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Wikipedia calls Haroun and the Sea of Stories<\/em> a children’s book. This is true enough, if you view Jurassic Park <\/em>or E.T.<\/em> or Stranger Things<\/em> as children’s films\/TV shows (my six-year-old has not seen any of those). This book is a delightful hero\u2019s journey, a wonderful fairy tale. Picture, as I mentioned, a Spielberg movie. Picture Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/em>, too, because the fairy tale world is absolutely the result of a child\u2019s fantasy when his parents are separated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I mentioned this being the Rushdie I feel like I\u2019ve heard the most people say they\u2019ve read, and that rings true. It\u2019s got a blue genie four years before Aladdin<\/em>, for one thing. For another, it feels like something that would influence Aimee Bender and Kelly Link, who in turn have influenced *gestures wildly at the contemporary lit scene*. If this is the only Rushdie you read, I think you are missing out on what the big deal is, BUT you are getting a really great and condensed Rushdie experience. Sorta like how Inherent Vice is the only Pynchon I\u2019ve read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As always with Rushdie, I am sure I am missing a million political allusions and deeper meaning and funnier jokes, not to mention all I’m missing thanks to not speaking Hindustani. It would be a good book to read in a class or group. Alone, maybe the best I can muster is \u201cIndian Narnia.\u201d Which is super enjoyable! I had a ton of fun. It wasn’t life-changing, but I suspect it would have been if I read in 1990. Nothing wrong with fun, nothing wrong with reading one of the Common Ancestors of your literary lineage. So if you\u2019re looking for a grown-up Narnia book? Well, Wikipedia says this is for children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Something to listen to while you browse? We had a great episode of The Lazy & Entitled Podcast<\/em> this week, featuring Chicago poet Ben Niespodziany. We talk about taking walks, we talk about everything that goes into being a poet that isn’t writing poetry, and by the end of it, I was pretty excited about my local literary scene. Here it is on Apple<\/a> | Spotty<\/a> | SoundCloud<\/a>. We’ll skip a musical rec, because the links this week are gonna be the all-Chris’s Favorite Players Of The NBA Playoffs. Also, I can’t quite figure out how to embed videos in a list yet? So each link is a highlight you should check out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What’re you still doing here? Waiting for me to name a bench player or some other off-the-wall pick to prove I really Know Ball? The playoffs are for celebrating the best. Shoutout to Jaden McDaniels and Mitchell Robinson, I guess, Al Horford and Peyton Watson. The playoffs are for the stars, sorry. Legacies are made here. What, you think I’m so white I’m gonna mention Ty Jerome? Anyway, don’t you know that Micah and Brendan have a show? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week:<\/strong> a book that I picked up used at my old bookstore job, and thus has sat on my shelf unread for at least eight years. A book that, when I mention its author, many people have told me it\u2019s the only book of this author that they have read. A book that, honestly, I thought was a collection of stories, but was in fact novel. To riff on what Anne Carson said about Stesichorus falling between Homer and Gertrude Stein: the book was written after the fatwa was declared, but before he dated Padma Lakshmi, a difficult time for the author. I\u2019m talking, of course, about Haroun and the Sea of Stories<\/em> by Salman Rushdie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/IMG_5906-1-768x1024.jpg\")
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