A novel by Rushdie is always an engrossing read! This story within a story seems so expansive at times that you wonder how it could possibly all come together in a cohesive fashion, but it does. I am always amazed by his writing, because a summary never does it justice. How do you describe this book? It is so many genres rolled into one. A must read!

A modern-day take on Don Quixote (Quichotte is the spelling of the eponymous hero's name in the French operatic version of the story). This time around, Quichotte is an elderly Indian man now living in the United States, making his living as a traveling salesman for his cousin's (who owns a massive drug company) new opioid painkillers. As Quichotte drives from small town to small town, staying alone in rundown motels, he becomes obsessed with TV – all types of TV, from reality shows to the news to infomercials to reruns of black-and-white movies to sitcoms – and in particular with Salma R, former Bollywood star turned US TV star turned talk show host, who has an Oprah-like level of popularity and significance. Quichotte sets out to win her heart by a journey both literal (a road trip from Nowhere, Out West to NYC) and metaphysical (going through the mystical "Seven Valleys of Love", which involves giving up belief and knowledge and desire and all material belongings, before finally uniting with the beloved). Along the way he accidentally summons into existence a teen boy named Sancho, who may be Quichotte and Salma's son from the future or may merely be a figment of Quichotte's imagination.

Quichotte's is not the only story going on in this novel, however. Salma gets her own chapters, revealing her troubled childhood and addiction to the very drugs Quichotte sold, as well as her reaction to the mysterious stalker letters Quichotte keeps sending her. Sancho struggles to figure out who he is and how he can become a "real boy", complete with assistance from a talking cricket and the blue fairy. Quichotte's cousin, the owner of the multimillion drug company, deals with the American-Indian community while seeking to avoid arrest for bribing doctors to overprescribe his drugs. And outside of all of this, we have Brother, who is the author of the novel Quichotte, yes, the very one you're reading. Brother's "real" life has prominent parallels to Quichotte's: they both grew up in the same neighborhood of Bombay and have mixed feelings about their move from India to the US; they both have long-estranged sisters; they both have troubled relationships with their sons.

There is a lot of stuff going on in this novel, in case you haven't guessed. And I haven't even mentioned the Elon Musk surrogate (here named Evel Cent and obsessed with travel between dimensions rather than spaceflight), the thread about increasing American racism, the secret military cabal of computer hackers, the brief but odd flight of fantasy about Trump voters turning into woolly mammoths, cheesy spy thrillers, and, oh yeah, the literal end of the universe. With so much stuff, inevitably some of it doesn't work (I was particularly annoyed by a rant about 'cancel culture' late in the book), but a surprising amount of it does, and hangs together in unexpected ways.

Overall, it's a rolicking, bouncing satire that lingers less and seems to have less to say than many of Rushdie's books. There's not much of a message below all the dazzling twists and turns ("the opioid crisis is bad", I guess, is the main takeaway? Not a particularly deep conclusion, that). Which is fine! Not every novel has to Explain the Condition of the World Today. But it's oddly the closest I've ever seen Rushdie come to writing a Beach Read – though still with all the allusions and stylistic flourishes that are typical Rushdie.

My main complaint is that, despite the basic premise of "Don Quixote but with American TV", Quichotte does not actually seem to be all that influenced by TV. Sure, we're told frequently enough that he watches too much TV, but nothing about his speaking style (described as old fashioned, mannerly, and charming), his behavior (gentle, slow, determined), his approach to life (philosophical, forgetful), or really anything else about him resembles modern TV in the slightest. In fact, the main influences on Quichotte are medieval Persian poetry (the source of the Seven Valleys of Love, which together form the main structure of the novel) and two old-school sci-fi short stories: one the well-known The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke (with its famous final line, "Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out") and the other the much more obscure Pictures Don't Lie by Katherine MacLean. All three of these are repeatedly referenced by characters throughout the book, but don't have any connection to Quichotte's supposed diet of nonstop TV. I definitely got the vibe that Rushdie had the idea of updating Quixote from chivalric romances to their modern mental-junk-food equivalent, but doesn't actually watch enough trash TV himself to describe or reference or include it in any detailed way. Which does make me wonder why he decided to write a book about it, but oh well.

