This book is about a bunch of overgrown teenagers with raging hormones, irrational, stubborn and angry. There is no reason to their actions, no logic in their thoughts. The writing itself is on immature side. Disappointed. The rating is for the 40% I've suffered through.
Beautifully written, with language grounded in the historic-fantasy desert setting and delicate, almost fairytale-esque storytelling. Which unfortunately does make for a more distant reading experience than I think most current YA readers are accustomed to. Detached, mythic tone, with some commentary on gender relations, politics and power, feminism, heroism... The magical elements that draw together toward the end felt confusing and not as grounded in the world as they could have been, but again, just lovely writing. Feels more like literary than genre fiction.
A Thousand Nights -- E.K. Johnston
*Retelling based on the frame story of One Thousand and One Nights
Beautifully written retelling of One Thousand and One Nights using the frame story of Scheherazade only. This particular retelling seems to be popular at present... or rather, the Arabian-based tales and retellings seem to be the trend right now (with recent releases including The Wrath and the Dawn, A Whole New World, and The Forbidden Wish). It makes me want to pick up and read the original One Thousand and One Nights just out of principle alone.
Anyway, A Thousand Nights is an enjoyable read, although I'm going to admit that there were a lot of moments I had trouble focusing. The book itself was hard to get into in the first place and started out slow, but the latter half was actually quite entertaining.
Also, does anyone else notice that no one else has a name in this entire book except for, like, maybe three people? It took me until writing this very brief review to realize that. The main character doesn't have a name, her beloved sister doesn't have a name, and neither are names ever mentioned with her family or some of the serving women in Lo-Melkhiin's qasr. An interesting way to present a story, I suppose.
Anyway, lots of thought-inspiring anecdotes and ideals present, and some interesting twists. The magic in the story was a little confusing, but I DID love the characters (even though almost all of them didn't have names). A Thousand Nights is quite enjoyable.
***
2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge
About the author:
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Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS was a British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages.
Burton's best-known achievements include travelling in disguise to Mecca, an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (also commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after Andrew Lang's abridgement), bringing the Kama Sutra to publication in English, and journeying with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans led by Africa's greatest explorer guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay, utilizing route information by Indian and Omani merchants who traded in the region, to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Burton extensively criticized colonial policies (to the detriment of his career) in his works and letters. He was a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A unique feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and unexpurgated information.
He was a captain in the army of the East India Company serving in India (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War). Following this he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa and led an expedition guided by the locals and was the first European to see Lake Tanganyika. In later life he served as British consul in Fernando Po, Santos, Damascus and, finally, Trieste. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood (KCMG) in 1886.
book synopsis:
During ancient times, a king discovers that his wife is unfaithful. He executes her and her lover, and to ensure that he is never again betrayed, he takes a new wife each night and kills her in the morning. Eventually, he takes as his bride for the night a young woman who tells him a story that lasts all night long. When morning comes and she is to be killed, the story is not finished, and the king allows her to live through the following night so that he can hear how the story comes out. Of course, the story doesn't end the next night either, or the next night, or the next, until 1001 nights have passed, and the king decides to let her live and make her his queen.
These are the stories of Ali Baba and the forty thieves, Aladdin and his magic lamp, and Sinbad the sailor - stories of flying carpets, gigantic birds, and mischievous genies - stories that have captured the Western imagination for hundreds of years.
Compiled in the Middle Ages, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night is the chief glory of Arabic literature.
My rating: 4.5 stars
Goodreads challenges :
The Life of a Book Addict
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Reading Group Challenge 2016 > Elizabeth's 2016 Reading Corner Challenge 12 plus 4 alternatives
A Round The Year in 52 Books:
A book about books
What did I think of the story:
I'm so glad that I finally finished it, it's been on my DNF TBR since 07 when I got it. There was some stories I liked and some I loved.
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to my village looking for a wife.
She that he chose of us would be a hero. She would give the others life. Lo-Melkhiin would not return to the same village until he had married a girl from every camp, from every town, and from each district inside city walls-for that was the law, struck in desperation though it was. She that he chose would give hope of a future, of love, to those of us who stayed behind.She that he chose of us would not be forgotten.She would still be dead.
Already, the story is changing.
When men tell it in the souks and in the desert, they shape it to fit their understanding.
They change the monster into a man, and they change her into something that can be used to teach a lesson: if you are clever and if you are good, the monster will not have you.
You should not believe everything you hear.
Always, it seemed, men would overlook unpleasant things for the sake of those that went well. The statues’ eyes for the melodious sounds of the fountain. The deaths of their daughters for the bounty of their trade.
There was great beauty in this qasr, but there was also great ugliness and fear. I would not be like those men who turned their eyes from one to see the other. I would remember what those thing cost.
There was some strange power to him, even as there was some strange power to me, and I would not learn of it hiding in my room
It still did not matter to me that Lo-Merlkhiin had once loved his mother and his people. He shed blood and kept peace, but only the peace was of note. I was not content with that, though did not wish for some other girl’s death to pay the price instead. Seven days in the qasr had made me determined to get seven more, and then more besides.
In the daytime it gleamed, gathering the sun’s rays into itself, heating slowly as the day progressed. As night approached and the desert cooled, the heat came out of the walls and tried to find the sun again, but since the sun was setting, the heat moved in weaving lines, seen from a distance like through a veil of the finest silk, blurred and indistinct.
I received this book as an advanced review copy from Netgalley.
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