Whatever Gets You through the Night

Starred review from April 25, 2011
Novelist, poet, and NPR commentator Codrescu (The Poetry Lesson) displays his usual unorthodox intellect in this interpretation of the tale of Sheherezade. He opens with a series of quotations from earlier recountings and interpretations, ending with this: "Sharyar (the sultan) is the spectator par excellence" whose violence is controlled by "Shezz the Telly." Codrescu posits Sheherezade as a "proto-feminist" who volunteered to marry the sultan to end his brutal habit of marrying virgins, deflowering them, and executing them the next morning. Codrescu takes issue with scholar Husain Haddawy's acclaimed 1990 translation of the tales because it underscores the Arabic national character of stories that, according to Codrescu, can belong to no one culture or religion. For Codrescu, stories, and the curiosity that propels them, belong to all humanity. Sex, mystery, curiosity, and imagination are linked in Codrescu's narrative, and he finds them lacking in a brief critique of today's media-driven world. Salacious, irreverent, and impious, Codrescu's modern version of the classic, accompanied by his commentary in more than 100 footnotes, may disquiet some readers, while others will enjoy his humor and insights into storytelling devices.

May 15, 2011

The publisher's blurbs call this a "retelling" of The Arabian Nights, but Codrescu's subtitle is more accurate. In other words, Codrescu (The Poetry Lesson), a wildly popular and prolific author and also a commentator on NPR's All Things Considered, isn't offering a retelling of the original Arabic tales, but is presenting an independent story featuring Scheherazade and referencing the title used in the earliest English translations, The Arabian Nights' Entertainments. In short, this book is a sort of riff on the original themes. The stories share some characteristics and plotlines with Arabian Nights but always with a twist or new metaphysical take. They also have a different sense of the fantastic. Genies become Genuises, for example, and the original frame itself isn't really there. Interesting and witty footnotes about translations of the Arabian Nights and the culture of the story are added as a kind of bonus, contributing to the narrative. VERDICT Codrescu's fans will love this book, and Arabists will be charmed by this new take on the classic. Most libraries will have a readership for it.--David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia

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