Haroun and the Sea of Stories
.jpg)
First edition
|
|
| Author | Salman Rushdie |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Magic Realism |
| Publisher | Granta |
|
Publication date
|
27 September 1990 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 224 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 22274689 |
| 823/.914 20 | |
| LC Class | PR6068.U757 H37 1990 |
| Followed by | Luka and the Fire of Life |
Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a 1990 children's book by Salman Rushdie. It was Rushdie's fifth novel after The Satanic Verses. It is a phantasmagorical story that begins in a city so old and ruinous that it has forgotten its name.
Haroun and the Sea of Stories is an allegory for several problems existing in society today, especially in the Indian subcontinent. It looks at these problems from the viewpoint of the young protagonist Haroun. Rushdie dedicated this book to his son, from whom he was separated for some time. Many elements of the story deal with the problems of censorship: an issue particularly pertinent to Rushdie due to the fatwa against him backed by Ayatollah Khomeini. The book is highly allusive and puns in multiple languages. Many of the major character's names allude to some aspect of speech or silence.
It was made into an audiobook read by Rushdie himself.
At the beginning of the story, protagonist Haroun Khalifa lives with his father Rashid, a famous storyteller, and his mother Soraya, until the latter is seduced by their neighbor 'Mr. Sengupta' to leave home. Thereafter Rashid is hired to speak on behalf of local politicians but fails his initial assignment. The two are thence conveyed to the 'Valley of K' by courier 'Mr. Butt', to speak for 'Snooty Buttoo', another politician. Attempting to sleep aboard Buttoo's yacht, Haroun discovers 'Iff the Water Genie', assigned to detach Rashid's imagination, and demands conversation against this decision with Iff's supervisor, the Walrus. They are then carried to the eponymous 'Sea of Stories' by an artificial intelligence in the form of a hoopoe, nicknamed 'Butt' after the courier. Of the Sea of Stories, Haroun learns it is endangered by antagonist 'Khattam-Shud,' who represents "the end."
In the Kingdom of Gup, Prince Bolo, General Kitab, and the Walrus announce their plans for war against the neighbouring kingdom of Chup, to recapture Bolo's betrothed Princess Batcheat. Rashid joins them here, having witnessed Batcheat's kidnapping. Thereafter Haroun and his companions join the Guppee army toward Chup, where they befriend Mudra, Khattam-Shud's former second-in-command.
Haroun, Iff, Butt the Hoopoe, and Mali the stories' gardener, investigating the Sea's 'Old Zone', are captured by Khattam-Shud's animated shadow, who plans to plug the Story Source at the bottom of the Sea. Before he can do so, Mali destroys the machines used by him to poison the Sea, and Haroun restores the Sea's long-annulled alternation of night and day––– thus destroying the antagonist's shadow and those assisting him, and diverting the giant 'Plug' meant to seal the Source. In Chup, the Guppee army destroy the Chupwalas' army and release Princess Batcheat; whereupon Khattam-Shud himself is crushed beneath a collapsing statue commissioned by himself. Thereafter the Walrus promises Haroun a happy ending of his own story. On return to the human world, Rashid reveals Haroun's adventures to local citizens, who expel Snooty Buttoo.
...
Wikipedia