Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Puffin Books) by Rushdie Salman (1993-03-25)

If you loved the "Arabian Nights" and if you love "quest" stories, you'll enjoy Salman Rushdie's book. It takes the reader on a fantastic journey to save the purity of the old stories we love and the new ones we make. It's pure fantasy. Or maybe not.

I explored this book as a possible novel study for my students and abandoned it after the first several chapters as I didn't care for Rushdie's style and did not think my students would appreciate it either. I also found that I could not enjoy the book as I disagree with the author on many philosophical points.

After his mother left home, Haroun found that he couldn't keep his mind on anything for very long, or, to be precise, for more than eleven minutes at a time. Rashid took him to a movie to cheer him up, but after exactly eleven minutes Haroun's attention wandered, and when the film ended he had no idea how it all turned out and had to ask Rashid if the good guys won in the end. The next day Haroun was playing goalie in a neighborhood game of street hockey, and after pulling off a string of brilliant saves in the first eleven minutes. He began to let in the softest, most foolish and most humiliating of goals. And so it went on; his mind was always wandering off somewhere and leaving his body behind. This created certain difficulties, because many interesting and some important things take longer than eleven minutes: meals, for example, and also mathematics examinations. - Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea Stories.

As a child I was able to sit for hours and listen to adults speak at religious meetings or in a school setting. The more I began to watch television my attention span decreased. The formula for television used to be 7 minutes of programming for every set of commercials. My attention span grew again as I began to play outside of the house. I played skelly as a pre-teenager. I played sports as a teenager. I also watched athletics on television which allowed longer stretches of programming before each set of commercials. As I grew into an adult I became immersed into literature, which was always in the background, and my attention span has broadened to the point where I can watch lectures that lasts for hours. Now we live in an age when a text and micro video may only last a minute or two. This new reality raises two questions. How does one experience anything worthwhile with such a short attention span? How do you teach children complex concepts in such a short period of time?

Goopy and Bagha were coughing and spluttering more and more. The coastline of Chup was in sight, and a bleak looking thing it was; and in these coastal waters the Ocean of Streams of Story was in the filthiest state Haroun had seen up to now. The poisons had had the effect of muting the colors of the story streams, dulling them all down towards greyness; and it was in the colors that the best parts of the Stories in those Streams were encoded: their vividness, lightness and vivacity. So the loss of colors was a terrible kind of damage. Worse yet, the Ocean in these parts had lost much of its warmth. No longer did the waters give off that soft, subtle steam that could fill a person with fantastic dreams; here they were cool to the touch and clammy to boot.

I once heard an author say that no one in America tries to write the great novel any more. He said, what's the use in trying to hit a home run if no fans are in the seats to catch the ball? As a writer I know exactly what he means. My family and friends were bugging me to write a novel, so I wrote a book of short stories, and two people bought it. Only one of them actually read the book. The others said that the stories were too short, so I wrote a novel, and only one person bought copies. The other day my sister asked if I tried to publish any of my books. I had to inform her that they were on the store.com. She will never buy any of my books because she is like almost everyone else in this society-she does not read a lot. Beyond the lack of support for authors, the lack of literacy has had an ill effect on us. People no longer think in long broad strokes. Neither do they understand nuance of subjects or concepts. We have become a society of one shot surface dwellers.

A story with a fairytale quality, that has a lyrical flow and makes it difficult to put down. It is an allegorical story which one can relate to at several different levels - from the superficial to the profound. Though it is positioned as a childrens' book, adults can appreciate it just as well or even better.

It is a story of the adventures of a 10 year old boy Haroun in an imaginary world on a moon called "Kahani". Haroun's father, Rashid Khalifa is an extra-ordinary story teller who could bring smiles to the faces even of the people of the city that never smiles - the sad city. But after his wife leaves him, he loses the ability to tell stories. Haroun, though sad for himself, is much sadder about his father's loss and desperately wants to fix things.

Haroun meets "Iff" the water genie, and convinces him to take him along to Kahani - where he can plead on his father's behalf to get back his "unlimited subscription" to stories. Thus starts an amazing adventure on an imaginary moon, which has an "Ocean of Notions" - the source of all stories. This ocean and the stories in it are visualized beautifully, and brings in front of your eyes a shimmering ocean with colorful inter-woven strands of stories. This concept by itself is beautiful, and Rushdie has a way with words that makes this all come alive.

Somewhere along the way Rashid and Haroun visit the Valley of K (a thinly veiled reference to Kashmir), and Dull (Dal!) Lake. The description of this visit is an especially beautiful passage. The lake takes on the moods of Haroun when he sails in it - the blue-green waters serenely reflective at times, and grey and forbidding when Haroun is upset, and wild and turbulent when he's angry.

Rashid too follows his son into "Kahani" moon, and they help in the war that is about to start there - between the "gup-wallahs" (identifying themselves with Light) and "chup-wallahs" (identifying themselves with Dark or Shadow). "gup" means talk or stories in Hindi, and "chup" means quiet (or shut up! based on context). The classic war between good and evil, light and dark. There is a careful effort to acknowledge the grey in the spectrum of good to bad (or light to dark). The war is waged to defeat the arch-enemy of the story teller, the evil "Khattam-Shud" (meaning "the end of everything" or "a final end" in Hindi). Khattam-Shud's plot of poisoning the source of all stories within the Ocean, is foiled by brave young Haroun with the help of his new friends in the Kahani world - including the water genie and "butt butt butt" the Hoopoe, which is a mechanical flying machine resembling the exotic Hoopoe bird, and having the ability to reason and speak like humans.

There are a lot of creative characters woven out of concepts - such as the shadow dancer "Mudra" (meaning the unspeaking hand symbols used in classical Indian dance), the plentimaw-fish (fish with many mouths all speaking at the same time!), "Mali" the gardener of the ocean; then the concept of the army of Kahani being organized into "books", "chapters" and "pages" (which are individual foot soldiers). This book is not only full of concepts but also written with humor, that has you laughing out loud in many parts.

As a result of helping win the war, Rashid gets his story-telling ability back, and Haroun is granted a wish - of course he asks for his mother back, and it all ends in a most satisfying fairytale way. Rushdie weaves a magic around his characters and you feel as though personally transported to Kahani and back with Haroun.

The author makes beautiful wordplay with the character names in Hindi and Urdu - some of this is lost if you don't know those languages but for the most part, you still get a lot out of the story.

Once I told the story to my 5 year old son, he loved it, and it's now a routine bedtime story at least twice a week!

An excellent read, highly recommended for all ages.

