Forty Rules of Love Review - Musing about the Bestseller by Elif Shafak

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, is gaga over the forty rules of love Shams imparts and extol how the multiple perspectives enrich his journey with Rumi, yet fail to celebrate the shackles Ella breaks after getting inspired by his view of life and love to the point she not only falls in love with the writer, Aziz Zahara, but agrees to leave her marriage, kids and country all for this man whose writings (the book and the letters) showed her a parallel world where she could taste freedom she had lost the knack for.

While ruing on, lesser mortals like us are still appalled at the idea of facing our inner demons, her little victory over the dejected state she was in touches the likes of us at a very personal level. Subsequently, the intense drama Shams's story brings forth only pacifies the implicit but potentially torpid commotion she goes through, hence the comparison is too vivid and constrasting, but nevertheless poignant. 

Although, her story could have been more captivating had it been the focus! Only it was not Ella, nor the writer, Aziz Zahara, her penfriend, she fell in love with over the internet, but Shams who had a vision that his death is close and so he must impart his immense knowledge onto someone it befits. While on his journey from Baghdad he reaches Konye to find Rumi the sufi poet, before he was either the sufi or the poet as we know. Ella is not one of those characters in a novel about a novel who are all gusto and wind but is a reflection of the reader for whom the inspiring words (including the infamous forty rules of love) and strong personality of Shams are embalming! 

'Sweet Basphemy' on its own is bulging with several characters, be it Rumi, Kimiya, Baybers, Sulayman, the harlot, the begger or the drunkard, all interconnected either though thier love or hatred for Shams. His story unfolds through their eyes and remains just as gripping and thought provoking until the end. On the other hand, Ella is left alone much like Rumi, but more aware and in sync with the flipside of life which left them both liberated, exposed to the expanse it has to offer and pushed them to realise their potential. 

The language of the book is very simple to the point of being basic and this is how the book absorb the reader into it's spiritual ambit. The book is no literary marvel, yet it has enough to feed the imagination and spark curiosity about one's own self.

Diaclaimer - I am in no way eulogizing abandoning family, friends and welwishers for the sake of spirituality, compounding with the utter disregard all the major characters of the novel have shown towards their close ones, be it Ella, Rumi, Shams or Aziz. Sometimes you find peace by connecting with those you have been neglecting all this while; abusive relationships notwithstanding! 

P. S. 

My next read is 'A Man Called Ove'. It's an unusual character choice, the kind that serves as a side dish to the conventional main course but here it offers a full meal, and I am already hooked!