The motif of Duality has been employed throughout the narrative, be it the duality of names of citites (Bombay/Mumbai) or chacarters (titular Quichotte/Quixote, Salma R/ Salma C, and so on), the duality of past and present, the duality of real and the virtually real, the duality of the-chosen-short-pleasant narrative of our life and the-actual-ugly-hidden-longer narrative of our life.

Sancho, the imaginary son of Quichotte is a prototype of the existential human being. As such the ideas of alienation and identity crisis come as no surprise for the readers. The very opening line of the novel establishes its diasporic nature. Among others the themes of racism, cyber crime and drug abuse form an important part of the narrative. In the later part, Rushdie is more obsessed with the theme of death and the end of the world. The theme of the loss of the real, that is the inability to differentiate between the real and the ‘real’ is predominant in the first half of the book. But that didn’t hamper my reading experience in any way. As a matter of fact, I haven’t read Cervantes’s Don Quixote. Of course some of these references were lost on me. As characteristic of the postmodern world, there is a blend of both high as well as low culture. There are a lot many (I’d rather say way too many) references to the Pop culture. Quichotte is primarily a postmodern novel. In this sense, it does talk about the subjectivity of the writer and the way writers seek substitute gratification in their writing. As Quichotte moves on in his quest, the boundaries between fact and fiction blur and the author’s own life is laid bare so that what Rushdie has presented here becomes not just a mere novel but also an account of the very process of writing this (meta-fictional) novel. Through his characters, the author DuChamp has a face-off with the challenges of his own life. Travelling across America, Quichotte is accompanied by his imaginary son Sancho. The primary narrative is that of Quichotte and his quest to win the love of a TV star. The man is the author Sam DuChamp and his reflection is the character that he creates, Quichotte. Salman Rushdie’s Quichotte is an account of a postmodern man standing at the brink of the collapse of civilization staring at his own reflection.

Rushdie quichotte review