Midnight's Children

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, even if you don't get half of the jokes
Review: Though I'm not a native english speaker and no expert on Indian history, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think I missed half the "nudge nudge, know what I mean" jokes, and still I couldn't stop snickering to myself. I'd recommend it to anyone Leontien

Rating:
Summary: Initially 'just' clever - but then...
Review: "Midnight's Children" is the first Rushdie book I've read, and only the second one by an 'exile Indian'. I'd heard so much about Rushdie's literary talent that I went off and bought it.

At first I was a little disappointed, I must say. Rushdie's prose at the beginning of the book is clever, intelligent, witty - but it didn't touch me emotionally. I very much enjoyed reading it, but I wasn't too interested in what was going on.

Then, before I'd noticed it, I was hooked. From the moment the narrator actually became a protagonist, I was involved in the plot. Driven on by the dozens of hints and foreshadowings, I simply had to know what would happen, and I began to care about most of the characters.

More than that, Rushdie's novel is a rich tapestry of politics, magic, metaphor; there's so much imagination in this book, but it doesn't become overladen as other novels sometimes do. The author juggles his multiple plot lines, characters and his version of history and India deftly, and for me reading this novel was a real joy.

P.S.: Some readers - and critics - have complained that Rushdie's India is not really India. So what? I believe that "Midnight's Children" can be enjoyed tremendously as an imaginative, clever, involving and intelligent novel. Why look for the 'truth' in it? While some readers with a limited knowledge of the country might take this novel's geography and history as 'the real thing', I don't think you should judge literature by its readers.

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Summary: The one that made Rushdie...
Review: Claims of "Masterpiece! Bravo! C'est manifique!" and multitudes of roses gloriously wafting down from the expensive seats in the balcony are justified. This book made Rushdie a star. Rushdie who? Isn't he the guy who wrote that bizarre quasi-sci-fi novel about some birdguy? Yes, he is. And five years following that dabble (entitled "Grimus" which, to steal Hume's thunder, "fell deadborn from the press") Rushdie sprung some new fantastic oil reserve of novel writing and produced this utter gem. What a difference a mere five years can make!
This is a thick book. It's a very thick book. Thick with meaning. Thick with stories. Is it about time? Sure. Is it about family? Yup. Is it a political book? Well, sorta. Is it about the vicissitudes of memory and history? Probably, yes, that sounds good. Is it about India? Oh, yup. A lot of India in it, sure sure. Its bulk is impossible to summarize to any degree of fairness. Its bulk in meaning is nearly incomprehensible. Still, it all comes down to the narrator: Saleem Sinai, who, equipped with numerous nicknames and adoptive parents, is pummelled and dragged and drained through India's independence. Having been born at the very stroke of midnight (or was that his rival, born in the same room, who was the real son of Saleem's unsuspecting first set of "parents") on the cusp and lip of India's independence, Saleem later finds himself, and 1001 other children (you guessed it, the "Children of Midnight"), imbued with magical powers beyond belief. The magic of India's independence from Britain shoots forth wonders. Of course the government under Indira Gandhi isn't too happy about this, and Saleem finds himself in a very bad sort of pickle later on. These scenes make up some of the more disturbing and violent chapters (and Rushdie was accused by some of being too hard on the Indira régime). Cover your eyes! Plug your ears!
This is historical fiction at its best. There's much to learn about the history of India in these pages of pulp. Some familiar names will pounce out from the ink: Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi (no blood relation to the Mahatma; she was assassinated in 1984, four years after this book was published), Morarji Desai, Lord Viceroy Mountbatten, etc., etc., the names and history they encompass pile up page after page. Saleem and his family are also victims (very unfortunate ones) of the partition of India (into India, Pakistan, and soon after Bangladesh). This event still holds the record for most people moved from one place to another at one time: 14 million people (with about 1 million dead). Then war war war, more war war, and a state of Emergency, war war. Saleem is buffetted through it all, as countless millions were. The novel brings out the complexity and bulk of modern independent India through the voice of Saleem. Make some room in your brain for Rushdie's "many headed monsters".
One of the best scenes is "the perforated sheet" in which a doctor, Saleem's Grandfather, is only allowed to examine a Muslim woman through a hole in a large sheet. One part at a time, no more, no less. One day he looks through the hole and sees a...
Book three is a wild ride which will likely evoke the response "how did Saleem get here?" This book is Saleem's "rebirth" ending with the "Abracadabra" that changes everything; as book two is about Saleem's birth and childhood, and book one attempts to sum up the events leading up to Saleem's birth (the perforated sheet will haunt).
Is Saleem an honest narrator, though? Or does he lie through his big teeth (and much bigger and talented nose)? This is one of the many tensions that rips through the novel, and questions and examines biography as well as history. Saleem only admits to lying once.
The novel has some debts also. It owes a big one to "Tristram Shandy" written by Lawrence Sterne in the 18th century, in which an autobiographer attempts to write his life and keeps getting mired in digressions. Rushdie takes the best elements of this brilliantly bizarre book and meshes it into his own story of Saleem. Rushdie himself has acknowledged the influence of Sterne. Also, some have called this novel "India's 'Tim Drum'" with its parallel stories of nations with growing pains siphoned through single characters. Regardless of influence, "Midnight's Children" is an amazing novel rich with meaning, detail, humor, love, tragedy, childhood, family, philosophy, religion, sibling rivarly, and people people people people people people burgeoning out through the lines of text like on a crowded Mumbai street. There are, in short, people everywhere.
This book is worth the effort. It may take a little more effort than expected. It's huge, it's complex, it's part history part fantasy. What it attempts to do, in a very human way, is posit meaning to events and lives and their very multifarious interpretations. It can all be found in cleverly labeled pickle jars. C'est manifique!

