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green_lo 's review for:
Midnight's Children
by Salman Rushdie
I managed to smuggle a copy from Nepal. Funny how such an undeveloped country, a scarred product of a coup only ten years past, is less restrictive when it comes to censorship issues than the U.A.E., which currently boasts the tallest building in the world (by far). Perhaps that's an unfair comparison, since Nepal is by no means even remotely a Muslim country; there would be little offense on that front. And it may be fair to say that Nepal is not a big fan of her neighbor India!
Anyway, I will have to give this book a lot of serious thought, and I'll probably have to give it the second or third read that it requires and deserves. It certainly didn't win the "Booker of Bookers" for nothing. I'm afraid it raises a new standard for my own judgments!
Complexity of a Dickens novel... and the historical relevance. I will have to read up more on India's tumultuous 20th century history in order to gain a proper perspective. Let's just say that the novel's scope is vast, and no one is left innocent. Sets the stage for the enmity between India and Pakistan, and the parallels between the main character, Saleem, and the birth of India's independence are fascinating without being a 1:1 allegorical ratio. Often, allegory can become tiresome, used as a blanket to hide a lack of vision. Or a refusal to accept the real world and its greys. Midnight's Children never resorts to literary tricks.
Again, it deserves another read. But it is clearly one of the most important books of the 20th century, and not to be missed.
Anyway, I will have to give this book a lot of serious thought, and I'll probably have to give it the second or third read that it requires and deserves. It certainly didn't win the "Booker of Bookers" for nothing. I'm afraid it raises a new standard for my own judgments!
Complexity of a Dickens novel... and the historical relevance. I will have to read up more on India's tumultuous 20th century history in order to gain a proper perspective. Let's just say that the novel's scope is vast, and no one is left innocent. Sets the stage for the enmity between India and Pakistan, and the parallels between the main character, Saleem, and the birth of India's independence are fascinating without being a 1:1 allegorical ratio. Often, allegory can become tiresome, used as a blanket to hide a lack of vision. Or a refusal to accept the real world and its greys. Midnight's Children never resorts to literary tricks.
Again, it deserves another read. But it is clearly one of the most important books of the 20th century, and not to be missed.