Filed in archive Literature on June 19, 2010

The Enchantress of Florence- A Wild and Whirling Novel

Salman Rushdie with his choice of subjects from Kashmir to Andalusia is generally identified as a negotiator of East and West through his classic fiction books. However, "The Enchantress of Florence" is a shift from his traditional collection of top fiction books which is vivid, gripping, irreverent, bawdy, profoundly moving, and completely absorbing. The novel revolves around the story of a woman attempting to command her own destiny in a man's world. This fascinating novel is replete with gorgeous young women both historical and imagined, beautiful queens and irresistible enchantresses, along with some whores and a few quarrelsome old wives - all stock figures, females perceived solely in relation to the male counterparts. The novel brilliantly connects the two cities together- the hedonistic Mughal capital and the sensual city of Florence during the High Renaissance. The book brilliantly depicts the process of disillusionment both of the Mughal emperor Akbar and Niccoln Machiavelli as they learn about the true brutality of power. The novel is also a discovery of the East by the West such that each culture becomes a dream of the other. Like all of Rushdie's books, the playfulness, the passion, the erudition and the sensuousness go hand in hand in this novel.