The Forty Rules of Love
Disillusioned by her philandering husband, Ella, an American housewife, takes a job as a reader for a literary agency. Her first assignment is the novel, Sweet Blasphemy, written by photographer and world traveler Aziz Z. Zahara. Ella is immediately drawn to the story and to its protagonists, the historical figures of the 13th-century poet Rumi and the whirling dervish Shams of Tabriz. On impulse she emails the author and thus begins to learn about Sufism.
A story within a story, The Forty Rules of Love goes back and forth between present and past. The trouble is that Ella is an utterly dull character and it is difficult to care about her. The U.S. setting, Boston and its vicinity, is invisible, and some allusions are simply outdated. Sorry, but college-age students do not listen to the Beach Boys nowadays. The many 13th-century characters, all using first-person point of view, contribute little spark to the narrative. By the time the syrupy end comes, the reader is grateful.
