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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Morality, judgement, character…it all starts with memory…and I am keeping carbons
The best part of this was the introduction. I loved Rushdie's sharp humor and looked forward to the rest of the book. Historical fiction, interesting country and culture, family saga, and great writing? Needless to say, I was massively let down. I hated reading this, I hated the experience of reading this. I do not think this is even worth reviewing but out of dogged loyalty to my future self who will want to know why I hated this, here I am. Really, I was so disappointed, considering this won the Best of the Booker Prize. The only way I got through this was by listening to the audiobook, whose narrator deserves commendation. It's such a wonderful audiobook and I recommend it.
Rushdie tells the story of Saleem Sinai, a child born on the stroke of midnight of India and Pakistan's partition. Him and other "midnight's children" are gifted with varying supernatural powers. Saleem's power is that he can communicated with all the other midnight's children. We follow him as he goes through the wheels of life: unknowingly adopted by a rich family, rich kid private school lifestyle, falling in love with an American girl, being orphaned, poverty, and finding his now-rich nanny. He tells us this retrospectively as he is physically cracking and fading away, probably as some sort of metaphor for India's patriotism or whatever.
Overall, this is an overwrought facsimile-metaphor for the history of India and Pakistan. Transparent and obvious figures of speech, uncreative, unenjoyable.... Hated this so much I resigned from reading highbrow lit for a while. Features the most circular smartass nonlinear narrative that goes absolutely nowhere and endears you to no one. I've read elsewhere that it is intentionally circular and difficult as it's supposed to make you feel the difficulties of India's history, which is fine. That's an artistic statement; but it does affect its success as an enjoyable book. It utilizes repetition, personifications of historical events, slight non-linearity, some fantastical elements, and grand old stereotypes. None of which I liked. Characters are so boring! If they were unlikeable, at least it'd be interesting, but no: they're just boring as hell, underdeveloped, and written as if there was zero appeal to engage. I found them one-note and obviously existing only as a figure of speech for whatever they're supposed to personify.
Did not enjoy or find value in this, but liked some quotes listed down below.
QUOTES:
Between the adored and the adorer lies the shadow.
the novel’s literary architecture
under the anesthetizing ministrations of love
We all owe death a life.
working beneath the saffron and green winking of my personal neon goddess.
bullying me back into the world of linear narrative, the universe of what-happened-next
whom he made the mistake of loving in fragments
where life has been transmuted into grotesquery by the irruption into it of history
Believe this if you can: the fraud has pronounced me whole!
What, then, is optimism? In fate or in chaos?
And his nose? What did that look like? Prominent? Yes, it must have been, the legacy of a patrician French grandmother- -from Ber-gerac!- whose blood ran aquamarinely in his veins and darkened his courtly charm with something crueller, some sweet murderous shade of absinthe.
our little piece-of-the-moon
To understand just one life, you have to swallow the whole world.
and now more and more of those multitudes are flooding into me
I have become, it seems to me, the apex of an isosceles triangle, supported equally by twin deities, the wild god of memory and the lotus god of the present…. but must I now become reconciled to the narrow one-dimensionality of a straight line?
they expect from me the immense dividend of greatness
the feasibility of the chutnification of history; the grand hope of the pickling of time!
The best part of this was the introduction. I loved Rushdie's sharp humor and looked forward to the rest of the book. Historical fiction, interesting country and culture, family saga, and great writing? Needless to say, I was massively let down. I hated reading this, I hated the experience of reading this. I do not think this is even worth reviewing but out of dogged loyalty to my future self who will want to know why I hated this, here I am. Really, I was so disappointed, considering this won the Best of the Booker Prize. The only way I got through this was by listening to the audiobook, whose narrator deserves commendation. It's such a wonderful audiobook and I recommend it.
Rushdie tells the story of Saleem Sinai, a child born on the stroke of midnight of India and Pakistan's partition. Him and other "midnight's children" are gifted with varying supernatural powers. Saleem's power is that he can communicated with all the other midnight's children. We follow him as he goes through the wheels of life: unknowingly adopted by a rich family, rich kid private school lifestyle, falling in love with an American girl, being orphaned, poverty, and finding his now-rich nanny. He tells us this retrospectively as he is physically cracking and fading away, probably as some sort of metaphor for India's patriotism or whatever.
Overall, this is an overwrought facsimile-metaphor for the history of India and Pakistan. Transparent and obvious figures of speech, uncreative, unenjoyable.... Hated this so much I resigned from reading highbrow lit for a while. Features the most circular smartass nonlinear narrative that goes absolutely nowhere and endears you to no one. I've read elsewhere that it is intentionally circular and difficult as it's supposed to make you feel the difficulties of India's history, which is fine. That's an artistic statement; but it does affect its success as an enjoyable book. It utilizes repetition, personifications of historical events, slight non-linearity, some fantastical elements, and grand old stereotypes. None of which I liked. Characters are so boring! If they were unlikeable, at least it'd be interesting, but no: they're just boring as hell, underdeveloped, and written as if there was zero appeal to engage. I found them one-note and obviously existing only as a figure of speech for whatever they're supposed to personify.