Note: I bought this same book, same publisher (GRANTA) in India. However on the store, I notice that this GRANTA edition is more expensive than the other editions. You may want to look at the Puffin edition to purchase on the store: http://www.the store.com/Haroun-Sea-Stories-Puffin-Books/dp/0140366504/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250698567&sr=1-1

Haroun and the Sea of Stories is Salman Rushdie's fifth fiction book, and his first children's novel. He dedicated this book to his 10-year-old son Zafar, from whom he had been separated for some time. The story concerns Haroun, the son of storyteller, Rashid Khalifa. Rashid is described as the Ocean of Notions, the Shah of Blah. When a tragic event stops the flow of his father's stories, Haroun sets out to rectify the situation. In a journey that involves mechanical birds and blue-bearded Water Genies, Plentimaw Fish and Floating Gardeners, a King, Prince and Princess, Pages and Shadow Warriors, heroes and nasty villains, Haroun is faced with numerous challenges and learns much. This is a charming children's story that has much to offer adults. As an allegorical tale, it appears to comment on bureaucracy: "...a skinny, scrawny, snivelling, drivelling, mingy, stingy, measly, weaselly clerk...."; and "....P2C2E, a Process Too Complicated To Explain...". Coming not long after the publication of The Satanic Verses and the ensuing fatwa, it comments, too, on freedom of speech, independent thought and imagination, and censorship. Finally, it is a story about the love between a father and son, this being reflected in the dedication to Zafar. There are poems and puns to bring a smile to the lips; wordplay and pleasing repetitions that will have readers of every age chuckling. Delightful allusions to works as varied as Alice in Wonderland, The Beatles' songs and the Tales of a Thousand and One nights abound. I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed it more than any other Rushdie book I have read so far, and I look forward to his next children's book, Luka and the Fire of Life.

is it silly for an adult to thoroughly enjoy this book??

'cause i did.

and i've a feeling that a decade from now, i'd still find this surprisingly wonderful.

though the author did not belabor the fantastical world Haroun found himself embroiled in with thick imagery and endless descriptions that in some books become tiresome, there nevertheless was a peculiarly believable aspect in the realm of the Sea of Stories. what i also immensely loved about rushdie's narration was that, in the case of our young hero, there were no long-winded ruminations of the self, no drawn-out complications on what is exactly good and evil, and perhaps best of all, no lingering soppy accounts of events after their happy ending. everything was told, in relation to the story, in a fast-paced and very matter-of-factly way. we have to remember that Haroun was a just a very young man, and though he sometimes falls into bouts of doubt and even cynicism, he essentially acted in a manner befitting his age--sometimes impulsively and even with the tenacity of a child bent on seeing things put to rights in a world gone awry, yet also with remarkable restraint and poise in the midst of a foreign land, without putting on airs of heroism.

all the other characters in the story were also amusing to read about, even the bad guys. even if there was a hint of menace, you'd still feel that it's a lighthearted story--only when you're halfway reading it do you realize there's more to it than meets the eye, as Rashid would say about his son.

the story captures the reality of the unfortunate tendency of adults to lose their wonderful innocence. fairytales forgotten. sometimes even corrupted and sewn in with new meanings that blur their purity as we grow older and more preoccupied with our detached way of living. we've become increasingly cynical, to the point that we can be contemptuous of what we have so blisfully embraced as children. sad really, but there it is. which is another great thing about this book--it doesn't scold nor spout morals. it just lays there for you to enjoy yet somehow makes you think. even for just a moment.

Salman Rushdie manages to create a magical world in Haroun and the Sea of stories, a world where stories originate from the ocean on the second, invisible moon called Kahani (~story), and are supplied to Rashid, the Shah of Blah by P2C2E (Process Too Complicated To Explain). When the Shah of Blah loses his prowess to tell stories, Haroun through interesting events lands up on Kahani moon, and takes part in a war between the land of Chup (~silence) and land of Gup (~gossip; conversation). The choice of characters is sublime mixture of creativity and ingenuity. The king of the land of Gup is Chatterjey (a Bengali surname) and their parliament is Chatterbox; the army is organized like library, and each unit like a kitab (~Book). It is also the story of love of Prince Bolo (~say something) and Princess Baatcheat (~conversation); the villainy of khatam-shud (~absolute silence), and is a mesmerizing drama that unfolds with absolutely hilarious sequences and some of the most engaging metaphors ever used by Rushdie.

I have loved Rushdie's other works as well, but this one is special as it captures the magical realism and creativity inherent in the ancient custom of story-telling. This story reminds me of my own childhood when the grandparents would conjure fables with genies and fairies and devils to hold us kids in raptures. The way Rushdie goes about describing the world of silence and the world of speech is enthralling, more so as he uses each character and each event in this fable to illustrate the different shades of each.

Everyone who ever loved any Rushdie book is bound to like this one. Read it for humor, read it for child in you. Highly recommended.

Absolutely covered in writing - not notes or something here or there (which can be expected when ordering used) but absolutely covered in crayon, pen and pencil scribbles to the point of the text being unintelligible. Complete wasted purchase.

This delightful story becomes indomitable when you consider it was written while the author was in seclusion, constantly moved from one dwelling to another by British security in order to protect him from assassins.
In 1989, THE SATANIC VERSES came out and was answered with riots in several countries and a death sentence by the Ayatollah Khomeini, who was then the spiritual leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Rushdie spent several years in hiding. His marriage did not survive, and in the separation and divorce, Rushdie (an unwilling hermit) lost contact with his young son, Zafar. This novel, his first novel after SATANIC VERSES, is dedicated to his son.
The story is about a celebrated storyteller ("the shah of blah") who loses his talent for improvising stories when his wife leaves him. Haroun, his son, is unwillingly pulled into an adventure involving an arduous journey to the sea of stories to vanquish a powerful enemy and reclaim his father's gift of gab.
What is the force of evil in this story? Silence. An enforced silence. The quashing of language, fantasy, satire - even the truth itself. Something Rushdie was experiencing in an episode much darker and more terrifying than any of the events in this joyful fable.
There are plenty of allegories and light-hearted commentary woven into the tapestry. The braying and strident Princess Batcheat is a bit much to put up with - as are the people we must sometimes defend on principles such as freedom of expression.
Written beautifully, with a masterful feel for language punning in English and Hindustani. Try reading it out loud. This is suitable for the young dreamers in your family, but that is not to underestimate the maturity of this work. It could only have come out of Rushdie's experience at that time, an incomprehensible event with severe personal costs. Out of that sadness, he opened his mouth and something joyful and indomitable appeared.

