Following the unprecedented controversy generated by The Satanic Verses , Rushdie offers as eloquent a defense of art as any Renaissance treatise. Supposedly begun as a bedtime story for Rushdie's son, Haroun concerns a supremely talented storyteller named Rashid whose wife is lured away by the same saturnine neighbor who poisons Rashid's son Haroun's thoughts. ``What's the use of stories that aren't even true?'' Haroun demands, parroting the neighbor and thus unintentionally paralyzing Rashid's imagination. The clocks freeze: time literally stops when the ability to narrate its passing is lost. Repentant, Haroun quests through a fantastic realm in order to restore his father's gift for storytelling. Saturated with the hyperreal color of such classic fantasies as the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland , Rushdie's fabulous landscape operates by P2C2Es (Processes Too Complicated To Explain), features a court where all the attendant Pages are numbered, and unfurls a riotous display of verbal pranks (one defiant character chants ``You can chop suey, but / You can't chop me!''; elsewhere, from another character: `` `Gogogol,' he gurgled. `` `Kafkafka,' he coughed''). But although the pyrotechnics here are entertaining in and of themselves, the irresistible force of the novel rests in Rushdie's wholehearted embrace of the fable--its form as well as its significance. It's almost as if Rushdie has invented a new form, the meta-fable. Rather than retreating under the famous death threats, Rushdie reiterates the importance of literature, stressing not just the good of stories ``that aren't even true'' but persuading us that these stories convey the truth. As Haroun realizes, ``He knew what he knew: that the real world was full of magic, so magical worlds could easily be real.'' (Jan.)

Rashid Khalifa, a renowned storyteller, has lost his touch. Once an ``Ocean of Notions,'' he is now ``The Shah of Blahs.'' Haroun, Rashid's son, embarks on an epic quest to restore his father's creativity. One of the problems is environmental: the pollutants of modern civilization have clouded the once-clear streams of story. Another is conspiratorial: the Union of Tight Lips, minions of the evil Khattam-Shud, confound communication by switching on rows of ``darkbulbs.'' Rushdie's first book since the controversial Satanic Verses ( LJ 12/88) is more a postmodern fairy tale in the style of Angela Carter or John Barth than a traditional novel. The story is allegorical rather than realistic, the characters emblematic and two-dimensional. Poignant parallels between Rashid's predicament and Rushdie's own situation are what hold the reader's interest. An amusing but lightweight entertainment. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/90.-- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch . , Los Angeles

Though there is darkness and silence at the center of Chup, most of Haroun and the Sea of Stories is full of comic energy and lively verbal invention. . . .Though [the book] is sure to be enjoyed by children, it also contains amusements for adults. -- The New York Times

A performance that dazzles the eye as it erupts triumphantly out of the dark in a display of fireworks.” 
—Anita Desai, The Washington Post Book World
 
“Fantastical, funny, whooping through drama and comedy, good and evil, introducing creatures delightful or frightening, this joyous and tender book is a whole Arabian Nights entertainment.” 
—Nadine Gordimer, The Times Literary Supplement
 
“A lively, wonderfully inventive comic tale . . . His own Sea of Stories from which he drew this entertaining and moving book continues to flow as clear and brilliant as ever.” 
—Alison Lurie, The New York Times Book Review

“Wonderful . . . A novel of tremendous charm . . . A tribute to the pleasures, and terrible powers of storytelling . . . As lively and impassioned as any of his previous novels, but this time full of love.” —Newsweek
 
“Fantasy, adventure, and allegory in a beautiful mix . . . Salman Rushdie reappears enriched as a human being and as a writer.”
—Mario Vargas Llosa
 
“Eloquent and rejuvenative . . . A testament to the magic and power of a child’s belief, and to Rushdie’s undaunted optimism for the future.”
—Newsday
 
“Rushdie’s gifts include wit and wildness in a sharp engagement with the world’s complexities.”
—Los Angeles Times
 
“Rushdie is a master of brilliant, seductive language. . . . He transforms his story into the lush, arcane fabric of myth. It is a tale of high adventure, deep sadness, and miraculous recovery—a landmark work from one of today’s most important writers.”
—Self
 
“Like all good fables and fairy tales, Haroun and the Sea of Stories yields its riches on many levels. Readers will relish the wordplay and multilingual punning.”
—Boston Sunday Herald
 
“A defiantly high-spirited and chivalrous novel.”
—Vanity Fair
 
“Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a wonderful novel, timeless in the way fine literature is always timeless.”
—Stephen King

“I enjoyed this adventure story. . . . It involves you at once and keeps you reading, and so it should, for it’s from the same magic land as Sinbad, The Thousand and One Nights, The Golden Fleece.”
—Doris Lessing
 
“Full of light and magic . . . A testimony to creativity, and to the gentle strength of hope.”
—The Boston Sunday Globe