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3.25 AVERAGE
3.25 AVERAGE
It felt like this book took me months to read, but I guess it was only weeks. It grabbed me at first but I largely lost interest about halfway through. Honestly if I weren't doing a reading challenge I probably would have stopped reading it. Rushdie is brilliant and his language is captivating. I finally figured out what turned me off. The book is written as a history and because of that there's no real plot and everything is delivered from a distance, like a textbook -- no dialogue, no immediacy, just description of events whose outcomes are long past.
I struggled with this one. Maybe my knowledge of the story it's based on is too limited. Book club girls, we will chat soon!
I tried, but this is just not my kind of book. I don't even understand the genre. Magical realism?? Isn't that an oxymoron?
Magically realistic, although falling further into the realm of magic, Sir Salman's allegorical foray takes what feels like 1,000 nights to set up, and one to bring to resolution. Certainly a wonderful read, but not his best by a long lightning bolt.
I have been meaning to read some Salman Rushdie for years. The Satantic Verses to be sure because it's a classic, but I have also been really intrigued by Midnight's Children for a while.
This book popped up on my Audible when I was browsing for a new audio book, and because of said previous interest, I chose it. It sounded like it would totally be my kind of thing, the idea of this fantasy world intersecting with the "real" world. The children of a jinn suddenly realizing what they are.
Something about this just didn't work for me. It seems to have worked for many other people given the reviews, so I'm willing to say it's not you, Salman Rushdie, it's me. Partially it's that I felt like I was reading some sort of Biblical-historical retelling of an event. Partially it's that I never found a character I cared about what happened to him or her. I felt really... detached from the whole thing. Those jinns could have destroyed the entire world and it wouldn't have affected me one way or the other.
So while this book contained some beautiful writing and possibly a good story, it just wasn't for me. Kudos to all who read and loved this.
This book popped up on my Audible when I was browsing for a new audio book, and because of said previous interest, I chose it. It sounded like it would totally be my kind of thing, the idea of this fantasy world intersecting with the "real" world. The children of a jinn suddenly realizing what they are.
Something about this just didn't work for me. It seems to have worked for many other people given the reviews, so I'm willing to say it's not you, Salman Rushdie, it's me. Partially it's that I felt like I was reading some sort of Biblical-historical retelling of an event. Partially it's that I never found a character I cared about what happened to him or her. I felt really... detached from the whole thing. Those jinns could have destroyed the entire world and it wouldn't have affected me one way or the other.
So while this book contained some beautiful writing and possibly a good story, it just wasn't for me. Kudos to all who read and loved this.
This was not my favorite. I had some issues, but overall, I just can't get enough of Rushdie. I love the thought and care that is put into the story telling and spinning of tales.
I didn't particularly care for any of the characters in his novel. I thought them rather uninteresting. There were a few sideline characters that I really did enjoy though.
Why this move wins in my book, is two fold. One, I believe everything is intentional, carefully thought out and placed. Rushdie novels always take me time to digest his words, and I'm okay with that. There is a beauty to his writing that I love to take my time with. He also is great at weaving stories within stories, so he forces you to read carefully.
Next, the message. Basically, it all boils down to a battle between good and evil. The "good" promote rationalism, the "bad" are those that are absolutist, religious, and God-fearing-- in other words, the "irrational." In the end, (***SPOILER, albeit an obvious one***) the good side wins.
But what I think is great about it is (***Spoiler**, of a less obvious sort) that with the triumph of rationality, comes the loss of dreams. Literally, the descendants left in the wake of this "good vs evil" battle, do not dream anymore. I thought this was great, because even though Rushdie is constantly pushing us to side with rationalism- he ends his tale with, what I think, is a little give or take. To completely give yourself up to rationality, can have its own consequences. The loss of creativity, imagination, dreams. Maybe the message is that the world needs a balance. The irrational, can sometimes lead to destruction, can also lend itself to the imagination. Art, creativity, positivity, hope, passion, love... These things aren't always rational. What do we become if we lose the ability to create, to hope, to dream?
I didn't particularly care for any of the characters in his novel. I thought them rather uninteresting. There were a few sideline characters that I really did enjoy though.
Why this move wins in my book, is two fold. One, I believe everything is intentional, carefully thought out and placed. Rushdie novels always take me time to digest his words, and I'm okay with that. There is a beauty to his writing that I love to take my time with. He also is great at weaving stories within stories, so he forces you to read carefully.
Next, the message. Basically, it all boils down to a battle between good and evil. The "good" promote rationalism, the "bad" are those that are absolutist, religious, and God-fearing-- in other words, the "irrational." In the end, (***SPOILER, albeit an obvious one***) the good side wins.
But what I think is great about it is (***Spoiler**, of a less obvious sort) that with the triumph of rationality, comes the loss of dreams. Literally, the descendants left in the wake of this "good vs evil" battle, do not dream anymore. I thought this was great, because even though Rushdie is constantly pushing us to side with rationalism- he ends his tale with, what I think, is a little give or take. To completely give yourself up to rationality, can have its own consequences. The loss of creativity, imagination, dreams. Maybe the message is that the world needs a balance. The irrational, can sometimes lead to destruction, can also lend itself to the imagination. Art, creativity, positivity, hope, passion, love... These things aren't always rational. What do we become if we lose the ability to create, to hope, to dream?
I picked this up on a whim after hearing decent reviews about it and knowing that the author is a well respected one.
I'll keep this short because I don't want to spend any more time on this book than I already have - I didn't understand what Rushdie wanted to say with this book. That's why I'm giving it two stars instead of one. I listened to all nine discs and realized at the end of disc two that I wish I were the kind of person who could just stop reading something without finishing it.
When if I took the story at face value and ignored whatever deeper meaning may be underneath that I just didn't understand, the story itself is nothing more than a cat of characters who I couldn't keep track of, who I didn't care about, and who did nothing but sleep with one another.
By the time I got to the epilogue I was driving white knuckled, waiting with anticipation for it to finally be over.
I'll keep this short because I don't want to spend any more time on this book than I already have - I didn't understand what Rushdie wanted to say with this book. That's why I'm giving it two stars instead of one. I listened to all nine discs and realized at the end of disc two that I wish I were the kind of person who could just stop reading something without finishing it.
When if I took the story at face value and ignored whatever deeper meaning may be underneath that I just didn't understand, the story itself is nothing more than a cat of characters who I couldn't keep track of, who I didn't care about, and who did nothing but sleep with one another.
By the time I got to the epilogue I was driving white knuckled, waiting with anticipation for it to finally be over.
I would highly recommend this book...as a sleep aid. Every time I picked it up to read, no matter the time of day, I would fall asleep. It had intriguing elements, but the plot flat lined. I usually don't mind wordy, but Rushdie's writing style makes my head hurt. I did find it allegorical to modern events but there was nothing redemptive in this story for me.
I enjoyed this more than anticipated, but it didn't move me the way his previous work has. This felt like an experiment in a kind of scifi-myth crossover that didn't quite work. It was unique, fun, and insightful. It just didn't gel quite as well as say something by NK Jemisin - because it was lacking that thing that propels most scifi and fantasy work - world-building consistency. There's no doubt Rushdie knows how to build a world, but this one felt at odds with itself because it wanted to be both a genre-bending novel while holding to lit fic principles. It was steeped both in past religions and future speculations. I liked the attempt to carve out a new space in visions of the future - one that was informed by something more than Western rationality or techno-orientalism - but the mesh of styles and temporalities didn't quite come together.