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Description edit
Haroun is the son of Rashid, the greatest of all storytellers who conjures up magical worlds and brings laughter to the city of Alifbay. Then one terrible day, everything goes wrong. Haroun's father runs out of stories to tell. Haroun is determined to return the storyteller's gift to his... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
Haroun's father, Rashid is a great story teller in the city of Alifbay. Rashid, Haroun and Soraya (Haroun's mother) are the only happy people in this sad, sad city.
When Soraya leaves them for Mr. Sengupta, Haroun finds himself asking his father something which he has heard Mr. Sengupta... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters/People edit
- Haroun Khalifa: The son of Rashid. He must journey into Kahani to restore his father's storytelling talents before everything that's gone wrong gets even worse.
- Rashid Khalifa: Haroun's storytelling father. Also known as "the Ocean of Notions" and the "Shah of Blah."
- Soraya Khalifa: Haroun's mother
- Khattam-Shud: Leader of the Cult of Silence and the ultimate villain.
- Butt the Hoopoe: Haroun's mechanical flying and talking bird machine, on which he journeys through Kahani.
- Iff: A water genie from Kahani who originally comes to disconnect Rashid Khalifa's supply of story waters and reluctantly finds himself involved in a much larger plot.
- Prince Bolo: Prince in the land of Gup. Dashing but a little foolish.
- Batcheat: The princess in the land of Gup and love of Prince Bolo.
- Mr Buttoo: Called Snooty Buttoo. He is a corrupt politician who hires Rashid to tell his famous stories so that he can be reelected.
- Mr Sengupta: Add a description of this character.
- Blabbermouth: A talkative Page in the army of Gup who conceals her identity as female.
- Mali: A Floating Gardener who is charged with the task of keeping stories untangled from one another.
- Goopy & Bagha: A pair of Plentimaw Fishes who use their many mouths to consume stories and produce new ones.
- Mudra: Second-in-command to Khattam-Shud, who becomes disgruntled with his master's policies and defects to the Guppee side.
Quotes edit
-
“They put on opposite acts, so nobody knows what they really feel; which may of course be a third thing completely.”
Haroun -
“Iff replied that the Plentimaw Fishes were what he called 'hunger artist'-'Because when they are hungry they swallow stories through every mouth, and in their innards miracles occur; a little bit of one story joins on to an idea from another, and hey presto, when they spew the stories out they spew the stories out they are not old tales but new ones. Nothing comes from nothing. Thieflet; no story comes from nowhere; new stories are born from old-it is the new combinations that make them new.”
Iff the Water Genie -
“"You think it's easy for a girl to get a job like this? Don't you know girls have to fool people every day of their lives if they want to get anywhere? You probably had your whole life handed to you on a plate, probably got a whole mouth full of silver spoons, but some of us have to fight."”
Blabbermouth -
“'How many opposites are at war in this battle between Gup and Chup!' he marvelled. 'Gup is bright and Chup is dark. Gup is warm and Chup is freezing cold. Gup is all chattering and noise, whereas Chup is silent as a shadow. Guppees love the Ocean, Chupwalas try to poison it. Guppees love Stories, and Speech; Chupwalas, it seems, hate these things just as strongly.' It was a war between Love (of the Ocean, or the Princess) and Death (which was what Cultmaster Khattam-Shud had in mind for the Ocean, and for the Princess, too).'But it's not as simple as that,' he thought to himself, because the dance of the Shadow Warrior showed him that silence had its own grace and beauty (just as speech could be graceless and ugly); and that Action could be as noble as Words; and that creatures of darkness could be as lovely as the children of the light.”
Haroun -
“What's the point of it? What's the use of stories that aren't even true?”
Haroun -
“'Happy endings must come at the end of something,' the Walrus pointed out. 'If they happen in the middle of a story, or an adventure, or the like, all they do is cheer things up for a while.'”
The Walrus
Setting & Locations edit
- Ocean
- Gup City
- Chup City
- Valley of K
- Dull Lake
- P2C2E: Processes Too Complicated To Understand
- Twilight Strip
- Moon (Kahani)
First Sentence edit
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.
Table of Contents edit
1. The Shah of Blah
2. The Mail Coach
3. The Dull Lake
4. An Iff and a Butt
5. About Guppies and Chupwalas
6. The Spy’s Story
7. The Twilight Zone
8. The Shadow Warrior
9. The Dark Ship
11. Haroun’s Wish
12. Princess Batcheat
13. Was it the Walrus?
Glossary edit
- Abhinaya: is, in fact, the name of the Language of Gesture used in Indian classical dance.
- Alifbay: is an imaginary country. Its name comes from the Hindustani word for 'alphabet'.
- Batcheet: is from the Hindustani 'baat-cheet', that is 'chit-chat'.
- Bat-Mat-Karo: is from the Hindustani and means 'Do-Not-Speak'
- Bezaban: is from the Hindustani and means 'Without-a-Tongue'.
- Bolo: is from the Hindustani and comes from the verb 'bolna' to speak. 'Bolo! is the imperative: 'Speak!'
- Chup: derived from the Hindustani word (pronounce the 'u' like the 'oo' in 'good') mean 'quiet'; 'Chupwala' means something like 'quiet fellow'.
- The Dull Lake: which doesn't exist, gets its name from the Dal Lake in Kashmir, which does.
- Gup: derived from the Hindustani word (pronounce the 'u' as in 'cup') means 'gossip'. It can also mean 'nonsense' or 'fib'.
- Haroun and Rashid: are both named after the legendary Caliph of Baghdad, Haroun al-Rashid, who features in many Arabian Nights tales.
- Kahani: in Hindustani means 'story'.
- Kaamosh: in Hindustani means 'silent'.
- Khattam-Shud: in Hindustani means 'completely finished', 'over and done with'.
- Kitab: in Hindustani means 'book'.
- Mali: in Hindustani means 'gardener'.
- Mudra: who speaks Abhinaya, the Language of Gesture, is also named after it, in a way. A 'mudra' is any one fo the gestures that make up the language.
Themes & Symbolism edit
- Dangers of Censorship: Any kind of censorship stops the progression of ideas and enlightenment.
- The Power of Story: Imagination is the most important cognitive process. Humans need to read in order to use the imagination and in order to consciously and subconsciously experience archetypes. This makes people emotionaly stable, keeps them sane and helps them become more intelligent.
Series & Lists edit
This book is in Endicott's Adult Fairy Tales Reading List. (community list)
This is book 662 of 986 in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. (authoritative list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Salman Rushdie (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: Add the language.
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 1990
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 1990
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 224
Awards edit
- Mythopoeic Fantasy Award (1992: Children's Literature, #1)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 828'.914
Subjects edit
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