This was the first Rushdie book that I have read, but I am very impressed. He has an amazing knack for storytelling. It was evident that he had a plan in mind when he began writing the book rather than just letting the story meander without purpose like some authors are prone to do. This is the story of a boy named Haroun who tries to help his father, a storyteller, regain his ability to tell stories. His father had always told him that his storytelling abilities came from something called the "Sea of Stories". Haroun was surpised to find that this was, in fact a real sea located on the earth's elusive 2nd moon. Haroun travels there and is acquainted with magnificent characters such as the Water Genie, the flying mechanical bird the Hoopoe, the Shadow Warrior (who's shadow has a personality of it's own), Pages that look like pages. The book wouldn't be complete without a villain: Kattam Shud. It's the age-old story of good versus evil with a new twist. It's also a fanciful explanation of where good stories come from and how good stories get tainted. The book is quick-paced and can be read in 3 to 4 short sittings. It's not so much suspenseful as it is refreshing and enjoyable. However, why does Rushdie use apostrophes instead of quotation marks during dialogue?

Very readable and enjoyable novel by the british author of The Satanic Verses.
But on the the store page for the Penguin Drop Caps edition, the headline has his name as Rushdie Salman, when it should be Salman Rushdie.

~Amesly

What happens when Salman Rushdie gets notions from a literary ocean that contains currents like The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Wizard of Oz by Baum, Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, and The Princess Bride by William Goldman? He turns into a story-teller recounting the tale of Haroun and his father Rashid, the Shah of Blah. When Rashid's story-telling dries up, his son Haroun travels on a fantastic journey to face the forces of Darkness that pollute the Sea of Stories and threaten to silence stories forever.

It's a charming and fantastic adventure featuring a wide array of extended metaphors, personification, puns, and other delightful word-play - for me, these were the highlights, along with a captivating story. But although it seems to be a children's story, in reality this is no more a book for children than the death sentence placed on Salman Rushdie was a matter of child's play. After publishing the Satanic Verses in 1989, Rushdie was forced to go into hiding when the spiritual leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Khomeini) placed a death sentence over his head for blasphemy. Rashid's story is really Rushdie's own, and in this respect this work of fiction moves beyond the juvenile, and functions as an important allegorical parable about Islam's attempt to silence and repress Rushdie's freedom of speech.

To what extent it succeeds on this level is something I'll leave more qualified literary experts to judge. But one can't deny that the story sparkles with wonderful wordplay and imagery, such as the ongoing contrasts between light and darkness, substance and shadow, speech and silence, purity and poison. Yet one has to wonder to what extent the fantastic window-dressing is an appropriate garb for a serious satire. In this respect Rushdie does not seem to achieve the same success as C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles, because it seems hard to imagine that children and youth are entirely satisfied with this narrative on the level of story alone, sensing that there's a depth here that escapes their comprehension somehow (as reviews by younger readers seem to confirm). On the other hand, those looking to immerse themselves in the deeper waters of allegory and political satire might at times find that the story that brings this message at times becomes just a little too cute and the buffoonery just a little too much for the seriousness of the message it embraces. But perhaps this tension is more imagined than real. Older readers who can appreciate some of Rushdie's own circumstances that form the backdrop of this story and who can appreciate a good story with clever word play, are sure to find that there's a reward to be had by swimming in the Oceans of Notions flowing here. - GODLY GADFLY (March, 2008)

I confess that I've read nothing by Salman Rushdie before, and any knowledge I have of him stems from the controversy that surrounds him. Most are probably well aware of this already, but in 1988 his novel The Satanic Verses: A Novel was published, resulting in a call by Muslim extremists for his execution. Consequently, he has been forced to spend many years under police protection. I only mention this in the context of this review, because I doubt "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" would exist had Rushdie not experienced this concentrated effort to have him permanently silenced.

It must have been surprising for fans of Rushdie to find that the first book he published after "The Satanic Verses" was a children's book (albeit a complex and lengthy one). Twelve chapters in all, with intricate, intriguing and intoxicating illustrations (try saying that three times fast) by Paul Birkbeck, this is a book that's difficult to pin-down. And yet, it doesn't take much to grasp that it tells the story behind "The Satanic Verses" controversy.

Young Haroun is the son of Rashid Khalifa, a famous storyteller, called the Ocean of Notions by his admirers and the Shah of Blah by his detractors. Yet when his wife runs off with another man, and Haroun impatiently tells him: "What's the use of stories that aren't even true?" Rashid finds that he can no longer tell any stories. This could not have happened at a more inopportune time, for Rashid has just been hired by a number of politicos to speak on their behalf in various cities.

Stricken with guilt, Haroun makes up his mind to restore his father's dried-up "Story Water", though the solution comes to him in an entirely unexpected way. He awakes one night to find a Water Genie attempting to shut off the flow of inspiration into his father's mind, and wrangles his way into accompanying the Genie back to the second moon that orbits the world: Kahani - the source of stories.

Kahani is a beautiful place, covered in a multi-coloured ocean that contains streams and currents of stories. Huge Plentimaw fishes drink the Story-Waters and spout out brand new stories, whilst Floating Gardeners untwist complicated story streams. All of this flows from a great Wellspring at the North Pole of Kahani, and the moon itself is divided into the lands of Gup (perpetually daylight) and Chup (forever nighttime). But something is poisoning the waters, and disrupting the stories created from them. On the dark side of the moon lives Khattam-Shud (translation: `completely finished' or `over and done with') who is systematically ruining all the tragedies, comedies, romances, mysteries and dramas of the world. Why?

"The World is not for fun. The world is for Controlling. Your world, my world, all worlds. They are there to be Ruled. And inside every single story, inside every Stream in the Ocean, there lies a world, a story-world, that I cannot Rule at all. And that is the reason why."

Of course, Haroun isn't going to stand for any of this, and neither are the denizens of Kahani. Along with various other characters that Haroun has met on his travels, the denizens of the light side of the moon band together (in the most talkative way possible) to rescue a kidnapped princess and save the Ocean of Stories.

Rushdie paints a vivid portrait of Khattam-Shud's portion of the moon, in which everything is shrouded in perpetual darkness, the mouths of his people are sewn together, and everyone works in dull monotony to destroy stories and plug the Wellspring. And yet, there's room for beauty here as well, as Haroun discovers when he spots a silent swordsman who communicates in Abhinaya (the Language of Gesture). There is also a smile-inducing moment when Rashid (having been exasperated by all the arguing and debating going on amongst the army of Gup) finds that their tendency to talk endlessly has unexpected rewards.

To be honest, I don't think I'm up to the challenge of exploring the myriad of themes and the depths of meaning in this book. Although the dichotomy between the light/dark, vocal/silent, united/disharmonious halves of the moon is straightforward enough, I'm sure there's a lot more here to discuss on political, religious and social levels and it's probably best for the reader to dip their head into the stream and discover these aspects of storytelling for themselves.

If I was to compare it to anything, it would be Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" - there is the same plot of a child thrown into a beautiful yet mystifying world, in which language quirks are taken quite literally ("Adjectives can't talk." "Money talks, they say, so why not Adjectives?") and the rules of existence are easily bent or broken. In fact, there is a passage that directly mimics Carroll: "[She was] as large as life and twice as beautiful." Yup, there's definitely a little Alice in this book!

