Salman Rushdie wrote this book for his son, when he wasn't able to be with him. Its a book of fairytales describing the adventures of a father (who used to be a storyteller) and his son. There is a lot of impression from other books such as 1001 Arabian Nights, and other writers' and books' are also hinted in the story. The fun level is not so high but it is still an entertaining activity to read this book together with children.

Einen Stern gibt es extra weil es ein Kinderbuch ist.
Mich hat es nicht besonders angesprochen, aber ich bin nicht die Zielgruppe, deshalb fände ich eine schlechte Bewertung unfair.

Zum positiven:
Für Kinder ist es sehr fantasievoll geschrieben und es lässt sich auch die einr oder andere Lebensweisheit raus filtern.
Es gibt einen Bösewicht, mehrere Helden, ribe Prinzessin die gerettet werden muss, eine magische Welt und viele skurrile Wesen.

Negativ:
Charaktere namens Wenn, Aber und Plaudertasch (natürlich weiblich), Orte namens K-Tal, M-Berge und G-Stadt.
Dies hat meinen Lesefluss gestört.
Bösewicht erzählt ellenlang seinen bösen Geheimplan.
Plan des Bösewichtes wäre ohne Probleme aufgegangen, wenn er nicht die Prinzessin entführt hätte. Also ein großer Logikfehler.
Viele Wiederholungen.

Salman Rushdie blew my mind with his magnum opus Midnight’s Children. I’ve been an ardent fan of him since I first read it last year. Then I read the allegedly blasphemous The Satanic Verses, which turned out to be quite a good book thought it was at first a tumultuous experience. I waited with bated breath for his memoir Joseph Anton, which I, unsurprisingly, devoured. And with Haroun, Rushdie has blown my mind again.

Rushdie wrote Haroun for his son during the fatwa. It’s quite incredible that he pulled off such an exuberant, phantasmagoric and absolute delight of a book during a time of extreme tribulation. Superficially it’s a beautiful tale about the adventures of a boy named Haroun Khalifa, hailing from a ‘sad’ city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name. Deep down, it discusses matters of relevance such as the freedom of speech, the power of stories and the ones who tell them.

The prose is lovely and lucid. What makes Haroun even more memorable is the deft wordplay. Not a single word feels forced; everything fits wonderfully. Ah, Rushdie, you are indeed a wordsmith!

Sir Rushdie, you have survived the threats of the ruthless Khattam-Shud (read: Ayatollah Khomeini) and I hope you come up with more and more magnificent tales from the never-ending Sea of Stories.

I am plotting a fairly unusual course around Rushdie's works. I absolutely loved last years Booker prize-nominated Quichotte and the next logical step would probably be Midnight's Children instead of which I have gone for Rushdie's adventure tale for children.

Not being a child I probably can't rate this fairly as a work of children's literature. As an adult reader, I was pretty underwhelmed, I might even go so far as to say I actively disliked it. It is important to note I loathe allegory and random acts of rhyming, but those were not the things that tipped me over the edge. Mostly, I got rather tired of hearing about how ugly Princess Batcheat was and how wobbly and cuddly Miss Oneeta was. That left two other female characters - Soraya the cheating wife and Blabbermouth a pugnacious Page... hmmm there is a feminist studies essay in here somewhere.

Just not my thing.

This is a kids book that really is just for kids. I know the editors' reviews tell you that it will change your life, change the world, or something else great. But, trust me, it's just a cute story.

Haroun's dad is a story teller. His life is happy until one day his mom leaves him and his dad and his dad can no longer tell stories. This puts the mat risk of losing everything because that's how they maek their money. They are invited to tell stories on behalf of politicians, and the night before Haroun's dad must tell the gretest story ever Haroun and his dad go on a magical journey (is it a dream?) to a magical land, where they save the sea of stories, the source of all the stories of the universe.

It's not bad. It's just that it lacks some level of subtely and cohesiveness that good books have. Even good kids' books. And it also lacks that "page turner" element that makes up for a book not being that great, becuase it somehow grabs you.

