livsoap's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
alishreads's review against another edition
5.0
Name: Quichotte
Author: Salman Rushdie
Genre: Contemporary, Magical Realism, Surrealism, Fiction, Satirical
Rating: 4.7/5
Review:
Inspired by Don Quixote by Cervantes.
"Everybody seems to know what normal is and at the same time nobody agrees."
An Indian American writer known by the name of Sam Duchamp creates fictional character of Ismail Smile, an aging man obsessed with a young female celebrity, Salma R.
After leaving his job from a pharma company with dark history, he starts his journey to his beloved with his imaginary son, Sancho. A modern knight on a journey to his grail. As the story flows, the line between reality and fiction becomes blurred and Sam Duchamp find himself retrospective of his own life.
"Human life is mostly unhappiness. The only antidote to human misery is love and it is to love we must rededicate ourselves."
The book is written from the perspective of various characters, each character is very well developed. This book has alot of concious thinking. Salman Rushdie has done an amazing work in creating each character and writing their perspectives. The writing style, vocabulary and thinking pattern changes with each character, giving each of them, a unique and different personality and identity.
Salman Rushdie coveys many topics through the journey of Quichotte across the country, rediscovering his roots, origin and language.
Just as Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, giving a satirical commentary on life during that time, Salman Rushdie delivers a socio-political commentary on the modern world where "everything can happen is the new normal".
Author: Salman Rushdie
Genre: Contemporary, Magical Realism, Surrealism, Fiction, Satirical
Rating: 4.7/5
Review:
Inspired by Don Quixote by Cervantes.
"Everybody seems to know what normal is and at the same time nobody agrees."
An Indian American writer known by the name of Sam Duchamp creates fictional character of Ismail Smile, an aging man obsessed with a young female celebrity, Salma R.
After leaving his job from a pharma company with dark history, he starts his journey to his beloved with his imaginary son, Sancho. A modern knight on a journey to his grail. As the story flows, the line between reality and fiction becomes blurred and Sam Duchamp find himself retrospective of his own life.
"Human life is mostly unhappiness. The only antidote to human misery is love and it is to love we must rededicate ourselves."
The book is written from the perspective of various characters, each character is very well developed. This book has alot of concious thinking. Salman Rushdie has done an amazing work in creating each character and writing their perspectives. The writing style, vocabulary and thinking pattern changes with each character, giving each of them, a unique and different personality and identity.
Salman Rushdie coveys many topics through the journey of Quichotte across the country, rediscovering his roots, origin and language.
Just as Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, giving a satirical commentary on life during that time, Salman Rushdie delivers a socio-political commentary on the modern world where "everything can happen is the new normal".
christar_123's review against another edition
4.0
Wow this got dark. Overall, it reminded me more of a classic Rushdie book than some of his more recent books, even down to an entity created by thought/ desire (like in The Enchantress of Florence).
Lots of culture/ pop references as well as referencing the classics and some interesting history. But so dark...mirrors our times, I guess. Amusing reading but not one to read if you want to feel better about the world and our future.
Lots of culture/ pop references as well as referencing the classics and some interesting history. But so dark...mirrors our times, I guess. Amusing reading but not one to read if you want to feel better about the world and our future.
peter_fischer's review against another edition
4.0
Quichotte, an elderly American man of Indian (subcontinent, not Native American) extraction, who has failed at pretty much everything in life, is a modern-day Don Quixote, complete with an imaginary son (Sancho), travelling through the seven valleys of spiritual purification towards his True Love, a celebrity actress and TV personality he’s fixated on. But Quichotte himself is only the figment of the imagination of another protagonist in the story, the author ‘Brother’. It gets even wilder, one of the characters is an Italian cricket that grants wishes (Grillo Parlante). Just as Cervantes railed at the idiocies of his own time, Rushdie uses the present-day USA as an exemplar of Western society’s decline: ignorant, stupid, opinionated, uneducated, bigoted, chattering, drug-addled post-modern random idiocratic society! Rushdie is still a top-class fabulist but one suspects he’s also an angry old man (no offence!).
puddleglum1983's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
dalamori's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
A glorious mix of fantasy, pastiche, zeitgeist, magic and the surreal. Admittedly, it was my first ever Rushdie book I've read. As a deep reader, I thoroughly enjoyed all the references to classic literature (not just of Cervantes), to current culture and politics. It is not a breezy read, the plot gets complex, I had to chew on it. There is a story about writing a story and reality gets blurred with the surreal. Sometimes, one gets the feeling, it even spills out of the book. I loved it, as it tickled my brain at all the right places.
dllh's review against another edition
3.0
Sometimes I wish it was easier to read books without knowing who the authors are. If I had read this one without knowing Rushdie had written it, I think I would have figured it was sort of amateurish -- a neat idea with some fun enough writing, but on the whole not a particularly accomplished work. Great authors write duds, but the thing about it is that I lack the confidence in my own smarts to know whether the book is sort of so-so or whether maybe I'm just too dumb to appreciate it. If I didn't know it was written by someone who I know is well respected, maybe I'd approach it more confidently. Much of the book felt to me like sort of a minimalist version of what Barth and Pynchon and heck, probably even Cervantes, often take to (sometimes annoying) extremes. Maybe it's just Rushdie's shtick (I've read only one or maybe two others of his), or maybe he's doing some sort of takedown of that style. To me it felt a little phoned-in, the gags not really earned by the work they appear in. I liked it ok, but it wasn't a real winner to me.
mwmakar's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Brilliant. Ideal way to use magic, fiction, and adaptation.
The Dr. Smile arc is so vivid and devastating and hilarious
Sancho’s last scene was beautiful and heartbreaking
The Dr. Smile arc is so vivid and devastating and hilarious
Sancho’s last scene was beautiful and heartbreaking