And as in reading "Alice in Wonderland", the average child might grasp the fact that there's more going on here than meets the eye. There is meaning in every character, every circumstance, practically every word: ideas that swell up from the pages for the reader's enjoyment and consideration. And like Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," it may take a couple of years and several more reads to comprehend them all. But since "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" is so rewarding the first time around, I think it will be revisited by children who were properly intrigued by their first taste of it. As will adults, of course!

Try as the Khattam-Shuds of this world might (and not just those responsible for the fatwa against Rushdie, but the fundamentalists who attempt to ban books by J.K. Rowling or Philip Pullman, or the politically-correct administrators who want to censor the likes of C.S. Lewis) the stories will prevail.

Poor Haroun. His mother has run off with the dull neighbor, leaving his father, the Shah of Blah, without any stories to tell, so dispirited is he over his wife's departure. Haroun, who has recently questioned the value of his father's work, as is the wont of most 12 year olds to do, finds himself off on an adventure to recapture the stories his father must have.
Part fantasy, part allegory and always clever and engaging, the story told of Haroun's adventures speaks to the power of story in our lives and in the world. The constant word play and twists of language are funny, though at times I felt they became just "too much." While we are being entertained by maniac bus drivers, strange genies and odd fish, Haroun and his father both are coming to terms with the things in the world that truly matter. This is one of those rare books, written for adult readers, that children will enjoy read aloud, cuddled up next to you on the couch, swept away by the fantasy.

The book was written when Rushdie had been hiding from Khomeini's fatwa. As perhaps may be guessed, the book is an allegory on censorship (hence Haroun's -- the boy protagonist of the book -- journey to remove the plug that clogs the flow in the sea of stories). Less known is the fact that Rushdie wrote the book in order to explain such situation to his young son Zafar:

[Z]embla, Zenda, Xanadu:
[A]ll our dream-worlds may come true.
[F]airy lands are fearsome too.
[A]s I wander far from view
[R]ead, and bring me home to you.

writes the dedication of the book. So it is little wonder that the book is fantastic and fun. But to reduce the book to a fable for children would be to miss out Rushdie's literary prowess. I had had not just a few chuckles during the course of reading; I found Rushdie's play on words thoroughly witty, and the creativeness innate in his gregarious characters refreshing.

The book arguably might be best enjoyed reading out loud to a child. I am considering doing just so to my adorable little niece.

Harry Potter's got nothing on this quick-thinking pragmatic Haroun character... this is a great book, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It is so clever, and would appeal to any age group... making the old feel young, and the young feel... mature! What a terrific imagination Rushdie has, his characters and settings push the limits of inventiveness and hilarity. Who else would have been able to fit the Dark Ship with (of course) "darkbulbs" rather than "lightbulbs"? Bravo S.R.!
A recurring motif is "What's the use of stories that aren't even true?" Haroun couldn't get that terrible question out of his head. It was posed to him repeatedly, and it's really his conviction that stories ARE useful that motivates most of the action in this book. It is my opinion that Rushdie has written here a convincing and timeless story about the very importance of "story". Well worth the reading. A hilarious fanciful gem. Khattam-shud!

Salman Rushdie really wrote a great book. I read this book in my English/Social Studies class and we all had a fun time reading it. We all were anxious to read the book because we would always stop at a good part and we really wanted to find out what happened. I think Salman Rushdie should write a sequal when he goes back to the moon Khani and sees all his friends: Iff the Water Genie, Blabbermouth, Mudra the Shadow Warrior, Batcheat,Prince Bolo,and all his other friends.
My favorite part of the book was the end. How they find Princess Batcheat is such a good part. I don't want to explain it because you reviewers have to read it!!! I also like it after Rashid tells everyone the story. The first few words of the story that Rashid tells you at the end are actually told the same way in the begining.
I really would recommend it!!!!!

Back in the days when Salman Rushdie was a literary fugitive, he fulfilled a long standing vow to his son. Zafar, then about nine years old, had begged his father to write a children's story. Rushdie had put this off until the hubub over his fourth novel exploded. Then, throughout the Muslim world, soot from charred copies of "The Satanic Verses" wafted skyward and the faithful wailed for the infidel author's demise. In response the essay "In Good Faith" appeared. An exhausted Rushdie, somewhere, who knows where, it probably felt like nowhere, was left with just enough energy to take on a short project. "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" was conceived in this strange fugitive exile from everyday life. The results display a fervent imagination in no way limited by the threats surrounding it. Though "Haroun" targets twelve to fifteen year olds, readers will recognize Rushdie's indubitable style weaving throughout the fantastical tale. If Roald Dahl had been from India, he probably would have written something like this. "Haroun" works at the level of myth and fable with a lurking moral. Every now and then it peeks out and winks at the reader. That it relates to freedom of speech and the importance of storytelling should come as no surprise. Veiled references to certain religious persuasions will also not go unnoticed. Though "Haroun" does not relate, storywise, to Rushdie's predicament at the time, he nonetheless uses the medium to express some opinions about his censorious detractors.

The fable tells of young Haroun's journey to the moon Kahani to restore the storytelling powers of his famous father, Rashid. One day Soraya, Rashid's wife and Haroun's mother, stops singing and abandons her family, leaving Rashid in a muted state (though he bleats and mutters "Ark, ark, ark.") Rashid's fallen reputation has fatal implications since a political thug has hired him to entertain and sway the masses before elections. No stories, no life. Ouch. While sleeping on this same thug's houseboat on Dull Lake, before the next day's ominous speech, Haroun notices a small man in the bathroom. From this point on things get very interesting. His name is Iff and he has come to disconnect Rashid's story water supply. Haroun confiscates Iff's valuable Disconnector and forces Iff to take him to the Walrus to bargain for his father's story water supply. Riding a fantastic mechanical telepathic bird named Butt the Hoopoe, the ride to the moon Kahani at just the right speed. There Haroun learns of the lands of Gup and Chup. Gup oversees the Ocean of Stories, the source of all narrative threads, and "The Process Too Complicated To Explain" or "P2C2E." Chup lives in internal darkness under the cruel rule of Khattam-Shud. Here silence and censorship reign. Khattam-shud schemes to poison the Ocean of Stories and plug up the ocean's source with a stadium-sized plug. Suddenly, Rashid appears on Kahani. The Chups suspect him of spying, but he warns them that their princess Batcheat has been apprehended by Gups. They threaten to sew her lips together to keep her from singing (her looks and singing apparently leave much to be desired). Joined by Plentimaw fish, who have multiple mouths, water walking gardeners, and a rebellious Shadow Warrior named Mudra, the Chups go to war against the Gups. All seems lost until Haroun remembers his Wishwater. With it he literally raises the sun.

