Caroline Kennedy

Lacking in power, eloquence and point, this novel is definitely not Rushdie’s best. Part political and social satire, part reality tv show, and part travelogue, there are too many threads here to make this a coherently woven story. Perhaps we have come to expect much more of Rushdie’s prose and maybe that is why Quixotte disappoints.

As a British writer, who is also writing about Anson in an historical novel, this story is gripping and well told. However, it was an English story of an English ship with a predominantly English crew and ended in a British court. So it really disappointed me that the chosen narrator was American. Conversations between British sailors spoken with an American accent was irritating from start to finish. I have read many stories about shipwrecks and this one holds its place among the best. But it was ruined for me by the narration.