This book is easy, and it's very cute. It reminds me a great deal of The Phantom Tollbooth. THey both use puns and play on words, they both tell of magical journeys that change a young boy's life. But the jokes and play on words aren't all that funny (you have to know Hindi to get most of them), and get kind of old. You can finish it quickly, and you won't regret reading it. Still, you can probably find a book that you enjoy much more.

Great kid's story - my son loved it. I thought that the language was clever and creative and enjoyed the pace. The characters were engaging, funny and a joy to follow. If you have a kid that is between 8 and 10 years old, they will love reading this book with you I am sure.

‎دوستانِ گرانقدر، این کتاب از 233 صفحه تشکیل شده است و <سلمان رشدی> همچون داستان "آیات شیطانی" در این داستان نیز منظورش را در قالب داستانی خیالی بیان نموده است و شما میتوانید هر شخصیتِ تاریخی و مذهبی را که در ذهن دارید به جایِ عناصر داستان بنشانید
‎داستان در موردِ پسری به نامِ <هارون> میباشد که در کشورِ "الفبا" زندگی میکند و پدرش <رشید خلیفه> مشهورترین داستان سرا و افسانه سراست که به دو لقب مشهور است: یکی سلطان وراجی و دیگری دریایِ اندیشه
‎آنها در شهرِ "داستان" زندگی میکردند و مردم آنقدر غم و اندوه داشتند که نامِ شهر را فراموش کرده بودند و البته شما تا پایان داستان نمیدانید که نامِ شهرِ غم زده ، "داستان" یا همان به زبان هندی "کاهانی" میباشد
‎همسر <رشید خلیفه> و مادرِ <هارون> زنی آواز خوان به نامِ <ثریا> است که از آنجایی که شوهرش غرق در داستان سرایست، خانه و زندگی را ترک کرده و به همراه مردی به نامِ "سنگوپتا" فرار میکند و از آنجایی که در ساعت یازده فرار کرده، پدر تمام ساعت ها را در ساعت یازده خورد میکند و همین موضوع سبب میشود تا <هارون> هر یازده دقیقه یکبار افکارش به هم بریزد و البته خودِ <رشید خلیفه> نیز دیگر بیشتر از یازده دقیقه توان داستان سرایی را نداشته باشد
‎داستان حولِ محورِ موجودی زورگو به نامِ <ختمشد> که حاکم سرزمینِ خاموشی یا همان "چوپ" است و مبارزهٔ او با <هارون>، میگردد
‎این حاکم زورگو <ختمشد> رهبر آیینِ بی زبانی است و میخواهد تمام دنیا را وادار به پذیرفتنِ آیین و مذهبش کند
‎که گمان میرود منظور همان <محمد بن عبدالله> پیامبرِ تازیان باشد
‎در هر صورت <هارون> سفری عجیب و خیالی انجام داده و در داستان با موجوداتی عجیب و غریب نیز سر و کار دارد و هدهد نیز به او کمک میکند و مبارزه اش با <ختمشد> ادامه دار است و شاید چارهٔ دردهای <هارون> و خوشبختی اهالی شهرِ غم در دستانِ <شیر ماهی> باشد و او بتواند آرزوهایِ <هارون> را برآورده کند.... داستان و پایانِ آن را برایتان نمینویسم، شاید برخی از عزیزان قصدِ خواندنِ این کتاب را داشته باشند که صد البته من توصیه نمیکنم
‎در زیر جملاتی از کتاب را که شاید تأثیر گذار باشند را به انتخاب برایتان مینویسم
---------------------------------------------
‎پایانهایِ خوش در داستانها و هچنین در زندگی بسیار نایاب تر از آن هستند که بیشترِ مردم فکر میکنند، میتوان گفت که آنها بیشتر استثنا هستند تا قاعده
********************
‎مردم باید وقتی خوشحال باشند که واقعاً چیزی برایِ خوشحالی وجود داشته باشد، نه اینکه کسی شادی مصنوعی را از آسمان رویِ سرشان بریزد
----------------------------------------------
‎امیدوارم این ریویو در جهتِ شناختِ این کتاب، کافی و مفید بوده باشه
‎<پیروز باشید و ایرانی>

