Why 40 Rules of Love failed to impress

By Editor in Chief

Some of my thoughts on 40 rules of love by Elif Shafak

Disclaimer; this review contains spoilers. Kindly read at your own risk. 

When I started I could see a glimmer of hope that maybe I will be able to relate to this book. An ambitious woman, who took the decision to put her career on hold and give more time to her family... so can every woman maybe who is on a journey to find herself while in the frenzy of her everyday life chores and kids and other commitments. It didn't really last.

Had to keep a pencil in hand to scribble

my comments on all the inaccuracies

and loopholes. The coffee cake took

some of the disappointment away!

Ella turned out to a huge disappointment. A bored housewife who was looking for some spark and adventure (and probably encouraged just by the idea of it being a taboo and a forbidden fruit); She quickly jumped upon the first chance she got (frankly the only one she got!). Writer's attempts at writing a sentence for her and then making Aziz repeat the exact same words to create some sort of divine connection to convince that the interest is inspired by a predestined soulmate encounter, were too desperate too make her look justified.

Secondly put off was the wrong interpretations of Islamic ideas. Early on i was appalled at the narrative of Jackal Head where he is talking about death and the taking the blame of it (as an assassin) where actually he's just an accessory to Izrael and how unfair God is to him. Inaccurate and shocking to say the least.

Then came Shams. My first impression of him was that he's psychotic. Probably schizophrenic. Since I know nothing of the real person I will keep my review to the protagonist as painted by the writer. And she did a poor job of making a good first impression.

From that point onward the story sort of dragged on and on for another 200 pages. In between the writer forced some unnecessary situations just to make room for the rules which might or might not pertain to the story line at all at times! Again the effort was obvious that words from Shams were copied and pasted in letter from Konya to again indicate divine intervention. Not very convincing, predictable and by this time, a tad bit annoying.

The writers attempt at showing us the perspective of numerous characters is admirable but leaves much to be desired when it comes to their own depth, character background and relevance to the story. She has spread it out too thin and characters lose their individual importance and relevance to the main story line. It's like a bit if this and and bit if that while not staying on one topic long enough to let the reader absorb it fully. Each character despite being worlds apart from each other, seem to have the same tone and monologue structure to their thoughts as the protagonist or anyone else. We fail to see any variance and thus any other colors of personalities. 

Some of the characters were created just to support and hypothetically prove the stereotypes that the writer holds. Like all scholars of mainstream Islam are extremists and insufferable morons with little or no understanding of Huqooq ul Ibaad as apparently that's only the domain of and exclusive to Sufism (it was sort of an eye-roll moment for me).

I as a person don't know much Sufi Islam. And the book doesn't serve to throw any positive or practical light on it which is a pity, as it truly is an opportunity lost. 

Again my issue was I wasn't able to grasp the rules as they popped up as they seldom had to do anything with story line. As a stand alone write up the rules might have some weight and an audience of their own, but in the book it only seems like they are anchors to a bad script and an attempt to make the writer sound deep, profound and super cool. 

The character of A.Z. Zahara. Another mystery. Another hard to relate to person. Despite the attempts at making him more likable than the cheating husband, he fails to impress. His philosophical journey from S to U to F to I was the most ridiculous thing I read. It wasn't mystical or clever or deep... it was juvenile, superficial and just another face palm moment. His interest in the woman was not anywhere close to divine inspiration. It seemed incredibly selfish of him to lead a woman on, knowing fully well that his days were numbered.

The protagonist's love of life, Rumi appears in the book far too late, and for the window is too small to create any impression at all. The main idea of transference of the wisdom from Shams to Rumi, is obscured by the writer's lack of grip on the content and hence it is hastily wrapped in a matter of few pages, overshadowed by the hovering annoyance exhibited by the poor wife. Similarly, the abrupt and unnecessary marriage with Kimya, flies over the head completely. I suppose the writer needed a stronger reason for Aladin's motive for murder, and what is a better motive than an estranged lover! Typical and a cliche at best!

Overall, I was looking for the divine revelations and the aha-moments of self-awareness and spiritual awakening as claimed by some fans, but unfortunately, I was left disappointed and not amused.

On to our next read then!

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