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Praise for the Islam Quintet A richly woven tapestry that merits comparison with Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy.A" Kirkus Reviews All human frailty and nobility is here--an imaginative tour de force.A" Sunday Telegraph Grippingly well told, brilliantly paced - a narrative for our time.A" Edward Said Tales of anguish, longing, lust, and love - Ali paints a vivid picture of a fading world.A" New York Times Book Review Ali spins metaphors, re-establishes certain truths, shines a light on issues shrouded in ignorance. He enthralls, entertains, instructs. This is high art.A" Le Figaro
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Completing an epic panorama that began in fifteenth-century Moorish Spain, Night of the Golden Butterfly moves between the cities of the twentyfirst century, from Lahore to London, from Paris to Beijing. The narrator is rung one morning and reminded that he owes a debt of honor. The creditor is Mohammed Aflatunknown as Platoan irascible but gifted painter living in a Pakistan where human dignity has become a wreckage. Plato, who once specialized in stepping back into the limelight, now wants his life story written. As the tale unravels we meet Platos London friend Alice Stepford, now a leading music critic in New York; Mrs. Naughty Latif, the Islamabad housewife whose fondness for generals forces her to flee to the salons of intellectually fashionable Paris; and theres Jindie, the Golden Butterfly of the title, the narrators first love. Interwoven with this chronicle of contemporary life is the turbulent history of Jindies family. Her great forebear, Dù Wénxiù, led a Muslim rebellion in Yunnan in the nineteenth century and ruled the region for almost a decade, as Sultan Suleiman. Night of the Golden Butterfly reveals Ali in full flight, at once imaginative and intelligent, satirical and stimulating.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Only survivors live to tell their tale - the others are drowned in the anonymous sea of history. There is always a whiff of the improbable about survivors' tales, particularly when the surviving spans generations, as with some of the characters of this book. But life is "the glory of the improbable", and we should relish every chance we get to celebrate life at its most bewildering.
The plot could have been lifted from Thousand and One Nights: a motley group in post-independence Lahore youth makes its way through life, some migrating early to professional success on cosmopolitan shores, others surviving in the "Fatherland" under most trying circumstances and succeeding in the end to join the lucky ones that went ahead. Like in the best of serial fairy tales, their lives cross and re-cross each other - no thread is lost: not even amnesia in distant Beijing is barrier to reunion and recovery of memory. All the baddies succumb to murder or aircraft crashes, or become international weapons dealers, thus drowning metaphorically in the special anonymity of this trade - never to be heard from again.
The character that acts as "unifier" of these many disjoined lives: Plato, the mathematician and painter who chooses to stay back in "Fatherland", survives in the works of his art and in the estimation of his friends, who just happen to have the means to establish a museum for his paintings. International recognition is thereby assured. And the gifted writer-friend sets out to establish his biography, making sure that his personality is recorded for posterity.
This is the last of Ali's "Quintet" - a series of books that takes us from Sicily under the early Normans, the Middle Crusades, the Fall of Grenada, and Istanbul before WWI, to today. It is all about the glorious life of mostly Muslim diasporas, and a celebration of religions mixing, and exchanging, in a spirit of curiosity and freedom. There is much poignancy along the way, but the tone is one of indefatigable optimism in humanity's capacity to compromise and learn from each other. Despite the occasional lapse into kitsch, this is a superb and astonishingly high quality collection, that holds up from volume to volume exceedingly well, while enriching our knowledge of Islam's many contributions to civilisation, from el-Andalus to Yunnan.
The plot could have been lifted from Thousand and One Nights: a motley group in post-independence Lahore youth makes its way through life, some migrating early to professional success on cosmopolitan shores, others surviving in the "Fatherland" under most trying circumstances and succeeding in the end to join the lucky ones that went ahead. Like in the best of serial fairy tales, their lives cross and re-cross each other - no thread is lost: not even amnesia in distant Beijing is barrier to reunion and recovery of memory. All the baddies succumb to murder or aircraft crashes, or become international weapons dealers, thus drowning metaphorically in the special anonymity of this trade - never to be heard from again.
The character that acts as "unifier" of these many disjoined lives: Plato, the mathematician and painter who chooses to stay back in "Fatherland", survives in the works of his art and in the estimation of his friends, who just happen to have the means to establish a museum for his paintings. International recognition is thereby assured. And the gifted writer-friend sets out to establish his biography, making sure that his personality is recorded for posterity.
This is the last of Ali's "Quintet" - a series of books that takes us from Sicily under the early Normans, the Middle Crusades, the Fall of Grenada, and Istanbul before WWI, to today. It is all about the glorious life of mostly Muslim diasporas, and a celebration of religions mixing, and exchanging, in a spirit of curiosity and freedom. There is much poignancy along the way, but the tone is one of indefatigable optimism in humanity's capacity to compromise and learn from each other. Despite the occasional lapse into kitsch, this is a superb and astonishingly high quality collection, that holds up from volume to volume exceedingly well, while enriching our knowledge of Islam's many contributions to civilisation, from el-Andalus to Yunnan.
Format:Paperback
The night of the golden Butter fly I found was the least convincing in the series . Of course the writing in all the series has been unusual. In an attempt to help an understanding of the history of Islam some the books suceeded better than others . Lack of political context for each period is a weakness really especially this last book and could have been achieved . I quite enjoyed the series but would have liked greater depth on many levels .Isuppose they are a kind on Arabian nights which give an insight to muslinculture at various periods. Not sure -facinated with the historyof Islam I am but found them just a little shallow .
0 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Book was packaged well and received in good time. As for the book itself...I haven't yet read it
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