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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
This has been in my TBR list for as long as I can recall keeping one. The “disease of optimism” running from generation to generation pulls together the warm, fragrant bath of language and stories Rushdie draws as personal and national sagas are inextricably entwined. This gets a prime spot on the bookshelf of transcendent fiction.
The pickles of history: aware as I am that one can desperately see meaning where there is none, like all those lost causes who find Jesus inside a sliced loaf, and of ‘Trump derangement’, apparently the latest scourge of liberals (to add to all the other blights), I nevertheless find, among Rushdie’s cavalcade of larger-than-life characters, an irresistible parallel with the Big Jaffa: a knicker factory owner with liquidity problems:
“To sum up the ruination of Amina Brand Towels: Ahmed Sinai began treating his workers as peremptorily as once…he had mistreated his servants….as a result, his workforce walked out on him in droves…’I am not your latrine-cleaner, Sahib, I am qualified grade one weaver,’ and in general refusing to show proper gratitude for his having employed them in the first place…he let them all go and hired a bunch of ill-favoured slackers who…were willing to bow and scrape whenever required to do so, and the percentage of defective towels rocketed…Ahmed Sinai began bringing home mountains - Himalayas! - of reject towelling, because the factory warehouse was full to overflowing of the substandard product of his mismanagement, and took to drink again..and we had to squeeze sideways past the Everests and Nanga-Parbats of badly-made terrycloth which lined the passageways and hall.”
With these cases, the end is always in the beginning.
“To sum up the ruination of Amina Brand Towels: Ahmed Sinai began treating his workers as peremptorily as once…he had mistreated his servants….as a result, his workforce walked out on him in droves…’I am not your latrine-cleaner, Sahib, I am qualified grade one weaver,’ and in general refusing to show proper gratitude for his having employed them in the first place…he let them all go and hired a bunch of ill-favoured slackers who…were willing to bow and scrape whenever required to do so, and the percentage of defective towels rocketed…Ahmed Sinai began bringing home mountains - Himalayas! - of reject towelling, because the factory warehouse was full to overflowing of the substandard product of his mismanagement, and took to drink again..and we had to squeeze sideways past the Everests and Nanga-Parbats of badly-made terrycloth which lined the passageways and hall.”
With these cases, the end is always in the beginning.
My personal favorite of all of Rushdie's books. Midnight's Children was the catalyst for my current obsession with all books and films Indian. Gorgeous view of the country's people and politics with a fabulous dose of magic thrown in. Afterwards, I read a history of India and was so surprised by what I had actually already learned. But don't read this for the history, read it for the he characters, the poetry, the food ... delicious on every multi-generational level.
I have been wanting to read Salman Rushdie since hearing him speak and it was well worth it. Midnight’s Children is a slow 650-page read and is a wonderful jump into magical realism. Following Saleem Sinai, born at the stroke of midnight and at the exact moment of Indian Independence and two generations of his family. Saleem’s coincidental birth imbued him and the other 1000 children born between Midnight and 1am, powers which are used as he grows up to be part of various major historical events. While slow, this book was immense and well worth the effort given.
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For more reviews like this, Check out @myhonestbookreview on Instagram
When I was in high school in the fervor of all things Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, my teacher gave me To Kill a Mockingbird. This is a legitimately awesome book that changed my life - just not then. It wasn't good timing. It wasn't until after college that I returned to Maycomb and realized what I'd been missing.
I think it's the same with Midnight Children. I started reading it a few weeks after I started a new job and my brain was mostly too dead to appreciate this book. When it was awake and I was focused I loved it. It is funny, enlightening, and poignant. Unfortunately, I mostly read when I was tired before bed and my brain just didn't have the juice left to really do the story justice. I'm going to keep it on my shelf, though, and come back to it again sometime. There's greatness here, I just couldn't find it. It's not the book that's to blame, I don't think.
I think it's the same with Midnight Children. I started reading it a few weeks after I started a new job and my brain was mostly too dead to appreciate this book. When it was awake and I was focused I loved it. It is funny, enlightening, and poignant. Unfortunately, I mostly read when I was tired before bed and my brain just didn't have the juice left to really do the story justice. I'm going to keep it on my shelf, though, and come back to it again sometime. There's greatness here, I just couldn't find it. It's not the book that's to blame, I don't think.
Its a very interesting book with a brilliant idea, but it was too long, so wasnt the most fun to read. I still recommend it
There is no getting away from the fact that this is a huge book - huge in its word volume, huge in its wonderful use of the English language, huge in its scope, huge in its characters, in its styles of writing, huge in its diverse use of magic realism, and just like the huge country of India - completely chaotic. For all these reasons this has to be one of the most frustrating, difficult, annoying and crazy books I have ever read. I never thought about giving up, but I did have to relook at how I was to read and absorb this thing. After taking about 2 weeks to read about 100 pages I decided I had to treat this tome like a project. So I found some study notes on line - good old Sparks - and set myself the target of doing the thing chapter by chapter. It worked - nothing like taking small steps to achieve the end goal, and I am pleased that I saw it out to the end. But definitely not a book for the faint hearted.
