This is in my Top Ten Fave Books Ever! Literature snobs laugh at me because this, and not ¨Midnight´s Children¨ is my favorite Rushdie. Well, screw them, because this is one of the most magical, colorful,poetic, and downright readable books in existence.
Try this. You won´t regret it.

¿Hay algo más hermoso que las historias que nacen desde el corazón?

Fun with words! And jokes: "Food production on Kahini is strictly basic...For tasty and wicked luxury items we have to go to Earth." "So this is where the [UFOs] come from...And that's what they've been after, snacks." Plus wildly imaginative. I liked this but felt no compulsion to pick this up once closed: fantasy isn't a favorite genre of mine. Still, I laughed, and that feels so good.

I found this one to be very strange, humorous, and creative. In my opinion it's an Alice in Wonderlandesque children's story aimed for adults. I was able to follow the story but I cannot say this is one of my favorites. I've only read Salman Rushdie's Shame and that was great. This one is not bad it just fell short for me.

Haroun, a young boy residing in a city overwhelmed by sadness, finds his world shattering when his mother elopes with a neighbour & his father loses his ability to tell stories as a consequence. As fate would have it, Haroun embarks on a remarkable journey to the enchanting moon of Kahani, where he must assume the role of a saviour & strive for a triumphant resolution that brings happiness to his life.

Bị truy sát vì những gì mình viết ra, thế là Salman Rushdie viết luôn một cuốn truyện cổ tích về cuộc chiến giữa ngôn từ và bịt miệng =))) Kiểu viết cho trẻ con nên không trúc trắc được như Những đứa con nhưng vẫn quá hay, quá màu sắc. Hoan hô Rushdie. Và hoan hô Nham Hoa nữa. Dịch cuốn nào cũng đỉnh

Rashid is the father of Haroun and his father is a storyteller but he is kind of shy to say his story in front of a big audience. Haroun and his father go throw alot. Finally his father get the wish he wanted.

What a delightful story! There are many blurbs on the back and front of this book, and I agree with all of them: it is Swiftian, it is written on more than one level (fable, fantasy, allegory), and it is wonderfully inventive. Haroun and the Sea of Stories can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

This book was written after Satanic Verses, and is very much about the freedom of speech and the right to be creative. *take a look at the very back of the book, where the author explains the names of the places and characters, which are derived from Hindustani words. It's not essential to understanding the story, but it's very interesting:)

Ne znam da li je neko gledao crtani ,,Mali Nemo, avanture u Sanjaliji", ali mene je ova knjiga upravo na to podsetila. Pisana je poput bajke, a opet puna pouka koje odrasli često zaborave (najvažnija je da bez priča i mašte od nas ostaje samo jedan tužan bezimeni grad, poput onog u knjizi, a ljudi prestanu da veruju u čuda), i baš mi je prijala kao kratkotrajni beg od stvarnosti i povratak u detinjstvo.

If this ever gets adapted into a movie, Pixar is the only one for this.
Also, surprisingly a necessary read for ESOLs.

Enchanting, delightful, full of fun and intrigue. Haroun is a boy who finds his way to Kahani and the Ocean of the Streams of Story, where all of the world's stories comes from. There he not only saves the Ocean and all the stories, but his father, mother, town, and self from sadness. There were so many wonderful parts to this book: the P2C2E (aren't many things that way?), Mr. Butt and Iff, the blending and renewal of stories in the ocean. It is a fascinating narrative, full of a sort-of-dream, of the Alice-in-Wonderland did it or didn't it happen variety. I felt like this was quite similar to Alice in many ways, except the writing was more engaging and the characters more sympathetic and relatable. I enjoyed this much more than Alice, and am so happy to have read it.

As far as the Lost connection goes, Desmond is reading this on the plane during the first flash-sideways of the current season premiere. It's interesting to think of Haroun in relation to Desmond's storyline throughout this last season, specifically once he has seen through to the island-timeline of the story, and seems intent of "fixing" things and bringing people together. I can't wait to see what other similarities come up as the season ends.

If you're looking for more info on this novel and it's relation to Lost, check out this article by Jeff Jensen at Entertainment Weekly. It's really interesting!

Kahani
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I came across First Amendment Fundamentalism* through the writings of Christopher Hitchens, who was a lifelong crusader (pun intended) for freedom of expression and a self-confessed First Amendment Fundamentalist even before he launched his war against religion. One of the events that combined both his passions and also led to a barrage of high quality writing from him was Salman Rushdie’s fatwa.

Salman Rushdie himself has suffered a great deal due to the fatwa and the lack of complete freedom of expression in our world. His genius though, lies in the fact that he’s managed to write a treatise on the importance of the freedom of expression and the relevance of stories and fiction, and cleverly disguised it as a thoroughly entertaining children’s novel,  Haroun and The Sea of Stories.

I asked K to pick up book from the library thinking it’s a set of short stories but learnt that it’s a novel from its back cover. I’m not a big fan of novels (primarily because I’m a slow reader), but what really perked up my interest, and kept me engaged, was the character and place names, many of which are derived from Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu words, and if you know the meaning of these words it enriches your reading experience immensely. Salman Rushdie has a unique way of connecting with the English language and using it to keep the reader engaged. He talks about the importance of establishing that connection in this interview with Charlie Rose.

The book is dedicated to his first son Zafar and we can easily see a lot of parallels to his own life (e.g. a story-teller and his son are the main characters), which will probably be more obvious to people who’ve read Joseph Anton. The tone is much like the author is reciting the story to his son and the feeling was much like what I got while reading Hobbit, which is really the written version of the story that Tolkien told his children.

The character names also have plenty of references to other stories like the Arabian Nights stories, Alice in Wonderland, Don Quixote, and most pleasingly for me, to the Beatles. There is a group of people known as Eggheads whose head is the Walrus (full name: I. M. D. Walrus). This is the exact reference I’ve used for the headline of my blog, and these are quite an intelligent group of people so I was stoked by the coincidence. Talk about connecting with his readers!

The country the book starts in is called Alifbay (the first two Arabic/Urdu letters) and the “world” from which the stories come is called Kahani. The world has talkative and silenced sides known as Gup and Chup. He’s used the analogy of light and dark as well as (the sun’s) warmth and cold adroitly to explain the differences between a society with freedom of expression and a closed one. These references also reminded me of this article by a Turkish author Mustafa Akyol, which talks about how the Islamic states now have moved far away from what the Islamic culture stood for a few centuries ago. Coincidentally, that article mentions Ibn Rushd (known as Averroes in the west), a 12th century scholar whom Rushdie’s father took his family name from.

The Gup army is called the Library. It’s headed by General Kitab, its regiments and battalions are volumes and chapters and the army men and women are pages. This analogy talks about the importance of books and libraries in an open society and does a splendid job of driving the point home.

I’ve already divulged quite a few details and I’m afraid if I go on any further I might end up spoiling it for you, which I’d hate to do because this is a must-read for anyone who likes fiction and believes in the power of books and the freedom of expression. It should also be made mandatory reading in schools.

* First Amendment fundamentalism is a belief that ALL laws limiting or suppressing speech, including those against extortion, contempt of court, slander, libel, etc., are unconstitutional by the plain reading of the First Amendment of the American Constitution.

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Aside: Whenever I think about Rushdie’s love for language, his knowledge of English literature, and his endearing camaraderie with Hitchens, I’m reminded of this video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhyb...

Enjoy!