Confusion. Confusion. How to categorize this book? Fantasy? Children's Lit? Classic? Political satire? Magical realism? Whatever. It's brilliant to the beat. I loved the names of places n characters like - Kahani, Chup, Princess Batcheat, Prince Bolo, General Kitab, Iff the water genie, Khattam Shud..... But my teenaged junior finds the names a li'l difficult to comprehend. Hindi like Delhi is far far away.... The story is racy, action packed , suspense filled and makes the reader content n victorious at the end. Granted, I find the sequel Luka and the fire of life a better witty and joyful ride.
Rushdie dedicates this story to his then teenaged son. Great. But look at the mother figure. Haroun's mother elopes with their neighbor in the beginning of the story itself and joins them back at the end as cool as a kakdi. What nonsense. Autobiographical?
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