Alexander writes: My nine-year-old, Eric, is a pretty big reader, with tastes that run the gamut from vampires via annoying boy-wizards to histories of the Wellington bomber. Earlier this year, we read White Fang together and he thought it was so brilliant he promised to read anything else I recommended. It was a rash promise. When I produced Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies, they were dismissed as "too grown up". Eric knows what he likes and nothing I can say will persuade him differently, one way or another.
So there was no particular reason to expect him to read this, a book by Salman Rushdie, written for his 12-year-old son, Milan. Luka and the Fire of Life is filled with the hectic allusions and linguistic games that Rushdie typically inflicts on his adult readers. He sums his own style up quite nicely here, when he describes Luka's father, a professional storyteller: "Rashid was lost for words and so, as usual, found far too many of them."
I offered it to Eric because I liked the idea of a boy trying to revitalise his father. As it happens, we've got a tradition of this in our family. My novelist grandfather (after whom Eric was named) wrote two books for his children – The Wind on the Moon and The Pirates in the Deep Green Sea – both of which involve children saving their fathers. It's a funny old theme: ageing authors, anxious about their fading powers, writing children's books about being redeemed by their children.
This, then, is a review, written by a father and a son, who disagree about a book about a father and a son. Though only 216 pages long, it took me several days to force myself through it. After a perfectly nice set-up, in which Rashid falls into a potentially terminal sleep, Rushdie sends Luka off on an adventure into the world of magic which is infuriatingly conceived as a series of computer games. At one point, Luka has 999 lives. Where's the jeopardy in that? I slumbered. I got annoyed at Rushdie's unfunny jokes. I was not charmed by any of the creatures in the magical world. Had I read this before Eric, I would never have given it to him. But Eric picked it up first and consumed it in a weekend. When I tried to get him to write about why he loved it, there was an argument. This was too much like homework. "I just liked it, that's all!" When I explained that it was homework for which he might be paid, there was a change of attitude. I made some editorial suggestions, but the words and opinions are all his – clearly more valid than mine.
Eric writes: This book is about a young boy called Luka who is trying to save his father by stealing the Fire of Life. His father, Rashid, has gone into a deep sleep. His life force is being taken away by someone called Nobodaddy, a character from the world of magic. This world was created by Rashid, who is a storyteller. So Luka has to save his father from himself.
In the world of magic, things are brighter and happen as though in a video game. Luka has two companions to help him: a bear called Dog, who can dance, and a dog called Bear, who can sing. Nobodaddy challenges them to go on a quest. The Fire of Life can be found on top of the Mountain of Wisdom at the end of the River of Time.One of my favourite parts is when Luka challenges the Old Man of the River to a riddle contest. Luka wins by asking the riddle: "What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the middle of the day, and three legs in the evening?" The reason the old man doesn't know the answer, though it's easy, is because Rashid always forgets it. The only things that can happen are things Rashid can invent.
Some of the tasks Luka has to face are: the Mists of Time, the Inescapable Whirlpool, the Trillion and One Forking Paths and the Great Rings of Fire. The task I enjoyed most was the Great Rings of Fire, because Dog and Bear already know what to do. This is a joke set up at the beginning of the book, so I don't want to spoil it.
I liked the fact that, in the magic world, myths are played as computer games. Level 8 is the one with all the gods – Romans are the lowest, Egyptians are the highest. The writer's language is great and I really liked the way he uses puns and compound words – like Nobodaddy and the Insultana of Ott (Rashid's wife), who gives Luka six Ott potatoes in an Ott pot!
This story is trying to say: "Dads, get a life!" It's also trying to say your children can help you with that. This is one of the best books I have read, though I didn't like it as much as The Pirates in the Deep Green Sea, which was written by my great-grandfather for his sons. But now I am going to read Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which Salman Rushdie wrote for his other son.
