Midnight's Children: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)

Midnight’s Children could be called a not so distant cousin of A Thousand Years of Solitude. It stands on its own, of course, but what I mean is that there is a world, an epic, a history all inscribed within the pages of both novels. Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County would be an American equivalent.

Midnight’s Children is regarded as so essential to Indian literature that South Asian critics regularly describe eras as pre and post Rushdie.

If you haven’t read it, it tells the story of India, from just before Independence into the Indira Gandhi era, through the allegorical fictional events that occur to its protagonist. As a conceit, it’s brilliant —both in terms of originality and execution.

Those who remember or know about this era in Indian history will not be surprised by its cynical tone. Everything from Indian religions to politics to the economy is subject to subtle, and not so subtle, ridicule. Perhaps if Rushdie were to write about India in the twenty first century this would have been a completely different work.

But as Rushdie says, the temptation to write history as we wish and not how it was is simply that—a temptation. The difficult beginnings of the modern Indian state cannot be swept under the proverbial rug.

However, it’s a book worth reading beyond those interested in South Asian studies. The play between the disasters of the hero and the disasters of India actually reach beyond the subcontinent to achieve universal resonance. I personally didn’t like the digs at religion and the dark humor employed in describing mass suffering, but these are matters on which mature readers will differ. Paradoxically, I believe, that as India becomes a richer and more powerful nation, this work describing the trauma of its youth will become only more and more important. It doesn’t need any props from me, but still highly recommended.

Having red the "Satanic Verses" a few years ago I definitely waited too long to pick up "The Midnigt's Children". For anybody who can appreciate the literature and prefers a gourmet meal to chicken fried steak- stop reading reviews and start this book right now- it is a masterpiece.

BTW - to those who give it three stars or fewer- I can only hope that they write something better and show us what a good novel should be- forgive my sarcasm.

Initially the book may not be the easiest too read, as although the story is told mostly in chronological manner, it is interwoven with obscure at the time glimpses of the future. In Rushdie's world everything is connected, no thing is too small or inconsequential. Ideas, objects and small events initially loosely connected shape Saleem's life. As the story develops everything starts coming together, making sense, no longer obscure. Therefore the book becomes easier and easier to read and even more engaging the further you get into it.

The reality and fantasy are tied together in this novel- typically for this author, fantasy serves to highlight and magnify the reality.

The life of the protagonist, Saleem Sinai is magically tied to the life of the nation as he is born in the exact moment when India is born as a nation independent from the British rule. In the same hour 1000 of other children possessing supernatural abilities are born in India.

Some say that the idea of magical children is not fully utilized by the author or perhaps even unnecessary, as the reality of the times is captivating enough. This is debatable, but in any case don't expect the magical children fighting villains, this is not Avengers or Fantastic 4. The extraordinary abilities of the children are more a curse and a source of misfortunes than they are a blessing as the world is not ready for them.

Superstition, backwardness of the adults, causes them to pass the suffering on the children. The adults "make children the vessels into which they pour their poisons" of unhappiness, prejudice and intolerance. As the protagonist grows up, the insults from surrounding him adults and his own peers are replaced by much worse mayhem unleashed on him and the whole nation by the politicians and tyrants.

As such the broken life and body of the midnight's child becomes a mirror of what happens to the fractured nation, divided by languages, religions and political ambitions. In this aspect the novel is a powerful accusation and the author takes no prisoners, historical figures even the reverend ones come under the fire of his literary weapons. Even though the optimism of the people is shown as a disease and completely unjustified the author leaves room for a sliver of hope- symbolized by the little Aadam.

The use of visions, prophecies, colors, objects loaded with meanings, historical events and psychological insights along with rich and almost poetic prose create a book that is full of impact and should not be passed.

It's taken me all this time to pick up my first Salmon Rushdie novel. What a writer and what an imagination!

The writing is brilliant -- fun, humorous, fantastical, entertaining, ambitious and meticulous. I, alas, fall far short of being a brilliant writer, so I'm not going to be able to capture the magic of his writing for you. But, I can give you a great tip: sample this book. Now. Just do it. Amazon will let Prime Customers (all customers??) download a sample that will either have you in agreement or waste a small amount of your time.

Do yourself a favor. Just do it. It will cost you nothing and may well prove to be for you what it has been for me -- a memorable and sublime reading experience.

