![]() ![]() Yet at the same time the novel transcends the limitations of the specific setting, in the best tradition of literature, in its big-hearted portrayal of human quirks and foibles. ![]() With its exotic setting - primarily the route between Mecca and Medina in the mid-nineteenth century - a plot that circles tantalizingly around the enigmatic saddlebag of the title, its lyrical prose style, the disparate perspectives that comprise the narrative, and a fascinating collection of characters, the novel skillfully weaves together nine tales so immediate and compelling that the reader can taste the desert dust on her tongue. The Saddlebag by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani is a fine recent contribution to this genre of literature. The combination is appealingly exotic and even educational, but also familiar and accessible. ![]() The result is a literature with broad appeal that draws readers compellingly into what would once have been considered "foreign" worlds. Among the new cultural expressions that have arisen in our contracting world, with its shifting and blurring of national boundaries, are "world music" and "world literature." In the latter category, one thinks of writers such as Michael Ondaatje, Vikram Seth, and Salman Rushdie, whose works are informed by the authors' cultural backgrounds but framed by a modern, cosmopolitan sensibility. ![]()
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