The Feast of Roses : A Novel
1 journaler for this copy...
Given to me by a friend in New York City; registered in Kyrgyzstan, though, so it's already had some traveling to its credit.
The sequal to The Twentieth Wife, this book follows the marriage of Mehrunnisa, known to the world as Nur Jahan, to her husband the emporer Jahangir in Mogul India in the 17th century. While the first book covered their courtship and somewhat embattled relationship up to their marriage, resulting in a fast-paced, highly interesting novel, this one just can't live up to the precedent, and is boring, plain, and frankly uninteresting.
(Truth be told, I stopped reading somewhere halfway through and skipped to the last chapter to see how it all turned out.)
I don't think it's the writing so much as the character of Mehrunnisa who made the book so uninteresting and flat. After her marriage, Mehrunnisa becomes incredibly power-hungry - not that she wasn't always, only that she is more so now, to the point that she's willing to sacrifice her daughter to secure the crown. Far from being her former sympathetic figure, the reader spents a great deal of time wanting to slap Mehrunnisa upside the head.
The book is an interesting look at the political side of kingdoms - but those of us who enjoyed The Twentieth Wife probably were not expecting to find a political treatise.
The sequal to The Twentieth Wife, this book follows the marriage of Mehrunnisa, known to the world as Nur Jahan, to her husband the emporer Jahangir in Mogul India in the 17th century. While the first book covered their courtship and somewhat embattled relationship up to their marriage, resulting in a fast-paced, highly interesting novel, this one just can't live up to the precedent, and is boring, plain, and frankly uninteresting.
(Truth be told, I stopped reading somewhere halfway through and skipped to the last chapter to see how it all turned out.)
I don't think it's the writing so much as the character of Mehrunnisa who made the book so uninteresting and flat. After her marriage, Mehrunnisa becomes incredibly power-hungry - not that she wasn't always, only that she is more so now, to the point that she's willing to sacrifice her daughter to secure the crown. Far from being her former sympathetic figure, the reader spents a great deal of time wanting to slap Mehrunnisa upside the head.
The book is an interesting look at the political side of kingdoms - but those of us who enjoyed The Twentieth Wife probably were not expecting to find a political treatise.