"Haroun and the Sea of Stories" revels in fabulism, absurdity, pop culture references (most notably the Beatles), and, most of all, fun. But it represents more than just a wild ride. It serves as a poignant literary metaphor for Rushdie's oft-repeated defense of fiction and the novel. He had more in mind than a children's story, and it shows. Scenes of moving melancholy flow into scenes of unhinged joy. The ending, though many adults will see it coming, is magnificent. So if anyone ever asks, as Old Man Sengupta defiantly asks Soraya, "What's the use of stories that aren't even true?" Tell them it's all here, right here in "Haroun". Look no further.

As a storyteller, this book has a special place in my heart, for it is a story of stories. I was reticent to write a review of a story so delightful, that I would be tempted to give too much away in my enthusiasm to share this delight - but after thinking about this for a while, I realized that the story has so many levels and so much depth of meaning, that it would be quite easy to offer a sense of its flavor without ruining it for the reader or listener.

On one level, Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a simple child's tale, created by Salman Rushdie as a bedtime story for his son. It is a story of hope in the face of despair, and I believe any child will enjoy it. But the story is much more than that.

Joseph Campbell, and later Christopher Vogler, portrayed the archetypal hero's journey as one in which the hero, often in a state of despair with life in the ordinary world, journeys into an extraordinary world of adventure. There she encounters archetypal allies and enemies in the form of shape-shifters, threshold guardians, tricksters, the mentor, and ultimately the shadow, which represents the arch-villain in the story, or the shadow-side of the hero's own psyche from a Jungian psychology perspective. In this encounter the hero faces severe difficulties, even death, but in facing her own fears, and through a brave and heroic act, she overcomes (or integrates) the shadow, and is able to return with a metaphorical elixir that heals and transforms the ordinary world for the benefit of all its inhabitants.

While many satisfying stories, and apparently most Hollywood blockbusters, embody the above archetypes, the ordinary and extraordinary worlds are usually metaphors for the hero's situation, circumstances, or state of mind. In some stories, such as The Wizard of Oz, Never Ending Story, C. S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, and Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories, however, the extraordinary world is a truly extraordinary fantasy world, occupying a completely different realm to the ordinary world.

Perhaps the message in such stories is that the elixir against the despair experienced in the ordinary world of business and politics ("...mighty factories in which ... sadness was manufactured, packaged and sent all over the world...") can be found in the fantasy realms of dreams, artistic expression, and story. But Haroun and the Sea of Stories takes this message further than most other stories, because it makes the role of story explicit, as can be seen in the description of the Ocean of the Streams of Story, which is a liquid tapestry of currents, each colored strand containing a living, changing story.

The despair of Harouns's ordinary world, can be felt in the first paragraph of the book: "There was once, in the country of Alifbay, a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name. It 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."

It seems that despite the misery that surrounds him, Haroun, the son of Rashid, an imaginative storyteller known as the "Shah of Blah", and the "Ocean of Notions", is able to remain happy and buoyant. But when Haroun's mother leaves them and runs off with Sengupta, a stiff and unimaginative clerk, Rashid loses his gift of the gab and incurs the wrath of an unscrupulous politician who had hired him to "soften up" the crowd with his stories.

After blackmailing Iff, the Water-Genie, who arrives in the middle of the night to turn off Rashid's supply of stories, Haroun gets Butt the Hoopoe to transport him to earth's hidden second moon, Kahani(Story). There he learns about the Gup and Chup, the cities of light and darkness, and the Walrus, who is the head controller of P2C2E (processes too complicated to explain) House and chief of all the Eggheads who work there. He meets Mali, a floating gardener, a pair of rhyming plenty-more fish, and Blabbermouth, a Page in a Chapter in one of the Volumes that make up the army of Gup. He also meets the distraught and somewhat vacuous Prince Bolo, whose betrothed, Princess Batcheat, has been abducted by the Chupwalahs.

Ultimately he encounters the villainous Khattam-Shud(The End), who has an evil plan to poison the sea of stories, and reduce the citizens of Kahani to eternal silence. Haroun engages with the shadow (very literally). I'll stop now, before giving any of the crucial plot elements away, but suffice it to say that Haroun completes the archetypal hero's journey, and returns to the ordinary world with his elixir (a brand new P2C2E).

On yet another level, this is a story of freedom of expression vs. censorship, and it probably allegorizes Rushdie's own experiences. I'm not sure how many modern fiction writers have had to face the prospect of death because of their writings, but I can only imagine that it must be a source of deep despair.

This is a wonderful, multi-faceted, and inspirational book for the young and young at heart. Read it and enjoy.

This is a pretty terrific little book. Salman Rushdie has written a modern-day fairy tale that's a blast to read and is also quite moving and inspiring.
If you have ever wanted to write, or to be creative in any way, but have felt blocked, please read this book. I think it might help thaw the grounds, get the mists rising, and the juices flowing.
This is my second Rushdie book (I read an earlier novel, "Grimus," while in college) but having read this, I'm going to have to go out and buy all of this man's books.
Rushdie's characters and dreamlike settings are deliriously inventive. His mind is so fertile that it necesarrily seeps over into the reader's mind.
After reading this book, you'll notice imaginative little shoots and creepers growing out between the cracks of your everyday thoughts and perceptions. This is just a wonderful book and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Rashid, the best storyteller in the land (aka The Ocean of Notions or The Shah of Blah), loses his ability to tell stories when his wife leaves him. He and his son (Haroun) travel to some distant (and very imaginative) lands to restore that ability, learning in the process that even made-up stories can reflect truth. In these faraway places, they meet individuals with remarkable similarities to characters they met at home, evocative of the movie adaptation of The Wizard of Oz (but not the book). Rushdie's clever use of language brings a smile and employs both English and Hindustani. For example, one land in the book champions stories, and all the pages (referring to royal servants) in the army of that land wear numbered rectangular uniforms with text from famous books, like pages of a book. In the same spirit (but in a different language), the princess of that land is named Batcheat (from Hindustani `baat-cheet' which means `chit-chat').

My wife and I read this aloud and thoroughly enjoyed it. The book gives empathy to all those who love stories. It went quickly and would also be fun for younger readers. Rushdie includes, at the end of the text, an appendix "About the Names in this Book," which gives insight on the names drawn from Hindustani.

Haroun and the sea of stories by Salman Rushdie is a fantasy adventure of a young protagonist Haroun in the fictitious moon of the Earth called 'Kahani'. Along with his friends from the city of Gup that grows and maintains the garden in the ocean of stories, Haroun saves the sea which is being increasingly and dangerously contaminated by the deliberate miscreants of the fanatic leader in the neighboring city of Chup - who has imposed silence on the inhabitants of his own city and is manufacturing anti-stories that will destroy the entire ocean, thus enabling him eventually take control of the world.
By beautifully weaving story within story recursively, Salman brings pleasant surprises to the reader.
It is a satire on restricting freedom of speech in the name of religion and its detrimental impact on the joy and fun in people's lives.
Salman is said to have started writing this book for his son while he was in exile because of the Fatwa issued on him by the then Iranian Supreme Leader Ayathollah Khomeini for his controversial work - "Satanic Versus".

