Thank you for the review copy - I am not quite done but am really enjoying the valleys of Quichotte's journey and the character of Sancho.

A master story teller Salman Rushdie's recent book "Quichotte" is a product of wild imagination and keen observation. Quichotte, a modern day Don Quixote who is in love with TV and a female TV host Miss Salma R, creates his imaginary son Sancho to join the quest of love against the backdrop of racism, gun violence and opioid epidemic in US. In this fictional world, anything can happen; even the Talking Cricket and Blue Fairy from "Pinocchio" make an appearance. At one scene Quichotte and Sancho drives into a town where an absurd play of Ionesco becomes real. It is a satire on the contemporary America, the "unreal real."

Added to this main story, the story of Sam DuChamp (who is referred to "Author" or "Brother") reflects and deflects the story of Quichotte, as he is the creator of Quichotte, making the whole novel a metafiction. While writing the story of Quichotte, Author/Brother faces his own family issue; estranged Son and Sister. Even in the real world of Sam DuChamp, compared to the fictional world of Quichotte, things are not real any more, with all the twisted knots and threads spilling over from the fictional world almost like a Mobius strip.

Rushdie never loses his acute cultural and political observation skills as an Indian descent in this playful book. The satirical but insightful comments on the current culture ("culture without memory") and in US and in UK are very pointed and poignant.

The result is a meta-fiction, a love story, a family drama, a satire, an Absurd play, a fable, a road movie and even a science fiction as if Rushdie wants it all and I feel like all is actually given!

Quichotte by Salman Rushdie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh my goodness.

Okay, so you fans of Midnight's Children, behold... Rushdie has gone off the deep end with the sublime, the meta, the satire, and especially the meta. Did I mention meta? I mean, META, BABY.

Yes, yes, this is a modern take and full homage to the Cervantes classic, but it's a hell of a lot more than just that. For one, our Quichotte is a self-made man in all the best ways like Quixote, but instead of going overboard with Chivalry, we see the full age of tv sitcoms, reality tv, and even SF shows. And yet, this is only a small fraction of the book, itself.

Say what? Yeah. He's practically a minor character in comparison with the author who creates him or the Med Salesman who takes on the role, the far-off maiden who becomes the quest (and I love her own story, huge,) or the sister of the author who must be reconciled. And let's not even start getting into Sancho, the imaginary son of Quichotte who has his own quest to become fully-FULLY real, a-la Pinnochio, Jimmy Cricket, and the Blue Fairy. :)

It's CRAZY, yo! And it is FAR from being a simple satire. After all, we have alternate realities, the end of the world, a moral and ethical decay that is purely American, while flavoring all the waters with Hindu culture in grand Rushdie style.

Is it a mess, too? Yes. But gloriously so. As in, let's just put ALL the crazy on the table here and tie it together with all-too-real interpersonal quests and redemptions and seeking love, whether fixing estrangement between siblings, sons, or yourself. It's also heart-rending, not crazy at all, and subtle. And sweet. Right before it gets crazy cool.

A lot of these kinds of novels often bounce off me. Modern, Avante-Garde, meta for meta sake, too clever by half. But this one has a spark in it that spoke to me. Sometimes I was on the verge of saying 3 stars, then sometimes 4, then back to 3, and then things come together brilliantly and I'm right there with an enthusiastic 5. So what am I saying?

Be patient. It's wild but worth it. :)