Rating:
Summary: Amazing tale of the entwined Fates of a Boy and a Nation
Review: "Midnight's Children" was the second novel from Rushdie I read, but it remains my favorite. While my tastes in novels runs more towards Hemmingway I was unable to put this book down. I was held captive by the author's ability to include historical refferences of the birth of a nation into the complex story of Shiva and Saleem. I particularly liked the parallelism between the two boys and the gifts given to them by their midnight births. While this book can be difficult to follow due to it's historical reffernces I felt that it only added to the understanding of fate of Saleem's live. Overall I would highly recomend this book to those who have an interest in Indian History or enjoy an author with a great command of the English Lanugage.

Rating:
Summary: Genie-in-a-bottle literature
Review: This is one of the finest novels in the past fifty years. Rushdie perform every kind of literary stunt to tell the story of modern India, a nation whose life is eerily paralleled, influenced, and mythologized by the narrator. It took me twenty months to read this book. I would begin, read about half of the book, then put it down. Next month I would start all over, enjoying the prose far too much simply to pick up where I left off. There is an extraordinarily dense minimalism about the piece, as it leaves you with the feeling that the whole story would fill twenty times as many pages, and that the narrator is only briefly sketching the highlights. There are a thousand and one reasons to read this, and at least half of them are good.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: this book is just gorgeous, it's magical and warm and hilarious and so sad as well. I adore Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I would recommend this book to anyone who fell in love with One Hundred Years of Solitude, as this caputures the same spirit, style and humour. Well done Mr Rushdie - superb !!

Rating:
Summary: To be fair...
Review: ... I think I may just be turned off by the way he writes. I only made it through the first half of this book before I was completely confused and turned around and frustrated. I felt exactly the same way for his "Satanic Verses"... only got about half way through that one, too. I am very well versed in Islamic culture and religion, but I know next to nothing of Indian culture, so I was very confused by his profusion of culturally-rich references and descriptions of Indian mindset and history.

I am only giving it two stars because he does have a very lyrical and descriptive writing style; I saw another writer compare it to Nabakov's style of writing, and that seems pretty apt. Very colorful, very imaginitive, very pleasing to the mind's eye.

However, all the prosaic narration in the world will not help you understand a complex, stuttering, warped, fiercely non-chronological tale. I think it's safe to say that if you have read one Rushdie novel and you like it, you'll like them all. If, on the other hand, you find one novel to be scream-inducing, it's probably best to avoid the rest of them.

Rating:
Summary: Unlike Any Book You Have Ever Read
Review: Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children" is a brilliantly written narrative that combines history and fiction impeccably and in a fashion that is without precedent. The author explains the historical context of his novel with exceptinal clarity, and Rushdie's frustration with his beloved India is evident throughout the story. Moreover, Rushdie's writing in "Midnight's Children" is wildly creative, and the text is filled with the powerful musings of an enormous literary talent. Salman Rushdie has penned an extraordinary hybrid of reality and imagination that is sure to amuse and impress the serious reader.

Rating:
Summary: Once is definitely enough
Review: The ideas behind this novel are very creative and promising however the actual story drags more than once. The last third of the book is slow and boring then rushed at the very end as if Rushdie lost interest himself. I was enraptured for the first half and yawning for the second. I'll pass on seconds.

Rating:
Summary: Truly a masterpiece
Review: A beautiful book of epic proportions. Some compare his work to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and I wholeheartedly agree. His mastery of fantasy is unparalleled, yet unique in it's simultaneous portrayal of reality. In addition to learning about spectacular writing and enjoying the construct of each sentence, I also found my knowledge of the regional history greatly expanded. One of the top ten books I've ever read. Truly a masterpiece!