Quichotte is a lot of unexpected fun, but I wouldn't count on it becoming Rushdie's defining work.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2958226844

I could not get into this title after reading the first two chapters. I felt it was all over the place and while someday I may enjoy this, now isn’t the time. I will try again but for now - I felt it was too disjointed to capture my attention.

This is one for fans of Rushdie. Regular readers of his work know that you need patience to follow his flights of fancy and that's true here as well. A 21st century take on Don Quixote for sure but don't worry if you aren't familiar with the Cervantes original because it won't help you here. There's a huge cast of characters, interlocking stories, rabbit holes, and a story that meanders at times and speeds at others. It's overwritten for my taste but others will appreciate how Rushdie uses language. It's almost impossible to characterize. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I wouldn't make this a first taste of Rushdie but it's always nice to read something new from his imagination.

I've never read Don Quixote, so any references between the great Don and his modern day manifestation Quichotte are beyond me. What I can say is the Quichotte comments on so many ills of our modern situation including the opioid crisis, increasingly violent racism, and our absorption in the lives of others via television and social media to the detriment of our real life relationships. It's what Rushdie does best added to an interesting switch in perspectives that creates a book within a book of epic proportions.

Tracy’s Thoughts: A modern telling of one of my favorite stories, by one of my favorite authors? It should be a win. It was.

I love Rushdie’s playfulness with language, plot and kooky characters- and this book had all that. Quichotte, the lovable main character of Sam DuChamp’s book, and his alter ego, was a great character.

Rushdie had a lot to say in this book: politics, crumbling morals and crumbling morale, racism, opioid addiction: all were covered. This may be a drawback for some, but I liked how he addressed these issues.

Disclaimer: I haven’t read Don Quixote. Not for any particular reason other than I haven’t gotten around to it, but because of this I’m not going to be able to compare themes, characterizations or anything else they may share. I can only look at it as a stand-alone, so apologies if I miss any obvious references or tributes to the original novel.

I think the biggest drawback to being unfamiliar with Miguel de Cervantes’ masterwork & Salman Rushdie’s writing is that I had no idea where it was going. So much of the story feels meandering and nonsensical before everything finally clicks together. The two parallel character journeys blur the distinction between reality and fantasy that at times I forgot who’s perspective I was currently reading through, which I think was the point. A writer (character) is using a fictional persona to explore his own struggles and insecurities, whilst being in perpetual denial about it. The (actual) author writes about a novelist that’s writing about a former journalist—it’s like a literary Inception. In the end I didn’t know whether Rushdie himself was supposed to be represented through these characters. I still don’t.

Rushdie skewers popular culture while also empathizing with those enraptured by it. He’s able to pinpoint exactly the type of man who could believably convince himself that stalking a woman is akin to an Odyssey-like quest. He makes it easy to identify with a protagonist that at first glance you may not have much in common with, but grow to see as a part of yourself—just one that may be uncomfortable to acknowledge. The story is mostly framed as a look at American culture, with an Indian-American focus and a couple detours to the U.K. and India, but I think Quichotte is still accessible to all.

I’m not a huge fan of ‘pop culture dumps’ of just listing random references for readers to pat themselves on the back for recognizing, BUT this was probably the best use of it I’ve seen so far. (An example of this that’s, in my opinion, pandering would be Ready Player One.) I would recommend this book if you’re willing to set aside any pre-set rules for reality or how people behave and don’t really mind non-answers. Be ready to get a little lost before finally being led to the (kind of) summit.

