A review by sammiseah
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Booker Prize 1981

Booker of Bookers 1993

Best of the Booker 2008

And I struggled. Constant struggle. Struggletown.

It didn’t help that I was reading this 600+ page tome on my daily commute, trying to read ~20 pages on every train/bus journey. And that was exacerbated by the fact that every single character had multiple different names - name changes, nicknames etc etc. I was also exasperated by the fact that the main character only appears after ~200 pages? 

🤣

I have to say that the narrative was intricately woven and the idiosyncrasies of every character were astounding. But sometimes books signpost where they are going, and this one really didn’t. I spent the entire book going “?!??!?!???” in my head 😅

Perhaps my shortcomings are the reason for my lack of enjoyment. I didn’t have a good understanding of Indian history and of Indian culture, and I do feel that that might have helped me appreciate the book a little more. 

All in all, it was an Experience. I’m glad that I read it, although definitely no more Rushdie books for me for the foreseeable future. I also kinda see how The Satanic Verses might have pissed people off (if it was indeed in a similar style), and I would still be curious to read it someday (far in the future lol).