Nov 05, 2009 01:59 PM
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This is the novel which I have completed recently. Though it was from a TV anchor’s interview I came to know about this book and not by my own preference to read it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the novel. As it ‘s written in the perspective of little boy, I loved it the most and now it’s in the list of one of my most favorite books.
The last time I read a “Salman Rushdie” was almost four years back. It was “Midnight’s Children”, and the language was too high and I could neither enjoy it nor read further after a couple of chapters. But thankfully “Haroun and the sea….” Was in a simple language. As the author dedicated the book to his son, he chose to write it in a lucid language making it an evident choice for ‘Books for Children’.
After reading some of those NRI authors who claim themselves as new age writers, who write nothing more than stereotyped melodrama which predominantly has Male chauvinism, freedom of a married women etc as the central theme but contributing nothing to either to the theme or to a fine read, I was not interested in the so called contemporary writing. ‘Everything happens for a reason’ by kavita daswani, French lover by Taslima Nasreen are a few to name. Infact after reading French Lover, I tore the first two pages and threw it away. Actually I have the habit of writing my name or putting my signature in the first two pages of the novels I buy, but this novel was such a bad one and indeed the worst of the novels I have read until date.
But “Haroun and the sea…” which I started with no anticipations turned out to be an alluring plot which talks about a virtual world where is totally out of the earth:). Well the “Kahani” is not a part of the globe but comes as non-explored cosmic body where in you find a sea made of numerous streams of stories and a villain who tries to destroy the epicenter of the source with anti-stories.
Though I’m not good in deciphering metaphors and allegorical scripts, the underlying thought in this novel didn’t require a great intellect to reveal it, but even a guy with a small-town breeding like me could even understand it. Not to forget the analogous characters which reside in the “kahani” have shared a lot or to be more appropriate have borrowed a lot of characteristics from their counterparts in the real world.
One such example would be the shadow warrior. His face paint is green and lips are scarlet, May be it’s a striking semblance with the made up face of a “Kathakali” Dancer who expresses with his “Mudras”. Though the climax is more predictable, the virtual world brought in by the author with all those close-to-real life characters made it a worthy read.
