If the question at the center of Haroun and the Sea of Stories is, "What's the use of stories that aren't even true?" then the central question in Luka and the Fire of Life could well be, "What is the use of stories that no longer matter?" Salman Rushdie creates a powerful and provocative fable for our times. He sets his story in a culture that once shared a common foundation of Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology, Alice in Wonderland and Sherlock Holmes, but its citizens now seek a collective amnesia. They have begun to forget their history and turn their backs on the past.
In the city of Kahani, where Rashid Khalifa the storyteller, his wife, Soraya, and his two sons, Haroun and Luka, make their home, the townsfolk visit Obliviums, "giant malls where everyone went to dance, shop, pretend, and forget." Twelve-year-old Luka, like his peers, joins "imaginary communities in cyberspace." His mother bemoans the "useless skills" he hones with his "pisps" and "wees." But Luka is completely present on the day the circus comes to town. The Ringmaster of the Great Rings of Fire, Captain Aag, reputedly mistreats his animals. Luka curses "Grandmaster Flame." He calls out, "May your animals stop obeying your commands and your rings of fire eat up your stupid tent." Luka's curse works. The next morning, a dog wearing the nametag "Bear" and a bear sporting the nametag "Dog" show up at Luka's doorstep. Haroun, whose mission quest at age 12 was the subject of Haroun and the Sea of Stories, tells Luka, "You've reached the age at which people in this family cross the border into the magical world. It's your turn for an adventure." One month and a day later, on a "beautiful starry night," Haroun's prediction comes true. Rashid Khalifa, "the legendary storyteller of Kahani," falls asleep. "Nobody could wake him." Luka receives a message from Captain Aag, delivered by seven vultures, suggesting that Luka bears responsibility for this turn of events, and outside his window, Luka sees a man who looks exactly like his father.
With this shadow figure, called "Nobodaddy," Rushdie constructs a detailed parallel world, the world of Rashid Khalifa's stories. Once Luka recognizes this "World of Magic" for what it is, he feels at ease ("He had grown up hearing about it from his father every day, and he had believed in it"). There's just one enormous catch: Nobodaddy explains that "once someone like me has been summoned... someone alive must pay for that summons with a life." Can Luka save his father? And even if he does, will Nobodaddy still collect a life? Luka becomes a player in a metafictional game. With wit and skill, the boy dodges the traps set by the Old Man of the River, who taunts Luka with his riddles. Luka knows the answers because his father has told him all the stories. Finally, the boy poses a question to the Old Man: "What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?" He knows the Old Man won't get it because Rashid himself never remembers the riddle's answer. Rushdie then moves from the ridiculous to the sublime. As Luka ponders the River of Time, he asks himself perhaps the oldest riddle in human history: "If the Future already existed, then perhaps it didn't matter what he, Luka, did next, because no matter how hard he was trying to save his father's life, maybe Rashid Khalifa's fate had already been decided. But if the Future could be shaped, in part, by his own actions, then would the River change its course depending on what he did?... Who was finally in charge?"
Through the construct of a fable, Rushdie invites young readers to consider life's deepest questions. He suggests that, as human beings, we need story to make sense of our lives, to understand our history and to plan the future. Soon after Luka, Dog and Bear meet Nobodaddy, this shadow-self of Rashid says to the young hero, "You of all boys should know that Man is the Storytelling Animal, and that in stories are his identity, his meaning, and his lifeblood." Rushdie seems to say: to forget those stories is to lose one's identity, to lose one's sense of purpose, to lose one's life.
Even at the darkest points of Luka's mission, we have the feeling that he is never truly alone. Not only does he have Dog (the bear) and Bear (the dog) as his companions, but Dog also looks and sounds (in the World of Magic, Dog can speak) a bit like Haroun, and the flamboyant Queen of Ott bears the same name as his mother. Luka acquires other trusty companions, such as two Elephant Birds who drink from the River of Time. They of course remember everything--a lovely contrast to the people of Kahani ("Memory is the fuel you need" to travel the River of Time, Nobodaddy advises).
Luka's greatest weapon, naturally, turns out to be his keen attention to his father's stories, and also to the craft of storytelling. Within striking distance of the Fire of Life, Luka makes a brilliant case for why the denizens of the World of Magic should grant him passage: "Let's be frank, how many people other than Rashid Khalifa are really bothering to keep your story going nowadays?" says he. "Look at you! Instead of real Powers, you have Beauty Contests.... It's only through Stories that you can get out into the Real World and have some sort of power again." His quest does not end there. Luka must find his way back to the Real World. As Rashid liked to say, "We don't know the answers to the great questions of who we are and what we are capable of until the questions are asked." Many of the answers Luka seeks lie within the stories Rashid told him. But, ultimately, Luka can find the answers only within himself. If he wants to reach the summit of the Mountain of Knowledge and discover the Fire of Life, "he must make the final ascent alone," according to his father.
Rushdie also asks us to consider what is most important through his meditations on the passage of time. On the lighthearted side, he introduces a time loop (the Inescapable Whirlpool and the El Tiempo time trap, which Luka and company encounter on a Flying Carpet; he repeats one long phrase in the narrative over and over), and on the weightier side, he examines the concept of unending time, both through the gods and their Beauty Contests, and also the Queen's Ott Potatoes, which promise immortality. Would we wish to outlive those we love, the people at the center of our own personal narratives?
Rushdie offers many layers at which adults and children may consider his multi-tiered fable. As Storytelling Animals, we have a responsibility to impart tales to the next generation. "All his life, ever since Rashid Khalifa started telling him stories, Luka had wondered about the Torrent of Words that fell to earth from the Sea of Stories.... What would that look like, that waterfall tumbling from space? It must be wonderful to behold." Most of all, this master storyteller leaves readers with the understanding that our stories are our legacy. --Jennifer M. Brown