You may have heard about Salman Rushdie. You might indeed know of his controversial flight for his safety and the famous million dollar price tag for his life. Some of you may even have notions of his goodness or lack thereof. It would, in my humble opinion, be doing yourself a favor of the highest order to reconsider. Set aside those ideas you may have of the man himself, dip your toes into Rushdie's magical sea and just allow yourself to be transported nimbly into another place and time. A mythical, magical, fanciful tale woven out of a brilliant imagination and crafted from the finest language. It is simply a delight and coincidentally one of my most favored books.

This is one of the most richly colored and gloriously written children's stories of all time. For maximum enjoyment, indulge yourself and your favorite kid by locating one of the rare audio recordings of Rushdie reading it (usually available via the store Marketplace for around $50 -- check back in a week or two if you only see higher prices). Rushdie reads as he writes: in vibrant color! All the voices, affects -- you can practically see the story and hear the soundtrack. For kids over about 8 who want adventure, humor and some of the most inspiring use of the English language since Shakespeare, this story is a spectacular treat. Start them with the audio, and they will never read fiction the same way again.

I've heard about Salman Rushdie. Both good and bad. The only way to find out the truth for myself was to read one of his books. Being the naturally lazy man that I am, I grabbed the smallest book of his I could find. Little did I know that this book was a fairy tale, and not something that would rouse Islamic fundamentalists.
Anyway, I already purchased it and decided to read it anyway. At first, I saw that Rushdie had a great imagination and could weave a great story.
This book is about Hauron, a boy living in a glum city where his dad is a prime storyteller. He travels to a far away city, only discover that a Water Genie has stopped his dad's faucet to the sea of stories. In order to help his father, he travels to the Sea of Stories and engages in a war to save the sea, and his father, while meeting interesting characters and seeing interesting sights.
The book starts off well, with Rushdie's almost poetic use of language. The book, however, slowly digresses. Not that Rushdie's work disintegrates, but as the fairy tale progresses, with even more characters, and even more anomalies, it gets pretty dull after a while. The ability to shock or dazzle the reader is weened away until it becomes a chore to finish the book.
I would say that this book is good for a change of pace, and at only 200 pages, won't take too long to read, but I could only marginally recommend it.

Written during the time of Khomeini's fatwa against Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a lovely little parable on the power of storytelling and the evils of censorship and repression. This jewel-like book is clearly written for children, but adults will appreciate its sparkling writing and lively plot, as well as Rushdie's insights about the role of stories in human culture.

Stylistically, Haroun and the Sea of Stories felt like Rushdie-lite to me. His trademark wordplay and clever use of language are present, but they have been noticeably toned down, presumably to make the book accessible to his younger audience. The plot was also simpler than what I'm used to from Rushdie; the cast of characters is smaller than usual, and there is a decided lack of twists, turns, and subplots. The simplicity, while unexpected, was not unpleasant and made this a quick, fun read.

This book is an enchanting and profound fairy story in its own right; but it acquires an especial dimension of poignancy when we remember the context in which it was written. Salman Rushdie was in hiding after the Ayatollah Khomeini had issued the fatwa condemning Rushdie to death for having, in The Satanic Verses, played about with the story of the life of Mohammed; and he had called on faithful Muslims to carry out that sentence. In hiding, Salman was separated from his then eleven year old son Zafar and from his wife, the novelist Marianne Wiggins, who found the crisis in which her husband was involved as the result of his story telling such a strain on their relationship that, some time after The Satanic Verses was published, she announced that they were separating. Perhaps Rushdie, like Rashid (Haroun's father), had been so busy telling stories that he never noticed what it was doing to his family life.

Rushdie had defended himself against the fatwa, in part, with an impassioned plea for freedom of thought and speech and for not only the right to, but the value of, the imaginative faculties in literature.

This fairy story, written for Zafar, makes the same case. In it, the fear is expressed (but triumphantly met in this story) that the isolation of Rashid, "the Shah of Blah", would stifle his voice to a croak and disconnect him from the Ocean of Stories; the love is proclaimed which Salman has for the rich and colourful possibilities of story telling; the battle between him and the fundamentalists is shown in terms of the battle between Light and Darkness; the fantasy is that his son Zafar, alias Haroun, may rescue him and reunite him also with his wife Marianne, alias Soraya. It was surely Zafar's wishful fantasy also. Naturally in a story written for his son, it is Haroun and not Rashid who is the central character of the story. The story will delight Zafar; but it is probably only in later years that he would be able to take in the full meaning of the book.

The Ocean of Stories was on the planet Kahani (Indian for "story"), where a battle was fought out between two realms. A piece of machinery had prevented the planet from rotating, so that the sun never shone on the realm of physical and spiritual darkness. It was called Chup (Indian for "quiet"), and was governed by Khattam-Shud (Indian for "done for"), whose long-term objective was to poison the Ocean of Stories, which he has already managed to pollute, but he had not yet managed to plug the Well Spring itself. The realm of light, where the sun shone all the time, was called Gup (meaning "gossip" or "nonsense"). Its people argued about everything, and its army of Pages was rather chaotic until, in order to defend their freedom, they let themselves be organized into Chapters and Volumes: Rushdie believes that a good fight is best fought in print, and the Commander in Chief of the Guppee army is called Kitab (Indian for "book").

What wins the victory of Gup over Chup is a magic trick by which Haroun can wish for the sun to blaze on the dark side of Kahani, so that all the shadowy forces melt away. The trick has wrecked the machinery which has kept the people of Gup in perpetual light; when they repaired it, they came to a much more sensible arrangement and made the planet rotate in such a way that both sides of it had their share of light and darkness, of chatter and of quiet. Haroun had already found that darkness has its own beauty and interest: "'If Guppees and Chupwallas didn't hate each other so,' he thought, 'they might actually find each other pretty interesting. Opposites attract, as they say.'" The symbol of Yin and Yang springs to mind.

The story is full of reflections about freedom (with all its imperfections) and about the nature and importance of fantasy, myth and story-telling, about ecology and multi-culturalism, even about shadows in the Jungian sense. There is a special delight for those readers who recognize or are told the meaning of Indian words which are given as names to most of the characters, and who know about the role of gestures (mudra) made by often green-painted performers in Indian Kathakali dancing.

