Charles Hose

Salman Rushdie's fourteenth novel, "Quichotte," published in 2019, is a metafictional work inspired by Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote." The story centers on Ismail Smile, an Indian-American pharmaceutical salesman living in America who becomes obsessed with a celebrity television host, Salma R. Under the pen name "Quichotte," he embarks on a cross-country journey with his imaginary son, Sancho, to find her. The narrative intertwines Smile's quest with the story of his creator, Sam DuChamp, an Indian-born writer of spy thrillers who is attempting to write something entirely new.

The novel delves into various contemporary American issues, including racism, the opioid crisis, familial bonds, and the pervasive influence of popular culture. Rushdie intentionally crafted a parallel storyline about the characters' creator, mirroring Cervantes' own metafictional techniques. The novel's title itself references the French spelling of "Quixote" and alludes to Jules Massenet's opera, as well as a slang term for drug ingestion, highlighting one of the book's thematic elements. "Quichotte" received generally favorable reviews and was a finalist for the 2019 Booker Prize.

"Quichotte" functions as a metafiction, drawing significant parallels with Miguel de Cervantes' seminal work, "Don Quixote." The novel features a story within a story, a technique Rushdie employed to explore the relationship between creators and their creations, much like Cervantes did. The protagonist writer, Sam DuChamp, is compared to Cide Hamete Benengeli, the fictional Arab historian Cervantes claimed as the source for "Don Quixote," serving as a metafictional device to lend credibility and depth to the narrative. Ismail Smile's adoption of the pseudonym "Quichotte" and his obsessive pursuit of Salma R directly mirror Alonso Quijano's transformation into Don Quixote. Furthermore, the character of Sancho, Smile's imaginary son, is named after Sancho Panza, Don Quixote's loyal squire, reinforcing the novel's structural and thematic homage to its literary predecessor.

As Ismail Smile travels across America in his quest, the novel engages with a spectrum of contemporary societal issues. His journey, accompanied by his imaginary son, becomes a vehicle for exploring the complexities and contradictions of modern American life. Themes such as racism, the devastating impact of the opioid epidemic, the dynamics of familial love, and the overwhelming influence of popular culture are woven into the narrative fabric. The intertwining storylines of Smile and his creator, DuChamp, create a layered commentary on reality, illusion, and the human condition in the 21st century. The novel's exploration of these issues, combined with its metafictional structure, invites readers to consider the nature of storytelling and its relationship to lived experience.