You read this all the way through. Silly you. You could have been reading "Midnight's Children." I read the first chapter aloud to my wife. This second reading pleased her and showed me how much I had missed on my first reading. I put this book right up there with my favorites: Catch-22 (deadly serious and uproariously funny), almost anything by Mark Twain, The Magus (a page-turner that delivered) , The Sound and the Fury, Harry the Rat with Women (a perfect short novel), The Stranger, Interview with a Vampire (the last chapter wowed me), The Naked and the Dead, the fast-paced novels of David Morrell, the wise-cracking investigator of Plum Island, and War and Peace (which I probably would never have read had it not been for a course). And, darn it, I know I've left out many others that I've found exceptional for one reason or another -- such as much of Saul Bellows, Shogun (which blind-sided me by turning around my first impressions when I wasn't looking) The Grapes of Wrath (with its innumerable outstanding vignettes), Our Town (my favorite play, especially with Hal Holbrook in his finest performance) and . . .

Although Midnight’s Children is proclaimed as Rushdie’s masterpiece, I did not enjoy it as much as I did Shalimar the Clown. It’s epic in its scale and ambition. There is so much here it may be difficult for some readers (myself included) to digest it all. There are a staggering number of minor characters, all realized with Rushdie’s customary skill. There are many passages of brilliance, wit, and wisdom. But these multitudinous characters slither in and out of the narrative making it difficult at times to follow, particularly considering that a novel of this length and complexity does not lend itself to a reading of one, or even just a few sittings. It is in the form of a three-volume “confession” by the narrator, Saleem Sinai, who is born at the exact midnight moment of India’s birth as a nation (hence the novel’s title), to his consort and fiancé, Padma. To add to the difficulties many of the characters have multiple names.

Rushdie employs some literary devices that detracted from my enjoyment of the novel. At times it almost seemed as if he was indulging in technique for technique’s sake. One device is repetition. For instance, there’s constant thematic repetition of “knees and nose, nose and knees”, Saleem being the nose and his arch-enemy and rival, Shiva, being the knees. After a while my response was I get it, their fates are intertwined, but I don’t get why I need to read this formula yet again (maybe I don’t get it? I’m not even quite sure why the formula couldn’t be reversed. Are knees aggressive and the nose sensuous? A lot of hammering on one nail.) Another is Rushdie’s use of obscure vocabulary without any clear purpose that I can understand (even when I understand the words without looking them up). For example the words apocrine and eccrine keep popping up in the narrative without any clear reference (at least to me).

Another problem I had, particularly with Volume 3 (spoiler alert – don’t read further if you want to remain in suspense), is where we learn of the identity of “the Widow”, who is the villain of the piece. It’s Indira Gandhi. The anti-Gandhi theme introduced here seems a bit overheated. Although Indira Gandhi did do some bad things, particularly the suspension of democracy during the “Emergency” of 1975-77, which is the background for a significant part of Volume 3, they seem pretty small beer when compared with the great historical crimes of the twentieth century. In fact she seems not obviously better or worse than many of the Prime Ministers India has experienced before and afterwards. So the tone of outrage and focus on her as the villainous “Widow”, while it may have been understandable from Rushdie’s perspective at the time Midnight’s Children was completed (1979), seems rather dated.

All that said it would be unfair not to note that there are many passages in Midnight’s Children of great beauty and wisdom. Rushdie is unparalleled in capturing the sweep of life in India and Pakistan (and Bangladesh) and his genius for this is at its most expressive in this novel. He is also a writer of great learning and knowledge of what he writes -- knowledge which is fully on display here (in a good sense). The Bombay of which he writes is the Bombay of his own childhood; he himself was born in 1947, the year of India’s independence, the same as Saleem, the “hero” of the piece. Along the way, he gives us all sectors of Indian society, from the wealthy and privileged to the underclasses, and he does it with a true novelist’s eye (and nose!) for the telling detail and without editorializing. He succeeds in interweaving the private incidents in the lives of the characters he has created with historical events of the period: from the early part of the twentieth century to the late 70s, when the book was completed. It’s just a shame that because of their sheer number we don’t get to know some of them better. But maybe that’s inherent in Rushdie’s method; he himself has acknowledged his debt to Charles Dickens, and I guess one should no more expect to probe the depths of Nussie the Duck’s or Parvati-the-Witch’s psyches any more than those of Mr. Micawber or “Barkis is willing”.

I had never read any of Salman Rusdie's work until this novel. (I was told this was a good place to start with Rushdie.) I admired very much the ambition of MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN. Rushdie is to be commended for trying to write a great book. He almost did it. The first half is really vivid and enthralling. Rushdie's prose is truly winged. However, somewhere about halfway through the novel (about the time the narrator leaves Pakistan), I lost interest and the rest of the book became a chore to finish. There really wasn't much of a payoff either, considering all the time invested in reading such a thick book. I think MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN would have been a much stronger book had it been pruned by at least a third. There were also too many loose ends for my taste. I'm glad I read the book though, and I think I have a pretty good idea of Rushdie's strengths and weaknesses as a writer now. It's not a bad book, but it's far from being a masterpiece.