Haroun and The Sea Of Stories

Haroun and The Sea Of Stories

  - Salman Rushdie

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have never been inspired to read Salman Rushdie before, but this one has been praised a lot in my reading group, and highly recommended as a wonderful children's book. I love stories for children, and what reader can resist a title like 'Sea of Stories'

The story itself is a simple one, but with a number of puns in the names of the characters and places. It should be noted that these puns are derived from Hindustani (Hindi + Urdu) words. I am a native Hindi speaker so it was intuitive for me, but anyone who is not familiar with the language may have a difficult time following it, and perhaps not find as much enjoyment as someone familiar with the language can.

The story is a fantasy-adventure, in the vein of the fairy tales with princes and jinns that we read and listened to as children. I might have enjoyed it as a child (and quite a young one at that), though I am not sure of that either. As for now, I found the puns amusing for some time, but once they were used a few times, my interest waned as the story didn't engage me much. I speed-read the last 40% as I didn't want to just abandon it.