(no subject)
Mar. 2nd, 2009 12:55 pmBased solely on a description of its contents, I should have 100% adored Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories. It has:
1. A plot based on unapologetic meta about storytelling!
2. A family relationship at the center of the story!
3. Related to 2: a parent that is actually involved in the child's adventure!
4. Whimsical puns and bits of interwoven stories!
5. Wisecracking robot birds!
6. A bad-tempered crossdressing girl!
Despite all this, I think this is one of the rare cases where I will say that I wish I had read this book when I was younger, because I suspect I would have totally imprinted on it and loved it well into my adulthood, and gotten more things out of it with the rereads, too. As it is, I read it and kept wanting it to be something other than the sweet Phantom Tollbooth-ish fable that it was - something with more character development and controversy. Which is not really fair to the book. I enjoyed it well enough, but I wasn't absorbed in it. But I wish I had been!
1. A plot based on unapologetic meta about storytelling!
2. A family relationship at the center of the story!
3. Related to 2: a parent that is actually involved in the child's adventure!
4. Whimsical puns and bits of interwoven stories!
5. Wisecracking robot birds!
6. A bad-tempered crossdressing girl!
Despite all this, I think this is one of the rare cases where I will say that I wish I had read this book when I was younger, because I suspect I would have totally imprinted on it and loved it well into my adulthood, and gotten more things out of it with the rereads, too. As it is, I read it and kept wanting it to be something other than the sweet Phantom Tollbooth-ish fable that it was - something with more character development and controversy. Which is not really fair to the book. I enjoyed it well enough, but I wasn't absorbed in it. But I wish I had been!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 11:07 pm (UTC)Becca, there is an interview with Salman Rushdie in Volume III of the Paris Review interview collections and it is so amazing your eyeballs will catch fire!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-03 12:36 am (UTC):O Despite the fact that I do not particularly wish my eyeballs to catch fire, I am nonetheless intrigued!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-03 12:37 am (UTC)