So why did I persevere? Having lived in India for a short period of time, and being there when it celebrated 60 years of independence, this book has been on my very long list of must reads. And Salman Rushdie, as the winner of two Booker Prizes, as well as the Booker of Bookers, plus being considered one of the most influential and controversial writers of the twentieth century, is an author I felt I should read. When in India I had read the really quite amazing book he wrote for his young son from whom he was separated while in hiding after the fallout from 'The Satanic Verses'. 'Haroun and the Sea of Stories' is one of the most stunning stories I have read - it really is magical and an absolute gem to read with a child.
So I thought 'Midnight's Children' - should be a doddle. Oh no, how wrong I was! There is so much of 'Haroun' in 'Midnight's Children' - the guy is a genius with his word pictures and his captivating writing. It is mesmerizing to read. But there is just so much of it that it is hard at times to keep track of the story, or where the characters are, even who they are and what they are doing.
Midnight's Children are the children born between midnight and 1am on the night of 15 August 1947. (Salman Rushdie himself was born in 1947.) The first born baby was Saleem Sinai who is the main character, either as the narrator or being narrated about. There were 1001 (as in the Arabian Nights - the book is a tsumami of symbolism, drawn from the 300 million Hindu Gods, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, Indian mythology) babies born during this hour who are all blessed with some sort of magic power. Saleem, being the closest to midnight has the greatest powers of all - the ability to reach into the minds of all the others and communicate with them. The story of Saleem and his family parallels the story of modern India/Pakistan/Bangladesh from the end of World War I until the 1980s. It also traverses huge portions of the India subcontinent beginning in Kashmir, moving to Delhi, Agra, Bombay, Pakistan, Bangladesh and various other places. The transition from British colony to fully independent and functional democracy has not been easy or straightforward, and the book is full of the darker chapters in modern India's history - Partition itself, ongoing Muslim/Hindu conflict especially in Kashmir, the Bangladeshi war, Prime Minister Ghandi's sterilization programmes and suppression of opposition elements.
It is not a pretty story. But nevertheless I am glad I have read it, it has further broadened my understanding of this extremely complex region and population known as the Indian sub continent. If you decide to read this - take some notes with you.
So why did I persevere? Having lived in India for a short period of time, and being there when it celebrated 60 years of independence, this book has been on my very long list of must reads. And Salman Rushdie, as the winner of two Booker Prizes, as well as the Booker of Bookers, plus being considered one of the most influential and controversial writers of the twentieth century, is an author I felt I should read. When in India I had read the really quite amazing book he wrote for his young son from whom he was separated while in hiding after the fallout from 'The Satanic Verses'. 'Haroun and the Sea of Stories' is one of the most stunning stories I have read - it really is magical and an absolute gem to read with a child.
So I thought 'Midnight's Children' - should be a doddle. Oh no, how wrong I was! There is so much of 'Haroun' in 'Midnight's Children' - the guy is a genius with his word pictures and his captivating writing. It is mesmerizing to read. But there is just so much of it that it is hard at times to keep track of the story, or where the characters are, even who they are and what they are doing.
Midnight's Children are the children born between midnight and 1am on the night of 15 August 1947. (Salman Rushdie himself was born in 1947.) The first born baby was Saleem Sinai who is the main character, either as the narrator or being narrated about. There were 1001 (as in the Arabian Nights - the book is a tsumami of symbolism, drawn from the 300 million Hindu Gods, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, Indian mythology) babies born during this hour who are all blessed with some sort of magic power. Saleem, being the closest to midnight has the greatest powers of all - the ability to reach into the minds of all the others and communicate with them. The story of Saleem and his family parallels the story of modern India/Pakistan/Bangladesh from the end of World War I until the 1980s. It also traverses huge portions of the India subcontinent beginning in Kashmir, moving to Delhi, Agra, Bombay, Pakistan, Bangladesh and various other places. The transition from British colony to fully independent and functional democracy has not been easy or straightforward, and the book is full of the darker chapters in modern India's history - Partition itself, ongoing Muslim/Hindu conflict especially in Kashmir, the Bangladeshi war, Prime Minister Ghandi's sterilization programmes and suppression of opposition elements.
It is not a pretty story. But nevertheless I am glad I have read it, it has further broadened my understanding of this extremely complex region and population known as the Indian sub continent. If you decide to read this - take some notes with you.
very hard to get into for me, I feel bad because everyone says it's great but the writing style is really hard for me to follow.