A fantastically preposterous carpet ride with magicians, genies and goblins. An oceanic library of stories aimed primarily at children, but also likely to please adults who haven't yet succumbed to cynicism and whose imaginations haven't yet withered on life's vine.
Riotous, hugely imaginative and funny to its core.
Those of you who have young children, read this out loud to them at bedtime, for you will get just as much fun out of it as they will!

Šis aizgāja tik ļoti garām kasei, ka noslīkām pāris nodaļas pirms finiša.
Saprotu, ka literārā pasaka, bet arī man kā pieaugušajam nepatika - didaktiski un patukši.

"n  What's the use of stories that aren't even true?n"

I'm not quite sure why I picked this up (it's a children's book, and my "child" was 21 last week - perhaps I'm hankering for times past), but I'm glad I did. It has the powerful mythical feel of traditional fairy tales, with plenty of nods to classics, and a political undercurrent that tells of the time he wrote it.

It would be perfect to read to a child of around 7 to 10, over a couple of weeks (twelve equal chapters), but as a solo adult, I enjoyed the wistfulness of a childish read, coupled with something much more profound.

Before you start

I vaguely knew this was dedicated to his son, but didn't notice the actual dedication or consider the timeline. However, I wasn't far into the book before I felt compelled to check. It was published the year after the fatwa that sent Rushdie into hiding (though he'd long since split from his wife). His son, Zafar, was 10 or 11. In that context, the dedication is heartbreaking:

Zembla, Zenda, Xanadu:
All our dream-worlds may come true.
Fairy lands are fearsome too.
As I wander far from view
Read, and bring me home to you.

I also wish I'd noticed the pages at the back that explain the names of many of the characters, most of which are derived from Hindustani [sic].

Story

The key message is the power and importance of stories, even if, or particularly because, they are not true. (You see the link to the fatwa?)

Haroun is the son of a great storyteller who loses the power of storytelling. The story is a quest to turn on the storywater tap. It is set in an "other" world, with a child as the hero. If this were an adult novel, it would be classed as magic realism. It has an old-fashioned and Indian feel, but also features robotic birds and passing mention of aliens, UFOs and moons.

I won't summarise the plot, but it has all the elements you want and expect from a book like this: fantastical creatures; enigmatic lyrical characters juxtaposed with logical prosaic ones; dashes of humour; a maze of corridors; mistaken identity; occasional puns and Malapropisms (pussy-collar-jee = psychology); love; betrayal; impossible dilemma; princess rescue; disorientation; lucid dreaming?; a battle; time dilation; derring-do; funny names; telepathy; wishes; a baddie who explains his plan to the captured hero; magic; a gadget (complete with arbitrary timeout).

Free speech - Je suis Haroun

This is about the fun of stories and the importance of believing even what you can't see, but it's not just about that. There is a clear message about the right to speak. The arch-enemy of all stories is also the arch-enemy of language itself - to the extent his followers have their lips stitched up. What could be a more powerful symbol of censorship that the "Sign of the Zipped Lips"?

"n  Is not the Power of Speech the greatest Power of all? Then surely it must be exercised to the full?n"
Not forgetting this is a children's book, the example is a general who accepts insults and insubordination. The risk to those in power is that "inside every single story... there lies a world... that I cannot Rule."

But the importance of free speech doesn't mean one should always speak, unthinkingly. Haroun realises that "Silence has its own grace and beauty (just as speech can be graceless and ugly)... Actions could be as noble as words." As in so many things, we need discernment.

One of the problems Haroun encounters is the deliberate poisoning of the storywaters by dark forces. You can put an ecological spin on that, but it's not the main message.

