About book The Arabian Nights II: Sindbad And Other Popular Stories (1996)
Not nearly as good as the first volume, which seems strange as it contains some of the more famous stories. But the entire book is consumed by extremes, which renders most of characters and plotting woefully inconsistent. Characters are intelligent in one moment and stupid the next. Circumstances are terribly dire until a few pages later when the characters are given incredible wealth and power for no discernible reason. The book's final story (and the only unfamiliar one) is by far the worst in this regard, and as the final cherry on the sundae, it's incredibly misogynistic to boot.To be honest, I can't help but wonder if the book's complete lack of nuance was considered desirable by its intended audience. It's clear that the book is built on an entirely different set of cultural premises than those with which I'm familiar, with vastly different ideas about what constitutes beauty, happiness, or how people should respond to fortune or misfortune. In that sense, the book was a lot more interesting, but it was far too easy to be distracted by its incessant vacillations.
This is a rather odd collection of episodic stories full of murder, torture, slavery, magic, coincidence, and melodrama. Although it includes many of the most well-known (though not original) Arabian Nights stories such as Sinbad, Ali Baba and 40 Thieves, Aladdin (Ala al-Din) and others, they were only mildly entertaining. They reminded me of the darker Grimm Brothers stories. Life is harsh and violent, although also magical and rich. Overall, I wouldn't recommend these stories unless you are interested in folk tales and legends.
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All stories except the the first do not exist in print until a Frenchman wrote them in the early 1700's, despite being much more well known than the stories contained in Haddawy's first book translation. I found Haddawy's explanation at the beginning of the book on the history of these stories and the publication very help, as I had always thought of the collection as a single, reprinted collection dating back to 900-1000. If you know you enjoy these stories and want a copy, I do recommend Haddawy's work. As for the stories, and my rating, I enjoyed reading them, even if they weren't the most thought provoking or shrouded in meaning. Ai Baba and the Forty Thieves was particularly memorable. All entertaining throughout, but most of the time, after finishing a story, I was left shrugging my shoulders, thinking, "So what?" If there is such a thing as a beach read from over 1000* years ago, this might be it. Sindbad is a lucky guy. I heard that Poe wrote an 8th voyage of Sindbad the Sailor, which I am now interested to check out.
—Tyler Gross
