sensestew

By Saba Siddiqui My last read,  Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak, is a good start for a person who has been lost in the everyday humdrum of a mundane life. It's spoke to my lanky spirit on many levels and gave me a point of reversal and pushed me to oil up if not restart my zinked engine! The beauty of this book is not that it talks about love and spirituality, but that it makes you want to tease out your true calling.  The novel aligns two narratives. The story of a present day Ella, a middle aged woman harping on the void in her life and a twelfth century Darvish called Shams of Tibriz searching for a companion to share his knowledge with, a character in the book called 'Sweet Blasphemy' she was assigned to edit.  Although, most reviews I have read or heard about this book talk of Ella as the weak and insignificant part of the novel, citing that she slows down the pace and brings nothing exciting to the narrative. Almost everyone, on the contrary,...