Did not enjoy or find value in this, but liked some quotes listed down below.
QUOTES:
Between the adored and the adorer lies the shadow.
the novel’s literary architecture
under the anesthetizing ministrations of love
We all owe death a life.
working beneath the saffron and green winking of my personal neon goddess.
bullying me back into the world of linear narrative, the universe of what-happened-next
whom he made the mistake of loving in fragments
where life has been transmuted into grotesquery by the irruption into it of history
Believe this if you can: the fraud has pronounced me whole!
What, then, is optimism? In fate or in chaos?
And his nose? What did that look like? Prominent? Yes, it must have been, the legacy of a patrician French grandmother- -from Ber-gerac!- whose blood ran aquamarinely in his veins and darkened his courtly charm with something crueller, some sweet murderous shade of absinthe.
our little piece-of-the-moon
To understand just one life, you have to swallow the whole world.
and now more and more of those multitudes are flooding into me
I have become, it seems to me, the apex of an isosceles triangle, supported equally by twin deities, the wild god of memory and the lotus god of the present…. but must I now become reconciled to the narrow one-dimensionality of a straight line?
they expect from me the immense dividend of greatness
the feasibility of the chutnification of history; the grand hope of the pickling of time!
This was a selection for my book club, and I think only one of us had finished it by the time we met. A couple more of us have continued plugging away, and I (TA-DAH!) finally completed it yesterday. To say that it was dense is an understatement. It's also an understatement to say that it is epic and a masterpiece. It's a work I am glad to have read, even if I can't really say I enjoyed it (the protagonist, Saleem, is just so...ewww); I can see why author Philip Lopate's response to the question "what book have you faked reading?" was "Midnight's Children."
If you look down the reviews for one by Marieke, s/he summarizes my response better than I ever could.
If you look down the reviews for one by Marieke, s/he summarizes my response better than I ever could.
Wanted to like this so bad. I know it’s critically acclaimed but it’s such a dull fkn read.
Never once found the story or characters intriguing. Only reason I got through this was because of the audiobook supplementing my reading.
The way the narrator talks about women is certainly… something. It was all just very aloof which wouldn’t be a bad thing if it was actually enticing.
The only reason it’s above 1 star is because it does teach history in a…. I’ll just say unique way. I certainly can’t say interesting.
(a generous) 1.5 stars ⭐️✨
Never once found the story or characters intriguing. Only reason I got through this was because of the audiobook supplementing my reading.
The way the narrator talks about women is certainly… something. It was all just very aloof which wouldn’t be a bad thing if it was actually enticing.
The only reason it’s above 1 star is because it does teach history in a…. I’ll just say unique way. I certainly can’t say interesting.
(a generous) 1.5 stars ⭐️✨
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
-Nidbilden av en narcissist.
-Rushdie saknar taktkänsla. Det känns som att lyssna på en låt som går i fel taktart.
-Störande blandning av "jag-form" och tredje form.
-Tendenser till utsvävningar som inte för historien vidare.
+ Magisk realism.
+ Handlingen.
-Rushdie saknar taktkänsla. Det känns som att lyssna på en låt som går i fel taktart.
-Störande blandning av "jag-form" och tredje form.
-Tendenser till utsvävningar som inte för historien vidare.
+ Magisk realism.
+ Handlingen.
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was.... interesting. Quite hard to get through, to be totally honest and while the concept was interesting, I got confused at points.
It was unlike anything I had ever read before. The narrators voice was present throughout the whole book and though his voice was a bit "all over the place", it made the book truly read like it was being written or thought of or spoken by this man and that gave it a bit more credence in my mind.
I don't want to give it two stars since it was not a bad book, but honestly, I hesitate to give it 3. I wanted to really like this book but i merely tolerated it.
I do like the descriptions and poignancy, though. The story was a river full of twists and turns and sharp corners that were hard to get through, but I'm glad I read it.
It was unlike anything I had ever read before. The narrators voice was present throughout the whole book and though his voice was a bit "all over the place", it made the book truly read like it was being written or thought of or spoken by this man and that gave it a bit more credence in my mind.
I don't want to give it two stars since it was not a bad book, but honestly, I hesitate to give it 3. I wanted to really like this book but i merely tolerated it.
I do like the descriptions and poignancy, though. The story was a river full of twists and turns and sharp corners that were hard to get through, but I'm glad I read it.