Title: One Thousand and One Days
Author: Renee Frey
Pages: 181
Publisher: Authors 4 Authors Publishing
My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
The Prologue
is the 1001st day since the wedding and Sutaita, the daughter of the
Chief Vizier to Sultan Shahryar, expects to be killed as she has run out of
stories.
The story
begins on the day when Ja’far, Chief Vizier, runs out of maidens. Only his two
daughters, Sutaita and Dunyazaade remain. He must either offer them in marriage to the Sultan, or be
executed himself.
Every night
Sutaita begins to spin a yarn, and every morning she ends the story with the ultimate
cliffhanger, one that allows her one more day of life so she can take the story
to its conclusion. It seems like a great solution but it can’t last forever. Before
long, lack of sleep begins to take a toll on the Sultan and he figures
out his wife’s tactics.
Sutaita
does not know that it is the infidelity of the Sultan’s first wife that has
doomed all his wives to death the morning after the wedding. But she is determined
to find the truth behind the edict that every wife of the Sultan be executed
the morning after the wedding. With the sword hanging over her head, she lives
from day to day, never sure which day will be her last.
As time
goes, Shahryar feels compelled to tell Sutaita stories of his own. True
stories, but told like fiction, to heighten certain facts and withhold others.
The story
is written in the first person POV of Sutaita and the Sultan on different days after the wedding. With each account, we move ahead in time until the 1001st day. The descriptions
are beautiful; the local colour and culture evident.
Sutaita is
drawn to learning and wisdom and subjects like philosophy and mathematics. She
goes to her wedding-funeral, armed with stories.
With all the restrictions, one imagines of the time and the culture, it is heartening to read about the affection and love in Sutaita’s family.
The book reiterates the power of stories to heal, to entrance, to teach. The most
succulent fruit I know of… the ending of a story. At one point, Shahryar says, No one in their right mind would try to change someone by telling stories. but
that’s exactly what literature sets out to do. Sutaita’s experience proves a
truth that every book lover knows, that stories can save you.
We are also
reminded of the connectedness of stories, when Sutaita admits her familiarity
with Greek tragedies, Egyptian myths and Indian epics.
Unlike the original collection of stories known as the One thousand and one nights tales, which brings us the stories but tells us nothing about the
emotions of the woman who recounted them, Renee fills in those blanks.
While I was
heartened by the story element of the book, at some point, my interest began to
wane. The fact that there was no real antagonist made the danger tepid. There is
no antagonist here, except the demons that Shahryar carries within his breast.
The constant
thrust and parry between what Sutaita felt and believed and what the Sultan did
felt exhausting to read. As the Sultan continues to withhold secrets, life
between the couple becomes a complicated and intricate dance where we’re both
so focused on not stepping on each other’s toes that we’ve stopped seeing each other. A beautiful line but unable to lift the tedium of the narrative.
Also, the
use of the word, books, felt out of place. Unless the author meant a bound
volume. I was also put off by a conversation in the last chapter when Sutaita, unable to
believe what the Sultan has just said, says, “Come again.” This is the kind of colloquialism that stands out for all the wrong reasons, particularly in a book set in ancient Egypt.
As a child,
I used to wonder if they had any other conversations at all, or if it was just
story after story, night after night for a thousand and one nights. Thank you,
Renee. This was a story I'd forgotten I wanted.