This book, which is an amalgamation of fables and history, brings together the stories from three different lands (India, Persia and Italy) with a remarkable sense of imagery and floral fantasy. The theme links the Mughal Indian culture with that of the creativity of the Florentine renaissance through the beautiful princess Qara Koz. The linkage in itself is a marvelous thread of Rushdie’s imaginations...adding to the existing richness of the medieval history…which moulds together the complexity of power, politics, valor, betrayal and lust. The span of characters ranges from Akbar to Machiavelli, from an Uzkek Khan to a Persian prince, from Birbal to Abul Fazl…it’s just too extensive and unending.A complicated Indian emperor, a mysterious stranger from Florence and the parallel subscripts of reality intertwined with imaginations and fanciful magical effects.….this book is an example why Salman Rushdie is one of the most complicated authors of this age. This book probably also acts as the voice of Salman Rushdie into his views on religion and on the existence of God. Feminine beauty is synonymous with eroticism in most of its contexts.
But, more than anything else, the book is about dazzling, ornamental lines with a fairy tale approach. If you can allow yourself to sink into this Rushdie’s creation and keep a distance from reality, you will definitely feel the extension of your imaginative horizon. Where can one find a book, where each line carries the floral effect of imagination with such glitter...that you have to stop for a while to imagine the rich dreamlike setting.
“From the black bowl of the skies, came the answering fires of the stars”
This is not an easy book to read…and not at all an easy book to understand….nevertheless an excellent book to enjoy the beauty and magic that words of classic Rushdie can create.
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