****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I found "Twelve Rooms of the Nile" absolutely captivating. And the most unexpected treat was getting three books for the price of one. "Twelve Rooms" is primarily the story of an intimate relationship that develops between two unexpected soul mates. It's a wonderfully evocative travelogue about Egypt and the Nile in 1850, and it also delves into class issues and cultural divides in that era of French and British colonialism."Twelve Rooms" tells the tender story of the meeting of hearts and minds between French writer Gustave Flaubert and England's Florence Nightingale during a months-long sojourn along the Nile in 1850. They seem to have radically different lives and dispositions. Flaubert is terribly cynical and a voracious womanizer. Florence is deeply moral and earnest and has no experience with love or sex. Yet the two meet and spark at a time when they are both experiencing existential crises. He is mourning the deaths of his father and sister and is frustrated because his early writings have been failures. She is despondent over the many limitations placed on her as a woman. She is haunted by the certainty she was meant to do something important in her life but has not yet discovered her call to nursing. It's impossible to convey the subtlety and charm with which Shomer brings these two lost souls together. I was really touched by their relationship.The trip along the Nile includes treks through desert expanses and stops at bazaars, whorehouses and the sites of ancient ruins. Shomer writes sensuous descriptions of the sounds of the water's currents, the sting of sandstorms on the skin, the smells of the local food and pack animals, the texture of fabrics, and the colors of the sunrise and sunset over water and sand dunes. It is superb descriptive prose that makes you feel that you are there in the midst of the story.A subplot involving Florence's maid, Trout, is alternately tense and funny. To Florence, Trout proves to be almost as mysterious as the Egyptian guides and Bedouin tribesmen they encounter. There is some sly and astute commentary here about class, race and cultural divides, and these issues, while not belabored, add another layer of depth to the book.I can understand how the slow pacing and descriptive digressions in "Twelve Rooms of the Nile" might turn off some readers. I thought they were essential elements in setting the tone and style of a book that I found to be heartfelt and engaging.
