Midnight’s Children

Salman Rushdie\’s narrative tone in this book is jovial and humorous, even when he\’s describing pretty horrific things. It sneaks up on you that the first-person narrator, Saleem Sinai, is not just a little unreliable, but also whiny, self-justifying, and arrogant. The history of India ran parallel to his own personal history, with events happening in synchronicity, really? And the war between India and Pakistan was actually History\’s attempt to get him and his family? Saleem Sinai is sometimes likeable and sometimes a real jerk. He spends the entire book telling his life story to an unseen nurse/lover, Padma, who seems to be a long-suffering woman who loves him despite his determination to literally make everything all about him. But there really are magical elements in this book, in which the thousand and one \”Children of Midnight\” born during the midnight hour of India\’s independence are all given supernatural gifts. If this were a genre fantasy novel, we\’d see them running around India engaging in feats of heroism and villainy. But this isn\’t a superhero novel, it\’s a literary historical novel with a touch of the fantastic, so the Children of Midnight never do much at all, and Saleem\’s amazing telepathic abilities are used only as a plot device to connect them and include them in his narrative. As a modern history of India (told irreverently and one-sidedly and in a self-involved way by Saleem), Midnight\’s Children is funny, tragic, interesting, and a grand epic that Rushdie\’s storytelling device makes extremely personal. Rushdie\’s writing style is full of asides and interjections and laugh-out-loud metaphors, and he brings all the characters, even the bit ones, to life in amusing detail. He reminds me a bit of Stephen King in that respect, though Rushdie is far more of a literary prose-smith than King, and his book, while a little bit wordy and tangential at times, nowhere near as bloated as a King epic. 95 people found this helpful

Salman Rushdie is a writer\’s writer. I have been hooked on his fiction ever since I discovered Satanic Verses – All of his books are full of humour, contemporary culture and some of the best prose since James Joyce & Marcel Proust. The narration is masterful – but the language is dense and requires the reader\’s full attention. The narration resembles that of \”I Claudius\” in that it wavers between 1rst & 3rd person points of view. The history of modern india at the moment of its independence is collapsed into the life-story of the narrator, born at the stroke of midnight of independence. In short I love this book and have thoroughly enjoyed it\’s narration. 105 people found this helpful

Midnight\’s Children isn\’t an easy book to listen to first time around; and it certainly took me many hours of listening before getting a grip (that, too, somewhat tenuous) on the story line, which is full of twists, and exceptions, and clarifications, and which jumps back and forth in time and points of view. Nonetheless, it is a really funny story. I must have laughed out loud at least few times. The text and the narration easily capture the irony and hypocrisy one finds in India (and Pakistan). As to the narration, well … I think Lyndam Gregory has put in a lot of effort to get it right. To bring the text to life. Unfortunately he didn\’t succeed. He simply couldn\’t pronounce any of the Indian names or terms properly. At times I had to refer to the text (which, thankfully, was available for download online) to understand what was being read. I plan to listen to again. 87 people found this helpful

The story reminded me of the \”magic realism\” of One Hundred Years of Solitude. If you enjoy that type of writing, you will enjoy this. The book takes place in India. The main character\’s life parallel\’s India\’s growth as an independent nation, including struggles with Pakistan. There were parts of the book that were fast-paced and extremely engaging, but I found there were also parts that my attention lagged during. I felt that was due to the book itself, not to the narrator. 26 people found this helpful

I am a latecomer to this book and about 2/3 through the audio version (the narrator is wonderful). This is a fascinating novel, with motley of very unusual characters and relationships and twists. There is so much to say about this imaginative and absorbing book. The main character drifts back and forth between his external world and what at times seems like a delusional internal life where he wields omnipotence and omniscience among the Midnight\’s children in contrast to a pathetic external world. I will savor the last 1/3 of the book. I am delighted with this recommendation. At times it is laugh out loud funny. 24 people found this helpful

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