Pros: enjoyable in parts; prose; humour; prestigious (Booker of Bookers)
Cons: significant time investment; assumes familiarity with 20th century Indian political history
The Bottom Line: A sprawling tale set against the political backdrop of 20th century India—one man’s life intricately interwoven with and paralleling the fortunes of his homeland.
jc_hall's Full Review: Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children
Born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1937, at the glorious moment of India’s Independence, Saleem Sinai was a marked child in more ways than one. Growing up in a well-to-do, if somewhat dysfunctional, family and acquiring a strange power to commune with the other children also born during that witching midnight hour, he comes to believe that his life has a higher purpose. What that purpose actually is, however, eludes him throughout his life, so that his aspirations and reality never quite reconcile. But the circumstances of his birth and the interesting times in which he lives lead him to believe that somehow his life and fate (and those of his family’s) are irrevocably intertwined with the fortunes of their homeland.
To illustrate this theory, he recounts the history of his family from the time of his grandfather, from Kashmir to Bombay to their brief sojourn in newly-created Pakistan and back again to India. Told against the backdrop of calamitous political history, Saleem’s family history takes on an intensity and pertinence, reflecting and at times underscoring historic events.
The author uses the device of the dying Saleem recounting his life-story to Padma, who is illiterate and socially inferior to him, but pragmatic and loving in her own no-nonsense way. An eager and ready listener, Padma does not scorn or judge, but does hurry him on at times when he seems too stretch out his tale to the point of frustration (both for her and for the reader). When Padma bids him speed up his story for fear he may die before he gets to tell of his birth, the reader is most favourably disposed towards her.
Having said that, the patient and persistent reader will be rewarded by a remarkable and even (for the most part) enjoyable read. Indeed, those with a working knowledge of 20th century Indian political history will surely relish Rushdie’s singular recounting of significant times, people, and events. But the rest of us will have a hard time following the intricacies of politics that play such an integral part in the story. Still, there is much to like, from Rushdie’s distinctive prose style to the humour inherent in much of his work. There’s also the magic realism (all the midnight children are imbued with magical gifts) that owes much to Hindu myth and lore.
Rushdie himself has said that Midnight’s Children is about the ‘collision of the individual and history’, an investigation into the relationship between a person and the times in which he lives. In essence, the author asks the eternal question, the ‘big subject that never goes away’—a person’s ability to control his fate.
“Are we the masters of our times or the victims? To what extent are we in control of our lives?” For those of us unfortunate enough to live in interesting times, the answer must be a qualified…“Are you kidding me?”
Midnight’s Children was chosen for the Booker Prize in 1981 and was subsequently picked in 1993 as the Booker of Bookers, judged the ‘best’ novel to win the award in its first 25 years.
A sprawling tale of one man’s struggle for love and prominence amid a socio-political landscape that overwhelms him at every turn, Midnight's Children is ambitious in scope and near-brilliant in execution. (A tighter edit by a fearless editor would have been nice.) But deserving of the Booker of Bookers? One would have to read a lot of nominated works to be able to come to a decision on that.
In the moments of upheaval that surround the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the day India proclaimed its independence from Great Britain, one ...More at HotBookSale
Born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India s independence, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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