Kudos to any of you who read this entire review: it falls into that dreaded GR review category of <b>“I didn’t know what to write in a short review, so I wrote a long review instead.”</b>

In <i>Quichotte</i>, Salman Rushdie — among the most courageous of contemporary novelists — dares to reimagine <i>Don Quixote</i> firmly within the context of contemporary America, with, for good measure side trips to the UK and India, all <i>”badly broken, too, and equally disputatious, and more violent.”</i> <i>”He was not rootless, not uprooted but transplanted. Or, even better, multiply rooted, like an old banyan tree”</i>. Rushdie’s America is familiar and contemporary: the pharmaceutical company detail men pushing sublingual fentanyl spray; the travelling salesman in his Chevy Cruze with <i>”the road [w]as his home, the car [w]as his living room, its trunk [w]as his wardrobe”</i>, and the chauffeur greeting Salma R with <i>”’Evenin’, Miss Daisy’”</i>. Perhaps best of all, <i>”A fat man in a red hat screaming at men and women also fat also in red hats about victory. We’re undereducated and overfed. We’re full of pride over who the f*ck knows. . . We don’t need no stinkin’ allies cause we’re stupid and you can suck our dicks. We are Beavis and Butt-Head on ‘roids. We drink Roundup from the can. Our president looks like a Christmas ham and talks like Chucky. We’re America, bitch.”</i>

Edith Grossman, whose 2003 translation of the ur-text was met with remarkable popular success and critical praise, commented that Cervantes <i>”never let. . . the reader rest. You are never certain that you truly got it.”</i> James Wood commented in his <i>The New Yorker</i> review of Grossman’s translation that <i>Don Quixote</i> <i>”is the greatest of all fictional inquiries into the relation between fiction and reality, and so a good deal of the novel’s comedy is self-conscious, generated when one or more of the characters seems to step out of the book and appeal either to a nonfictional reality or directly to the audience.”</i>

Just as Cervantes challenged readers’ concepts of the real and the fictional, Rushdie similarly challenges readers’ concepts of the real and the imagined, jumping back and forth between the envelope of fictional “reality” — the pulp spy novelist Sam DuChamp — and the envelope’s contents of imagined fantastical reality — Quichotte and Sancho — with the fictional and the fantastical realities shadowing and echoing each other. What Rushdie intends to portray as real and what Rushdie intends to portray as fantastical isn’t always clear, and the fantastical often seems more realistic than the “real.” Here lies what may be widely varied receptions by <i>Quichotte</i>’s readers: Rushdie’s latest requires readers to possess or to develop a facile imagination. Some readers can, some readers can’t. Some readers want to try, others won’t bother to put in the effort.

Rushdie being Rushdie, his <i>Quichotte</i> is both an adaptation and a series of extended riffs. Some riffs seem traceable back to the ur-text, some less so or not at all. Rushdie’s riffs, side trips, and digressions largely portray today’s America, thick with Starbucks, guns, and toxic hatred of brown people. But ultimately for this reader, the cleverness of Rushdie’s adaption of <i>Don Quixote</i> matters less than whether Rushdie’s adaptation can stand independently as compelling fiction. And I’m still trying to figure out my own answer to that question, because <i>Quichotte</i> is an always demanding and sometimes confusing read.

Fortunately, Rushdie gives pointers to understanding <i>Quichottte</i> in his Acknowledgments at the end, where he tips his hat to specific works by, among others, Katherine MacLean, Arthur C. Clarke, Eugène Ionesco, and Paul Simon. For those of you confused by parts of <i>Quichotte</i>, following up his pointers may help. Katherine MacLean’s wonderfully weird 1951 story “Pictures Don’t Lie” introduces us to huge — or are they microscopic? — visitors from another world, who are <i>”Crazy about Stravinsky and Mozart”</i> but <i>Can’t stand Gershwin”</i>. Arthur C. Clarke’s 1953 story <i>The Nine Billion Names of God</i> casually introduces the end of the world, as an isolated group of Tibetan monks hire a Mark V computer and two programmers to generate all possible names of god, only to learn that <i>”God’s purpose will be achieved”</i> with the end of their project, leading immediate end of the world. In Eugène Ionesco’s 1959 play <i>Rhinoceros</i>, Daisy demands of Berenger <i>”Where’s your imagination? There are many sides to reality. Choose the one’s that best for you. Escape into the world of the imagination.”</i> Not surprisingly, MacLean, Clarke, and Ionesco all hit us over our heads with the unexpected and sometimes the absurd in their questioning the nature of and the existence of a singular reality. But then there’s also Paul Simon’s lovely Graceland, and especially this verse: <i>”And I see losing love / Is like a window in your heart / Everybody sees you’re blown apart / Everybody sees the wind blow”</i>. <i>Quichotte</i>’s power lies in Rushdie’s refusal to accept a single reality in his portrayal of the absurdist yet heartache of exploded families and unrequited love. <i>”The Absurd in general. . . both mocked and celebrated our inability to give life a truly coherent meaning”</i>.

