Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
reviewed by Charlotte Collins
Salman Rushdie’s fiction book Haroun and the Sea of Stories is the journey of Haroun to return the gift of storytelling to his father. Haroun’s mother, Soraya, caused Haroun’s father, Rashid, to lose the gift of storytelling by abandoning Rashid and Haroun and running off with their upstairs neighbor, Mr. Senguptas. Once Soraya leaves, Rashid can no longer tell his stories which causes Iff the Water Genie to come to disconnect the Story Water that comes to Rashid every night. However, Haroun steals the Disconnector and convinces Iff the Water Genie to help him on his journey to reconnect the Story Water for Rashid, so he can tell his amazing stories, which bring joy of the people in Alifbay, a sad city.
Rushdie uses a lot of alliteration and rhyming to give the story a childlike sense. This reinforces the mythological and mystical feeling of the story, which makes the reader feel like a child again. Rushdie also uses a lot of irony when Haroun and Rashid are driving in the mail coach. The signs keep saying to slow down and be careful while rhyming and using the same word with two different meanings giving it a funny childlike sense. All the while, the mail coach driver is speeding along, much faster than is safe, ignoring the signs telling him to slow down or die.
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