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steveatwaywords's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Even a "children's story" as this is often described cannot hide the sly and ironic voice of Rushdie, satirizing modernity and bureaucracy, politics and notions of justice. There is plenty of this peppered beneath and across the surface of Haroun as one comes to expect, and while the narrators seems no one of consequence in this tale, his nibs the author is very very present. And this, as with all Rushdie, is much of the pleasure.
Too, though, Rushdie offers a fair allegory on the idea of the essential need for and function of story: the lifeblood of culture and the benediction of soul. When it is threatened, the end of times is nigh. And we must not believe this requires anything like an arch-evil to menace us: perhaps the pencil mark of a clerical action would do.
But all of this is a openly-revealed/reveled subtext of what is otherwise a fun story, both in its absurdities of childhood tropes which will delight many and in its clever language puns which name its ironic nonsense throughout. A short read, but still a global fairy tale of the highest order.
Too, though, Rushdie offers a fair allegory on the idea of the essential need for and function of story: the lifeblood of culture and the benediction of soul. When it is threatened, the end of times is nigh. And we must not believe this requires anything like an arch-evil to menace us: perhaps the pencil mark of a clerical action would do.
But all of this is a openly-revealed/reveled subtext of what is otherwise a fun story, both in its absurdities of childhood tropes which will delight many and in its clever language puns which name its ironic nonsense throughout. A short read, but still a global fairy tale of the highest order.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
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