Rusdhie leaves his readers with much to savor and puzzle out in <i>Quichotte</i>. But readers’ enjoyment of <i>Quichotte</i> will depend upon their patience and their willingness to reread, question, and then think even more about what they’ve read. <i>”It may be argued that stories should not sprawl in this way, that they should be grounded in one place or the other, put down roots in the other or the one and flower in that singular soil; yet so many of today’s stories are and must be of this plural, sprawling kind, because a kind of nuclear fission has taken place in human lives and relations, families have been divided, millions upon millions of us have traveled to the four corners of the (admittedly spherical, and therefore cornerless) globe, whether by neessiyt of choice.”</i>

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for trading a much appreciation ARC for a review.

Who am I to reduce a Salman Rushdie novel to stars?

This book was very interesting and a lot of times very confusing. I had the same experience when I watched the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas the first time. It probably would have helped if I actually read Don Quixote, because think it would have made the story make more sense. I am not 100% sure if the plot or the way the story is written was what kept me so distracted and not completely immersed.
That is not to say that I did not enjoy this story, I just think this was a bit out of my league. However, I definitely want to try reading the book again because it is definitely interesting, I loved all of the characters, it is just the fantasy sequences throughout it threw my brain off.
I love that the book tackles social issues that people of color (in this case those presumed to be foreign) endure .I have read good things about Mr Rushdie's storytelling, and for those that are fans of his work, I am sure this book will not disappoint.

I received a free advanced copy from thr publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I have decided to DNF this, despite it being longlisted for this year's booker prize. Midnight's Children remains one of my all time favs and Haroun and the Sea of Stories was a very formative book for me as a young reader but as much as those are breathtaking examples of great literature, Rushdie's execution has been inconsistent to say the least. This for me falls into the example of failure unfortunately. Rushdie can write and even when he doesn't do it for me he does write with a certain panache that is enticing. But on the other hand the writing here felt like any old Rushdie, almost a caricature of what someone trying to write like Rushdie would do. At times it was too cute trying to be very meta (the whole direct conservation with the reader is an old Rushdie trick and it feels old and tired). I can't speak too much to thematic explorations except to say even there it felt shallow. Anyways a disappointment and not worth more of my time.

If you haven’t read Salman Rushdie in the past, then be prepared for a certain lightheadedness brought on by the merging of the real and the fictional, the paranoiac and the actual outlook.

Quichotte, a travelling pharmaceuticals salesman, has consumed so much motel-room cable TV that he has fallen ‘victim to that increasingly prevalent psychological disorder in which the boundary between truth and lies’ becomes ‘smudged and indistinct’, confusing imagination with reality.

