The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories

Somehow I ended up with two copies of this book, so before I ever even got to reading this, so I was always anticipating reading The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye. This book does have a few short stories, but the titular story is worth reading just on its own.

The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye is about Dr. Gillian Perholt, an English scholar of ‘narrative theory’, traveling to an academic conference in Turkey. Her job is to analyze fairy tales as a genre of stories, which involves understanding them from their mechanics, structure and other patterns. It wasn’t lost on me that the author A. S. Byatt is also a scholar of fairytales, so Dr. Gillian Perholt is nearly a mirror of A. S. Byatt.

The story gets really interesting when she accidentally unseals a genie (or djinn) from a bottle she buys in the bazaar, a ‘nighingale’s eye’ which is a sort of blue and white bottle made of glass. Since Dr. Perholt is an expert at fairy tales, she knows well enough to pause and not rush when the genie offers her to make wishes.

“I am enough of a narratologist to know that no good ever comes of making wishes. They have a habit of twisting the wishers to their own ends.”

While reading, you’ll encounter a lot of academic commentary on mythology and fairy tales in the past such as from The One Thousand and One Nights or The Epic of Gilgamesh, and these somewhat relate back to the present day story, tragedy, and commentary on aging and mortality.

Another highlight in the book is when the genie relates his life history, and how he has repeatedly been trapped in his bottle over time by prior owners and their stories. He takes us from King Solomon’s court, through the Ottomon empire, and into the present day. As you read through, you get to see Dr. Gillian make her wishes and their story, which I won’t spoil.

I highly recommend reading this because it’s such an interesting twist to the genie trope, anchored to academia, mythology and folklore.