Quichotte has now supplanted Midnight’s Children as my favorite Rushdie work. I think he struck exactly the right balance in this novel. His prose, which tends to be somewhat meandering, works well here. The story is well structured and it flips back and forth between the story of Sam DuChamp, who is the “author” of the novel, and the tale of Quichotte (his fictional character) and Quichotte’s imaginary son Sancho.

This is not a modernized retelling of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. (Those looking for such a comic reimagining might be interested to consider my own humble effort in this regard, The Coyote by Pete Simons. If so, please visit my Goodreads Author page or my website at www.Pete SimonsAuthor.com). Quichotte uses the Cervantes novel as inspiration, but its plot is wholly different and wildly ambitious. In Rushdie’s words, “He [Sam DuChamp] was 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. He […] wanted to incorporate elements of the parodic, and of satire and pastiche.”

There are strange twists and occurrences throughout. (In one instance, the population of a New Jersey town are being inexplicably transformed into mastodons). Lovers of Haruki Murakami should be quite comfortable traversing the landscape that Rushdie has created.

I’ll be looking forward to giving this one a re-read at some future time.