"Haroun and the Sea of Stories" by Salman Rushdie

Reviewed by: Joel Falgui

Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a story in a story about stories. It begins in "a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad it had forgotten its name." In this saddest of cities, only the family of Haroun Kalifa is happy. Haroun is the only son of the professional storyteller Rashid Kalifa, who is such a fantastic storyteller that his listeners forget even their own unhappiness. However, when Haroun’s mother runs off with their neighbor who hates stories, her loss is so painful to the family that Rashid loses the ability to tell stories. Haroun’s desire to give his family any chance at becoming whole again leads him to an adventure to save Rashid and all the stories of the world.

At one point, when Haroun comes face to face with Khattam-Shud, the tyrant of the those who poison the Story Waters, source of all stories, Haroun asks, "But why do you hate stories so much? Stories are fun." Khattam-Shud replies, "The world, however, is not for Fun. . . . The world is for Controlling, And inside every single story, inside every Stream in the Ocean, there lies a world, a story-world, that I cannot Rule at all."

This then is the story in a story about stories that I love so much. This is Haroun and the Sea of Stories.