Quichotte has an outlandish creativity that is exemplified by his reliable
rhetorical effect, the list. Rushdie’s Quixote devours “morning shows, daytime shows, late-night talk shows, soaps, situation comedies, Lifetime movies, hospital dramas, police series, vampire and zombie serials, the dramas of housewives from Atlanta, New Jersey, Beverly Hill, and New York, the romances and quarrels of hotel-fortune princesses and self-styled shahs’, the cavortings of individuals made famous by happy nudities, the fifteen minutes of fame accorded to young persons with large social media followings on account of their plastic surgery acquisition of a third breast or their post-rib-removal figures that mimicked the impossible shape of the Mattel company’s Barbie doll, or even, more simply, their ability to catch giant carp in picturesque settings while wearing only the tiniest of string bikinis; as well as singing competitions, cooking competitions, competitions for business propositions, competitions for business apprenticeships, competitions between remote-controlled monster vehicles, fashion competitions, competitions for the affections of both bachelors and bachelorettes, baseball games, basketball games football games, wrestling bouts, kickboxing bouts, extreme sports programming, and, of course, beauty contests. He did not watch hockey”.

“You need your wits about you if you want to ride the road,” says Rushdie’s blue fairy. “It’ll twist and turn on you. It’ll duck and swerve and land you where you don’t expect and you got no business being.” This novel is a similarly disorientating experience; not every reader will complete the quest. But those who are prepared to make oneself at home with Quichotte and enjoy the story will find a journey that is unexpected.

Thanks so much to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read #Quichotte in advance of the publication.

This is my third taste of Rushdie and I would definitely argue the best that I have read to date. It is a meta modern retelling of Don Quixote, which is one of my favorites of all time. This version, like it's predecessor, deals a lot in love, obsession, and reality. It also tackles major issues like the opioid crisis, racism, and the impact of too much television in a way that only Mr. Rushdie could pull off. There are numerous pov's that is frustrating at times but comes together nicely in the end. While this is a bit more fantastical than my average read I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this arc available through netgalley,

Salman Rushdie has done it again with his lush sentences and elaborate, unpredictable narrative filled with humor, wonder, and political commentary. Quichotte bounces back and forth between two planes: a writer, his history, and his novel-in-progress and that novel itself, with its Don Quixote-based protagonist. At times, you can't tell which story is driving Rushdie's world forward, but, as always in a Rushdie novel-- no stress. Author and reader know where they are, and the reader surrenders to the web he weaves. I can't help thinking that, when Mr. Rushdie turned in his final draft months ago, the political world in which it is set felt more outrageous than it is now that hurtling towards the end of days becomes a real fear. To any reader who balks at the thought of another Quixote adaptation, don't. Quichotte is fresh, rich, funny, and sexy. Read this one.

In this ambitious picaresque, Rushdie's main character is an author who states that he is trying to write "about impossible, obsessional love, father-son relationships, sibling quarrels, and yes, unforgivable things; about Indian immigrants, racism toward them, crooks among them; about cyber spies, science fiction, the intertwining of fictional and 'real' realities, the death of the author; the end of the world." And indeed, that begins to describe this novel, although it is far greater than the sum of its parts. The novel within the novel is the story of Quichotte (Quixote) and his possibly imaginary son--but then the whole thing is imaginary, and an exploration of reality and its relationship to fantasy. The author's and Quichotte's stories are parallel, and at times it is a challenge to the reader to keep them apart, although that may not really matter. There are plenty of secrets, betrayals, infatuations, revelations, reconciliations, and redemptions to go around. The literal and figurative roads traveled take the reader on a thought-provoking and memorable journey.

<b><i>“To each his/her/their own articulation of the universal Don.”</i></b>

You know that feeling when you’re reading a book and you just pause for a second and think, <b>“Damn, this is some <i>good</i> writing”</b>? That’s the closest description I can give to the time I spent reading <i>Quichotte</i>. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, given Salman Rushdie’s well-deserved reputation as a masterful writer, but I feel like I need to reinforce it. <b>This book is absurd and brilliant and hilarious and heartbreaking and so meta and I loved every minute of it.</b>

<b>Without giving too much away, let me sketch the plot for you.</b> Sam DuChamp, author of mediocre spy fiction, decides to write one last book: something more literary, something that could make him look like a real, serious writer. Drawing inspiration from the classic <i>Don Quixote</i>, Sam crafts a tale of an old man who goes by the name Quichotte. With his wits addled from a lifetime watching too much TV, Quichotte decides he is in love with a famous actress and sets off across the country, accompanied by his imaginary son Sancho, to win her over. Meanwhile, DuChamp’s life is filled with drama of its own, and as time goes on, the line between fiction and reality begins to blur.

