, I recognized this as a very high-quality novel and exemplary science fiction. About halfway through the book this time around, however, I realized what at least part of my problem was: I don’t quite believe in Ender Wiggin. Once I got past that and let the title character be who the novel insists he is, then I could enjoy the story more and ponder some of the more thought-provoking themes. I still had mixed emotions by the end, but I definitely have come to  appreciate the brilliance of this novel.

The future of the world seems to rest on a little boy, but fate is not what brought him to such a point of no return. Yes, Ender is gifted in such a way as to be the last, best hope for humanity, but he has been at least somewhat designed, constructed, and pressured to this task. There are a bunch of other gifted kids who excel under his leadership, forming an elite army exploited by the powers of earth to defend against alien attacks. I suppose these kids were bred to be stronger, faster and smarter than the generation that’s in charge, and that’s why there have to be kids and not adults saving the world. I don’t know. It’s still hard for me to buy.

That being said, however, this is one of those few books that is so well written it doesn’t really feel like you’re reading at all. It’s hard to describe its style, because it’s exactly the way it needs to be. The words, the phrasing, the descriptions are all exactly right to tell this story. The action is well-plotted. The emotional content is subdued, but, again, that’s the way it needs to be to fit into this story.

I wish the future world Card constructed for Ender to save was a little more colorful. He did seem to predict the nature of the internet well, with Peter and Valentine Wiggin creating their own form of world domination through what we would now think of a the “blogosphere.” Perhaps it is just the small slice of the world that we are allowed to see, that Ender is given the liberty to see, that is so black and white. That, again, would be just right for telling this story: this sad, frustrating, intense, concise, complete, solid, well-written, terrific story.

 

Coming soon: Postscript to The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

 

A Year of Books I’ve Read Before

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

The universe needs a man like Dirk Gently to remind it that everything is connected. At least that’s the underlying theme to this highly entertaining novel. It was fun to read it a second time because I probably didn’t really “get it” the first time. I also didn’t remember many of the details or even the main plot line of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Although I did remember the impossibly positioned sofa.

 

At the center of this story is Richard, a regular guy who finds himself in the middle of a murder mystery while trying to make up for absent-minded mistakes with his girlfriend. Richard is at least as confused as we readers are, at least at first, and we take this mad journey through the mystery with him. Absurdity after absurdity plagues poor Richard and in the style of wry British humor, he seems to be the only one who finds it all very alarming, even the horse that shows up in a professor’s bathroom.

This novel is almost pure entertainment. It’s a story of murders and ghosts, music and computer programs, possession and post-hypnotic suggestion, quantum mechanics and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, time travelers and electric monks. Dirk Gently, who would be known as Svlad Cjelli but for a need to distance himself from his past, has his finger on the pulse of the universe, sensing its interconnectedness. Of course, the bill for his expenses might include charges for a trip to Bermuda to solve the mystery of a lost cat in Cambridge, but that’s the price you can expect to pay for such all-encompassing expertise.

Dirk’s theories of interconnectedness are tested harshly in the solution to the mysteries of this story, but he applies himself to that solution by means both improbable and at least slightly unethical. Almost everyone is full of surprises (except, perhaps, for our steady, straight-man Richard), but also possess the dignity to be at least a little surprised that one might find those surprises surprising. Whatever seems ludicrously improbable must have some connection to the known universe and is therefore possible in this really funny story. Whether the whole world can be (or even needs to be) saved is something you’ll have to learn for yourself. That is, if you haven’t already read this book.

 

Coming soon: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

 

 

A Year of Books I’ve Read Before

 

October Reading Ambitions

My October re-reading hopes and dreams involve a follow-up to a novel I recently read, one of my favorite novels of all time and a Halloween treat:


Postscript to The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, a short and fascinating work about the novel by the author

The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie, a delightfully weird read

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, something I've been looking forward to re-reading all year

Dracula by Bram Stoker, to put me in a spooky mood for Halloween



A Year of Books I've Read Before