This book is an enchanting and profound fairy story in its own right; but it acquires an especial dimension of poignancy when we remember the context in which it was written. Salman Rushdie was in hiding after the Ayatollah Khomeini had issued the fatwa condemning Rushdie to death for having, in The Satanic Verses, played about with the story of the life of Mohammed; and he had called on faithful Muslims to carry out that sentence. In hiding, Salman was separated from his then eleven year old son Zafar and from his wife, the novelist Marianne Wiggins, who found the crisis in which her husband was involved as the result of his story telling such a strain on their relationship that, some time after The Satanic Verses was published, she announced that they were separating. Perhaps Rushdie, like Rashid (Haroun's father), had been so busy telling stories that he never noticed what it was doing to his family life.

Rushdie had defended himself against the fatwa, in part, with an impassioned plea for freedom of thought and speech and for not only the right to, but the value of, the imaginative faculties in literature.

This fairy story, written for Zafar, makes the same case. In it, the fear is expressed (but triumphantly met in this story) that the isolation of Rashid, "the Shah of Blah", would stifle his voice to a croak and disconnect him from the Ocean of Stories; the love is proclaimed which Salman has for the rich and colourful possibilities of story telling; the battle between him and the fundamentalists is shown in terms of the battle between Light and Darkness; the fantasy is that his son Zafar, alias Haroun, may rescue him and reunite him also with his wife Marianne, alias Soraya. It was surely Zafar's wishful fantasy also. Naturally in a story written for his son, it is Haroun and not Rashid who is the central character of the story. The story will delight Zafar; but it is probably only in later years that he would be able to take in the full meaning of the book.

The Ocean of Stories was on the planet Kahani (Indian for "story"), where a battle was fought out between two realms. A piece of machinery had prevented the planet from rotating, so that the sun never shone on the realm of physical and spiritual darkness. It was called Chup (Indian for "quiet"), and was governed by Khattam-Shud (Indian for "done for"), whose long-term objective was to poison the Ocean of Stories, which he has already managed to pollute, but he had not yet managed to plug the Well Spring itself. The realm of light, where the sun shone all the time, was called Gup (meaning "gossip" or "nonsense"). Its people argued about everything, and its army of Pages was rather chaotic until, in order to defend their freedom, they let themselves be organized into Chapters and Volumes: Rushdie believes that a good fight is best fought in print, and the Commander in Chief of the Guppee army is called Kitab (Indian for "book").

What wins the victory of Gup over Chup is a magic trick by which Haroun can wish for the sun to blaze on the dark side of Kahani, so that all the shadowy forces melt away. The trick has wrecked the machinery which has kept the people of Gup in perpetual light; when they repaired it, they came to a much more sensible arrangement and made the planet rotate in such a way that both sides of it had their share of light and darkness, of chatter and of quiet. Haroun had already found that darkness has its own beauty and interest: "'If Guppees and Chupwallas didn't hate each other so,' he thought, 'they might actually find each other pretty interesting. Opposites attract, as they say.'" The symbol of Yin and Yang springs to mind.

The story is full of reflections about freedom (with all its imperfections) and about the nature and importance of fantasy, myth and story-telling, about ecology and multi-culturalism, even about shadows in the Jungian sense. There is a special delight for those readers who recognize or are told the meaning of Indian words which are given as names to most of the characters, and who know about the role of gestures (mudra) made by often green-painted performers in Indian Kathakali dancing.

This book is sort of the Arabian Nights + Princess Bride, with a little Alice in Wonderland thrown into the mix. When Rashid, a storyteller known as the Shah of Blah, loses the ability to tell stories, his son Haroun sets out to find out what has happened. With the help of Iff the Water Genie and a cast of colorful characters he finds out that forces of Darkness are polluting the Sea of Stories.
It's all a thinly veiled allegory for Islam trying to silence the author after his Satanic Verses was published, but it's deftly handled & often quite amusing. Rushdie does an especially nice job with word plays & puns & the book requires rereading & reading aloud to catch them all, which makes it a perfect book for adults to read to older kids.
GRADE: B

A story about where stories come from? Self-reference aside, this is a charming, kid-safe romp, with fantastical beings, great adventure, heroics, humor, word-play, surprising friendships, and lots more. My wife and I used it as read-aloud entertainment (yes, people still do that) on lengthy car trips - it seems custom-made for the purpose. I can't say I found any grand themes or deep insights in reading this, but had a heck of a lot of fun.

-- wiredweird

Most recently we were fortunate to be able see Satyajit Ray's Bengali movies, Gopi Gayen Bagha Bayen and Hirak Rajar Deshe, locally. Story line of "Haroun and the sea of stories" goes through plenty mow fish and gopi and bagha as the author borrows metaphors from Satyajit Ray and Wizard of Oz. Like Orwell's Big Brother, Walrus is watching over the sad city in the land of chup(word for silence in hindi/urdu). At the end gupwalas prevail and story water is salvaged. Being an ardent Rushdie fan I could not bear to see his most recent NY based novel, Fury, becoming irrelevant in the week of its release in September, 2001. However, if you needed any metaphors for defending human dignity, freedom and democracy, look no furhter than this book and Satyajit Ray's movies of Gopi and Bagha.

The Kathasaritsagara by Somadeva is one of the earliest collections of tales - preceding the Arabian Nights or Reynard the Fox etc. Kathasaritsagara is normally translated as "The Ocean of Story". Salman Rushdie plays on the ocean of story idea in Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
Haroun is the son of a storyteller, a storyteller (the Shah of Blah) who loses his ability to tell stories when his wife leaves him. Haroun himself is less impressed with stories questioning their usefulness when they are not even true. Accidentally intercepting the genie sent to shut off his father's story supply, Haroum becomes involved in the rescue of the ocean of stories.
Rushdie tells the tale with a great deal of humor - the mail bus driver who skips all the mail stops so that Haroun can see a magnificant view; abbreviations such as P2C2E for processes too complicated to explain; shadows that have detached from their substantial-being creating two separate lives, the substantial's and the shadow's. The result is an entertaining tale with a great deal of social and political implied commentary. Ultimately, however, there is a bit too much of the cute and clever. The book is worth reading, certain children will enjoy it immensely, but in a hundred years it will be known for being a minor work of Rushdie if Rushdie is still known.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories is funny,magical and adventurous. Haroun is a boy that has a famous father who is a storyteller, The Shah of the Blah. As Haroun travels with his father to a hotel, he finds himself flying to a magical land on a bird with a water genie. Only $6.85, I really suggest this book. And, even if it seems boring at first, keep reading, you won't regret it. I loved this book because the characters were beautifully written and in the mean time, funny.