Even a non-baddie has had some stories changed to make him the hero. Who owns our heritage? Can we rewrite it?

"The magic of the story can restore spirits."

Note: Although this was written in the aftermath of the fatwa, it's an issue Rushdie covered (less obviously) in his earlier novel Midnight's Children.

Literary links

These ones I spotted (there may well be others). It's only now I collate them that I realise quite how many I found; I may be guilty of over-analysing:

•tDouglas Adams
tPeople always trust Rashid the storyteller "because he always admitted that everything he told them was completely untrue". Unlike the politicians who want him to speak at their rallies. This logical inversion is slightly like Wonko the Sane from So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.

tThere is also P2C2E - a Process Too Complicated To Explain, which summoned H2G2 to mind.

•tGraham Green
tOn discovering his mother had left, Haroun's reaction was the rather tangential destruction of his clock. I was reminded of a short story called "A Shocking Accident" in which a boy, on learning his father was killed by a falling pig, asks what happened to the pig.

•tThe Beatles
tThere are eggheads and a character called Walrus, but I didn't spot the carpenter.

•tTolkien
tThe Floating Gardeners look rather like amphibious ents.

•tKafka
tThe Plentimaw Fishes are described as Hunger Artists (they swallow stories and then "create new stories in their digestive systems"). See A Hunger Artist.

tThe Shadow Warrior's first, spluttered utterances are "Googogol" and "Kafkafka".

•tGogol
tHis name is mentioned (alongside Kafka's). I've reviewed four of his tragi-comic and sometimes surreal stories HERE.

•tShakespeare
tA boy page is actually a girl in disguise.

•tLewis Carroll
tThe pages dressed like pages (rather than playing cards) and associated trumpets brought Wonderland to mind, as did the logical illogicality of organisations.

tOne character asks Haroun "Why make a fuss about this particular impossible thing?" The Red Queen famously "believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast".

•tJonathan Swift
tThe antagonism between the Guppees and Chupwalas has echoes of that between the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos.

•tMary Tourtel et al
tThe Plentimaw Fishes talk in rhyming couplets, like the captions underneath each picture in Rupert Bear stories.

•tPhilip Pullman
tIn the dark world, shadows can be separated from their owners - rather like Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon.

•tMonty Python or JM Barrie
tA knight fighting his own shadow made me think of the dark knight in The Holy Grail, but given that he's not fighting his shadow, I suppose Peter Pan is the more obvious connection.

•tOne Thousand and One Nights
tThere's a houseboat called Arabian Nights Plus One.

•tAladdin
tThe Water Genie has a magic wrench, which Haroun takes, so the genie follows him round, helping him out, trying to get it back.

•tJoseph Conrad
tThe evil one "sits at the heart of darkness". (I might be trying too hard with that one; it's a common enough phrase.)

•tThe Duchess of York (aka Sarah Ferguson)!
tPollution of the storywaters includes "an outbreak of talking helicopter anecdotes" and Budgie the Little Helicopter was published the year before this.


Quotes

•tThe sad city, that had forgotten its name "stood by a mournful sea full of glumfish, which were so miserable to eat that they made people belch with melancholy even though the skies were blue."

•tThe Ocean of the Streams of Story: "because the stories were held here in fluid form, they retained the ability to change, to become new versions of themselves, to join up with other stories; so that unlike a library of books... [it] was not dead but alive."

•tThe Floating Gardeners do "maintenance... Untwisting twisted story streams. Also unlooping same. Weeding." They're also like hairdressers, because the longer stories are, the more likely they are to be tangled.

•t"Pouring out of the portholes came darkness... [they] had invented artificial darkness." Shades(?) of the satrical Dark Sucker Theory: https://astro.uni-bonn.de/~dfischer/d...

reviving this account.... I WILL READ MORE AGAIN

This was the first book of Rushdie’s that didn’t wow me. To be fair, it was written for kids. It has some imaginative and amusing scenes and a nice message, but overall, I was left feeling rather meh about it. 2.5 stars, rounded up.