Enchantress of Florence

As promised, wanted to give the Bremer Blog's dear readers an update on Salman Rushdie's new book now that I've finished reading. As with all of his books, it's an intricate (and complicated) story that unfolds vibrantly over many years and in this case, two key locations - Florence and India. The characters are very interesting and Rushdie's combination of Florence and India is an interesting one. We've been to Florence but have only read about India, but I could see how both share a sense of opulence and visual richness.

He plays around with names in this novel, with many people having multiple names and nicknames. It adds another layer to what was already a slightly hard to follow narrative. But you just have to go with it and eventually you start to understand who is who.

I have to say that it's not my favorite of Rushdie's books (liked Satanic Verses and Shalimar the Clown better), but he's a master storyteller that can't help but draw you in. One comment I read, which I thought was very interesting, is how he focuses in this book on the danger of storytelling. Very appropriate for someone who's life was threatened for 10 years based on something he wrote...

Next person to visit London gets to borrow my copy!! Reading Midnight's Children now, Rushdie's novel that won the Booker Prize and the Booker of Bookers (best Booker prize winner from the past 40 years). Should be good!