-Romi,9 years old

This is a prable, a fable, told in simple language and straightforward stytle so that children can understand, but it is not a book for children, any more than The Little Prince by St. Exupery is a book for children. OK, maybe both of these are books for children. My point, incidentally, is that this is a sophisticated book, and there are many levels of complexity that need not be deciphered for the book to be enjoyed. It is a goofy tale about a goofy storyteller and his son, who have to travel to the moon in order to save the Sea of Stories, a sort of manifest collective imagination, from the humbugs on the other side of the moon. Throughout this short book there is a parade of fantastic and instructive characters. . . but Rushdie's prose is occasinally, for all its eloquence, just a framework, so that a maximum of vision can be condensed into a small space of words. A masterpiece.

Rushdie soars in this wonderland tale of Gups, Chups, and other fantastical figures making up this fun and highly entertaining read. Crafted with the same artistic and gifted imagination that produced such works as Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a pure delight that will take readers through a playground of whimsical creatures, fairy-tale worlds, and, of course, happy endings, though never in a way that is too "cookie-cutter"-like or hackneyed. In this work, Rushdie achieves what has been truly lacking in the modern age--a story that reclaims the pure pleasure of fantastical fiction, in a way that flows effortlessly off the page. Bravo, Rushdie.

Living in a harsh brutal world where sadness is manufactured, three people in the entire city are happy. These are Rashid, Soraya, and Haroun. Rashid, the father of Haroun, is a storyteller and speaks throughout the city. His wife, Soraya, is a singer. Then Haroun is a smart young man. The storyteller looses his wife and storytelling talent. One day Haroun meets a water genie named Iff and his mechanical bird, Butt, and they take him to a magical second moon. They meet Prince Bolo and eventually Rashid there as well. So they are on a wild goose chase to find Princess Batcheat, Bolo's wife, and destroy the evil Kattam-Shud that is poisoning the beautiful story waters.

"Haroun" was truly delightful and imaginitive, filled with witty puns and odd characters, plus loads of humor. Its warm-hearted, quirky, fun tone reminded me of Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth." I especially enjoyed the (hilarious at times) diction, choice of words, and imagery that made Haroun and his companions-- Iff the Water Genie, the Plentimaw fishes, and Mali the floating gardener, among others-- come alive, however strange they may have been. The intertwined storylines seem like many age-old tales spun together, (figuratively, in much the same fashion as the book's fantastic Streams of Story where stories are 'stored,' mingling and bubbling and twisting to create new), yet it is all refreshingly different and exciting! I was also surprised at the depth of interesting symbolism far transcending the normal good vs. evil and superficially-seeming wordplay. This is definitely a wonderful story, whether you would like to make exciting connections and revelations about symbolic theory, or are just in the mood for a bit of energizing light reading.

Aaaah... Rushdie, a man of such wit and controversy. And I know nothing of it (yet), save for his gift for whisking me back to the warmth of simple tales when the world was just picture books and rhymes. Haroun, Rashid, and their Ocean of Notions kept a smile on my face the whole way through. There are two ways to read this book. First as a child, appreciate it for being a lush and engrossing tale. As an adult, you can draw some heady musings on authoritarian rule and freedom of creativity and learn the context in which Rushdie wrote this book. The bad guy is a sniveling, talentless bureaucrat? Brilliant! Now I gotta crack those Satanic Verses...

Though I have read and enjoyed novels from On the Road to The Shipping News to The Iliad, I keep coming back to this simple, charming, lucid masterpiece. The children-oriented theme might put off some adult readers, but not those who can still remember what it was like to be a child, to have hopes and dreams, and to want, even if you can't anymore, to believe in stories. I didn't believe that stories when I read Haroun, but more than any other book, it has made me see the power of a good story. It didn't change my life completely or anything nearly so drastic, but it did help to restore my faith in good books and fun stories and encouraged me to keep reading. I read it for the first time during my sophomore year in high school, and now as a college student, it remains my favorite. Please, read this book. You won't regret it.

This is a beautiful book. Haroun was written for Rushdie's eldest son when the boy was 12. It's a fantasy story that puts the 12 year-old hero in the book in all kinds of crazy, sometimes nonsensical, situations, in an effort to save the world from losing its access to stories. Think of your favourite Rushdie novel, but in a way that would appeal to any child's imagination and whimsy. I loved it. I guess I have the mind of a kid after all.

In Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salmon Rushdie leads the reader through a magical journey filled with creative characters, parallels, symbolism, and most of all he teaches us the importance of words and verbal expression. When Haroun's mom leaves him, and Haroun's father Rashid, a renowned storyteller known as the "Ocean of Notions" loses his ability to tell stories, Haroun finds himself on a heroic journey to save his father's storytelling ability and learn the importance of stories. Haroun's journey takes place on Kahani, earth's second moon where the source of all stories, the sea of stories is located. Like currents, the stories in this ocean are bountiful and beautiful. The sea itself is being destroyed by Khattam Shud, "the foe of speech," and Haroun must choose whether to save his father, the storyteller, or the source of all stories. Filled with plentimaw fishes, mechanical birds, floating gardeners, shadow warriors and much more, Rushdie continues to surprise the reader with delightful and creative characters. These characters ultimately help Haroun on his journey to defeat the evil Khattam Shud, and save the ocean and it's stories from being destroyed. The following is an excerpt from the book which describes Mudra, a warrior who fights with his own shadow:

"What terrifying eyes they were! Instead of whites, they had blacks; and the irises were grey as twilight, and the pupils were white as milk." (Rushdie 125)

With descriptions like these, Salmon Rushdie paints a picture of the characters in the mind of the reader. Not only are the characters in this story are original, creative, and intriguing, but they are well described.

What's the use of stories that aren't even true? This question is asked repeatedly throughout the book. Haroun questions storytelling when his mother leaves him and his father is no longer able to tell stories. Salmon Rushdie could have been questioning storytelling himself when he wrote this book in hiding after he was censored for his work on the Satanic Verses. Haroun and the Sea of Stories explores literature and its importance. It provides an answer for this question, and the reader learns that words can bring people together and inspire many. Essentially, Salmon Rushdie has created a classic heroic tale where characters help the protagonist achieve a goal. However, in this heroic story, the protagonist learns about stories like his own, and their importance. In a way, Haroun faces the evils of censorship (Khattam Shud). This is not only a heroic story. It is a heroic story about heroic stories. With descriptive characters, unique settings, and flowing words, this book is intriguing, humorous, and fun to read. It is fast paced, and hard to put down. People of all ages will enjoy this book. In Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salmon Rushdie lets us into a world of creativity, where the importance of story telling is questioned and answered.

This book is a perfect example of Rushdie just letting all his creative juices flow out. This story is not deep or imbedded with hidden meanings of critiques of society yet is like a bedtime story for adults. He creates wonderful worlds into which our minds wander and that we visit after falling asleep reading the book. This book is fun and entertaining though it does drag at certain parts. Nonetheless the clarity with which any who read it will be able to envision this story will allow the draggy bits to be quickly passed.