Ana V.

about halway through the book, i realised it reminded me of something. but i couldn't put my finger on it. a very annoying feeling, it really is, to feel like you've read something that sorta kinda maybe looks like the thing you're eating throgh right now.

not to worry, i realised what it reminded me of. Douglas Adams' [b:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|11|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide, #1)|Douglas Adams|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327656754s/11.jpg|3078186].

yep. Salman Rushdie's writing reminded me of a radio show turned book.

is it bad? not really, no. it didn't remind me of easy, uncomplicated literature, which Adams writes, but it matched in absurdness.

now i know, people who read the series and liked it will say - no!, no no, it's not like that a bit. i'm tepmted to agree, on a larger scale. it's SF, it's extremelly funny and innuendo-ish and easy to engage in.

and this is a children's book i'm comparing it to, so this comparison shouldn't even exist. but, in my humble opinion, it exists. there's the "absurd" feeling of the characters, the story, the setting, the explanations and even the writing itself is shady, on some level.

this comparison only works one way, though. you can find Adams in Rushdie, but not that much Rushdie in Adams. Haroun is meant to teach you something about stories, about their importance, about how living without them is a curse and it should never befall upon us. the Guide is funny and lets you see how incredibly stupid humanity is and what a scam civilization is.

i read this because my History teacher asked me if it resembles a fantasy book or if it could somehow enter under the fantasy umbrella. it does have fantasy elements, but i don't see this going under that roof. it's not that it doesn't deserve it, it's just that it doesn't bring a certain style along with it. it's a children's book, and it's meant to be educational and entertaining on the simplest level, while still leaving space for a second read, where you can find other povs than you did before. fantasy is too big a name for something like this, and it's this opinion that i stand behind of.