<b>From plot to characters to linguistic brilliance, the novel excels on all fronts.</b> Zany characters get themselves in way over their heads, managing to maintain distinct voices even as their fates become increasingly similar. The shift between third person for most characters and first person could come off as just “odd” but instead is oddly fitting. The pages are populated with witty quips like <i>“to be a lawyer in a lawless time was like being a clown among the humorless: which was to say, either completely redundant or absolutely essential”</i> and pithy observations like <i>“social media has no memory”</i>, and the storyline jumps back and forth between the pain and ridiculousness of our own world, and the equally painful and ridiculous world of a man on a futile quest for love.

<b>This book isn’t for everyone, but it was definitely for me.</b> What can I say? I love literary fiction, Indian literature, satire, and zany plotlines that simultaneously tackle major problems. <i>Quichotte</i> is all of that and so much more.

Rushdie has a penchant for verbosity, absurdity, playing tricks on the reader, absurdity, making more allusions than should probably be legal (works and characters referenced range from <i>Doctor Who</i> and <i>Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy</i> to Jessica Rabbit and Mario to Dante’s <i>Inferno</i> and the compositions of Beethoven), casually sniping about our current sociopolitical climate, absurdity, commentary on the immigrant experience, and taking the wildest of gags and simply running with them. Oh, and did I mention <b>absurdity</b>? It isn’t an easy read by any means; Rushdie makes you work for the payoff, juggling characters and storylines that seem increasingly random, only to have them all come together for a finale that is perfectly satisfying, if a little strange at first glance. It really is the most appropriate sort of ending for a book like this.

Dealing with topics including <b>mental illness, racism, social media, “cancel” culture, political corruption, drug abuse, terminal illness, love, family, and the end of the world</b>, the novel could have easily turned into a mishmash that lost sight of itself while trying to fit everything in. Instead, <b>Rushdie’s deft hand manages to weave dozens of hot button issues into a bizarre but beautiful book that leaves you laughing all the way</b>. This is pastiche elevated to a whole new level, and I am so glad I was able to read it.

In short, <b><i>Quichotte</i> is a brilliant, wild ride from start to finish.</b> That’s really the most appropriate description for it. Be patient at the beginning, and don’t let the little details pass you by, but also don’t let them drag you down. Just fasten your seatbelt, prepare for some jarring terrain, and enjoy the journey.

4.5, rounded up.

I can't really claim to have been much of a Rushdie fan before this, since the only other work of his I've read is his magnum opus, Midnight's Children, which I marginally enjoyed, but felt was a bit beyond my ken, since my knowledge of the Indian politics it satirized is marginal, at best. And I feared that, having never read Cervantes' original, I might be likewise at sea with this modern update/homage. And there may indeed have been minor connections I didn't make, but I never really felt I was missing the larger picture - and there WERE other connections I was proud to have worked out (e.g., the town in which Rushdie relates his own version of Ionesco's Rhinocéros is called Berenger - which is the name of the protagonist in the original play itself!)

But there were also a few times I felt a bit adrift, and couldn't see exactly what was going on, or how the author was going to make all the pieces fit - with his usual melding of the mundane, satirical jabs at present day politics, and the fantastical/surreal elements, which didn't really work for me in his earlier effort. Luckily, as I read this on a Kindle version, I was able to use the search feature (FREQUENTLY) to backtrack and figure out where I was. This is NOT the easy read I anticipated.

However, all is forgiven, as Rushdie really does a beautiful job of bringing all the elements together, and amazingly sticks the landing in a way that is both astonishing and unpredictable. And even though I often don't like long-winded, winding sentences that stretch on for half a page, the author rarely made it difficult to parse out the meaning of his sentences - any re-reading of them I merely did to enjoy again the sheer beauty and joy of his prose stylings. Eminently worthy of its Booker longlisting, I am fairly confident it will also make the shortlist - and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Rushdie gets another award to put beside the two he's already amassed for Midnight's.

