The pursuit of wealth and power has long been a bridge that unites
East and West. In his 1995 novel, The Moor’s Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie
employs two factors or commodities, to deconstruct political and cultural
history in East-West relations. On the political plane, he lays bare
the East-West power axis based on the age-old spice trade, while on the
cultural plane, he unveils the more recent bilateral interchange based
upon the arts and media. A Rushdie hallmark is the choice of a polyvalent
concept which gives much mileage, and here we see how Rushdie
mixes a hot sauce out of spices and wealth, history and politics, race
and identity, art and love.
