The Enchantress of Florence in Into the Forest

May 07, 2023 mark monday rated it it was amazing

Shelves: these-fragile-lives, into-the-past, alpha-team, mnemonic-devices

7 PILLARS OF MINDFULNESS

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Patience: to be patient is to be completely open to each moment

I savored each moment of The Enchantress of Florence, this winding tale of two cities, Sikri and Florence, and two men, an emperor and a wanderer, and three women, a phantom and an enchantress and a mirror, and three boys, friends who grow up and apart and together again. The book is a tapestry of stories upon stories, an enchantment, spacious and imposing and palatial, a memory palace. Patience is required w ...more

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Dec 09, 2010 Niledaughter rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: india-pakistan

My first read for Rushdie …well , I was confused how to rate this book . This does not mean that I hardly liked it.No ,it is just that there were parts deserved 5 starts for me while other parts simply irritated me!!! still ...I do recommend it , and I highly appreciate the work that has been done in this novel, I totally understand the declaration that it took him years to write this one .Even as reader he pushed me searching and thirsty for more about the subject!

"the enchantress of Florence " My first read for Rushdie …well , I was confused how to rate this book . This does not mean that I hardly liked it.No ,it is just that there were parts deserved 5 starts for me while other parts simply irritated me!!! still ...I do recommend it , and I highly appreciate the work that has been done in this novel, I totally understand the declaration that it took him years to write this one .Even as reader he pushed me searching and thirsty for more about the subject!

"the enchantress of Florence " is a historical novel that jump from a place to place ; Mughal India , Safavid empire of Iran , the Ottoman Empire , Renaissance in Italy ; reaching the New World at the end (?!) - all of this in the sixteenth century , but represented by events and characters (generations) that are separated by half a century .Certainly a beautiful yarn to gather east and west together in a significant point of history , I believe that this quote from the novel : " This may be the curse of human race . Not that we are different from one anther , but we are so alike ." has very much deal of the message of this book .

Other aspects were different philosophical meditations about power , religion , home , love and "self" or as Rushdie said himself " achieve significance as human beings". That woven fabric was done in an amazing way through actual re-drawn historical figures like "Akbar the great" and "Machiavelli" (Surprising/contradicting image to the limit that I need to read the prince to get balance!) . also through fictional characters that linked all the strings together ( I liked that) , one of them is our heroin : the princess (the Mongolic enchantress of Florence) and her love story - One of my irritating issues that I wanted to love her …to admire her journey , but I could not do so !(I was not attracted to any other female character except Akbar's aunt but she faded too soon besides her rebellion was Basically anti-religion ) . BTW , I noticed some reviews accusing the novel of being sexist , is that what annoyed me ? hmmm not sure; considering the time period ; when women influence came from behind curtains . yet I can not put my feelings or annoyment here into solid words !

The novel is very rich in details ; art and aurban took a prominent position in this book , now it will be a dream come true for me to visit " Fatehpur Sikri" that he cleverly drew her prosperity and transformation into city of ghosts ..

Akbar will be always a figure that I will never forget , his interest in religious and philosophical matters , the idea of "House of Worship" was quite interesting (I am still reading about the subject) . this took big part of the book , and I am not sure which of the religious thoughts in the novel were Akbar's or actually Rushdie's !

I have no more to say for the moment , but I like to quote Rushdie :" non-historians think of history as being a collection of facts, whereas actually it's not -- it's a collection of theories about the past. We revise our view of the past all the time, depending on our own present concerns " … an approach that I should always remember ..

N.B
* I enjoyed reading this interview with Rushdie about this novel in 2008 and found it very usefull in understanding the novel Salman Rushdie Spins a Yarn
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May 13, 2010 Christine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-indian, literature-english

I suppose I could write one of those reviews where I talk about how this book contains wonderful prose. I could compare the character of Angelica to the Angelica of the Orlando Furioso: A New Verse Translation and other Italian romances.

(BTW, those Italians romances are so fun to read. Man are taking off thier armor left and right, seducing women, being seduced. English romances, the closest you get is Lancelot get arrow shot in the butt).

But I'm not going to do that.

Rushdie made the most beauti ...more

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