My sincere thanks to Netgalley and Random House for providing an ARC of this book prior to publication, in exchange for this review.

I like the general idea of the book, but overall it was a miss for me. There is just so much detail in everything he writes about.

This latest Rushdie novel brings together the best of what one of my very favorite authors can do -- and that's saying a lot. It's a piece of classic Rushdie. Quichotte brings together the story of Don Quixote for inspiration and structure, completely modern characters from East and West, and a hefty dose of magical realism. Rushdie also offers some of the best commentary on the significant ills of the modern world, most specifically Brexit and Trumpism. The anecdotes where he highlights the realities of these issues are sometimes cringe-worthy because they're so perfect.

Quichotte has two levels of story -- the tale of an author and the novel that he is writing, which parallels the author's life. For a while, I was frustrated because I was confusing the two stories, but, not surprisingly, that was part of the plan. Ultimately, the swirling interconnected stories make this novel feel the most like The Satanic Verses since The Satanic Verses. I enjoyed that purposeful swirling confusion and appreciated the very necessary commentary on modern culture.

This book is a satire of life in the 21st century, covering contemporary issues such as immigration, globalization, multi-culturalism, celebrity, politics, religion, social media, opioids, racism, stalking, cyber hacking, and much more. It includes many pop-culture references, literary allusions, and socio-political commentary. Rushdie employs the idea behind <I>Don Quixote</I>, but this book is very different in tone and content, more like a riff on a theme.

The plot revolves around an author, Sam DuChamps, writing a book about Ismail Smile, an older traveling salesman whose alias is Quichotte (key-SHOTT). Through Quichotte’s obsession with television, he notices and “falls in love” with Miss Salma R, an Oprah-like talk show host of eastern Indian descent. Quichotte and his imaginary “son,” Sancho, set off on a journey to win her, but first he must pass through seven valleys of trials and purifications. As he travels across America, he encounters racially motivated harassment, a scientist working on a portal to an alternate reality, various people involved in opioid distribution, and mastodons running amok. DuChamps’s life mirrors the book he is writing (sans mastodons) and the twin stories eventually converge into an extravaganza of action.

It takes quite a while for the story to ramp up, as there are many moving parts, lots of characters, and two sets of narratives. It is a thinking person’s book involving a complex structure, critique of the dumbing down of critical thought, psychological insights on human nature, and musings on space and time. Rushdie employs elements of the picaresque, the metaphysical, and the absurd to make a point about the deterioration of society. He sprinkles in bits of humor along the way. It takes place mostly in the US, with smaller segments in the UK and India. The beginning chapters jump quickly from one thing to the next and the different threads start coming together at about the half-way point. It started off as a not-so-pleasant experience but gained momentum and became riveting near the end. I appreciate the literary merit in this work and admired Rushdie’s virtuosity in assembling this intricate mix of genres (contemporary literature, fantasy, science fiction) and themes. It requires effort on the reader’s part, but the payoff is worth it.

I picked up this book based on the strength of <I>Golden House,</I> the only other book by Rushdie that I’ve read. This book is very different. I imagine it will generate extreme reactions, but if you enjoy romp through the absurd, you may enjoy it.

Wow, a tour de force.

Quichotte is a unique book in every sense of the word. It's a modern take on Don Quixote, a novel-within-a novel where the main plot and the subplots, the main characters and the secondary ones intersect and reflect each other in an endless cycle of similarities.

The text is dense and took me a rather long time to sort everything together, but the reading experience as a whole is more than fulfilling and well worthwhile. I also loved all the pop culture references and even the rather fantastical elements outstretching reality.

This is a thought provoking look on modern day American from the lens of an ordinary observant. Highly recommended.

Thanks Netgalley, Random House, and author Salman Rushdie for a chance to review this epic of a book.