Midnight's Children (Vintage Classics)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Before Salman Rushdie had that problem with a certain religious-political figure with a serious need to chill out, he'd already shown he was an important literary force. Quite simply, Midnight's Children is amazing--fun, beautiful, erudite, both fairy tale and political narrative told through a supernatural narrator who is caught between different worlds. Though it's a big book, with big themes of India's nationhood and of ethnic and personal identity, it's far from a dry history lesson. Rushdie tells the story in his own brand of magical realism, with a prose of lyrical, transcendent goofiness.
Review
" Extraordinary . . . one of the most important [novels] to come out of the English-speaking world in this generation."
- The New York Review of Books
" The literary map of India is about to be redrawn. . . . Midnight's Children sounds like a continent finding its voice."
- The New York Times
" In Salman Rushdie, India has produced a glittering novelist- one with startling imaginative and intellectual resources, a master of perpetual storytelling."
- The New Yorker
" A marvelous epic . . . Rushdie's prose snaps into playback and flash-forward . . . stopping on images, vistas, and characters of unforgettable presence. Their range is as rich as India herself."
- Newsweek
" Burgeons with life, with exuberance and fantasy . . . Rushdie is a writer of courage, impressive strength, and sheer stylistic brilliance."
- The Washington Post Book World
" Pure story- an ebullient, wildly clowning, satirical, descriptively witty charge of energy."
- Chicago Sun-Times
- The New York Review of Books
" The literary map of India is about to be redrawn. . . . Midnight's Children sounds like a continent finding its voice."
- The New York Times
" In Salman Rushdie, India has produced a glittering novelist- one with startling imaginative and intellectual resources, a master of perpetual storytelling."
- The New Yorker
" A marvelous epic . . . Rushdie's prose snaps into playback and flash-forward . . . stopping on images, vistas, and characters of unforgettable presence. Their range is as rich as India herself."
- Newsweek
" Burgeons with life, with exuberance and fantasy . . . Rushdie is a writer of courage, impressive strength, and sheer stylistic brilliance."
- The Washington Post Book World
" Pure story- an ebullient, wildly clowning, satirical, descriptively witty charge of energy."
- Chicago Sun-Times
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
90 of 96 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like many, I intially read this at University and didn't really enjoy it, but there is a huge gulf between reading and studying and when I came across it again on a forgotten book shelf I thought, "Well, it won the Booker of Bookers, I must've missed something." With this in mind, I read it again and oh, my goodness, I'm glad I did. I certainly missed something. Actually, I missed rather a lot (and not just lectures).
Midnight's Children deserves a place alongside One Hundred Years of Solitude as one of the finest examples of Magic Realism. It is allegorical, reflecting India's development as a country and more loosely Rushdie's own childhood, but the books stands up as a piece of writing in its own merit. The writing is vibrant; the (many) characters are well-observed; the humour is delightful; and the story is melancholy and touching in places but is stuffed with examples of Rushdie's elegant style.
To me, it is more than just an allegory for the birth and development of a nation, it is more than a great piece of writing; Midnight's Children has become an evocative depiction of how we seek to find things to lift ourselves from the futility of existence, to separate ourselves from the normal. By way of example, I give you Saleem's birth. It is normal in every way apart from the accident of timing that gives the book its title but it's the way he uses this accident of timing to lift his existence away from the mundane that I love.
Finishing this book left me hollow and a little lost. In short, I loved it and have subsequently read it again and again. Rushdie has done nothing that matches this. I doubt he, or anyone, can.
Midnight's Children deserves a place alongside One Hundred Years of Solitude as one of the finest examples of Magic Realism. It is allegorical, reflecting India's development as a country and more loosely Rushdie's own childhood, but the books stands up as a piece of writing in its own merit. The writing is vibrant; the (many) characters are well-observed; the humour is delightful; and the story is melancholy and touching in places but is stuffed with examples of Rushdie's elegant style.
To me, it is more than just an allegory for the birth and development of a nation, it is more than a great piece of writing; Midnight's Children has become an evocative depiction of how we seek to find things to lift ourselves from the futility of existence, to separate ourselves from the normal. By way of example, I give you Saleem's birth. It is normal in every way apart from the accident of timing that gives the book its title but it's the way he uses this accident of timing to lift his existence away from the mundane that I love.
Finishing this book left me hollow and a little lost. In short, I loved it and have subsequently read it again and again. Rushdie has done nothing that matches this. I doubt he, or anyone, can.
62 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Four and a half stars.
This was my first Rushdie book. A multilayered, multifaceted book. The story of "Saleem Sinai, later variously called Snotnose, Stainface, Baldy, Buddha and even Piece-of-the-Moon.." who was born at midnight, the precise moment of independence for his country, India. And 'thanks to the occult tyrannies those blandly saluting clocks" he was "mysteriously handcuffed to history". His story is the immortalisation of his memories, the "chutnification of history", "the pickling of time". It is the story of a nation finding it's identity, of impressions and memories, of people and events, of families and more.
This was my first Rushdie book. A multilayered, multifaceted book. The story of "Saleem Sinai, later variously called Snotnose, Stainface, Baldy, Buddha and even Piece-of-the-Moon.." who was born at midnight, the precise moment of independence for his country, India. And 'thanks to the occult tyrannies those blandly saluting clocks" he was "mysteriously handcuffed to history". His story is the immortalisation of his memories, the "chutnification of history", "the pickling of time". It is the story of a nation finding it's identity, of impressions and memories, of people and events, of families and more.
But it is Rushdie's fantastical, magical prose that brings the book to life, colours, sights and especially smells, like you've never experienced before. It is not necessarily an easy read, for at least the first fifty pages I couldn't get it, but then something clicked and I just immersed myself in the wonderful text. Some of the passages I read again and again to savour the intricacies. It won't be everyone's idea of a good read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and believe that I will enjoy it more when I come back the second time.
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Whilst it is through 'The Satanic Verses' that Rushdie has received most of his media and public attention I feel that it is around this book that any literary praise should be centred. It is this book that won the 1981 Booker Prize (and was subsiquently voted "Booker of Bookers") and it is in 'Midnight's Children' that the reader sees the true mastery of Rushdie's writing. His ability to blend magical fantasy with the stark realism of Post-colonial India is breath-taking; the dexterity with which he manipulates the english language is stunning.
It seems that this novel is often overlooked because of the controversy surrounding 'The Satanic Verses';whilst I am the first person to review this book, there are 13 reviews for the Verses. I strongly recommend that anyone thinking about reading Rushdie starts with 'Midnight's Children'. It is a novel drenched in the atmosphere of India which draws you into the centre of the sprawling continent. In my opinion, it is Rushdie's great, although often forgotten, masterpiece.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Rushdie writes clumsy English
I like to finish the books I start...this book I only got through a few chapters because the English was so awkward to read. Rushdie's writing does not flow, his language jars. Read more
Published 4 days ago by SACB
Remaking the "imaginary homelands"
This is a very challenging book for the every day reader, definitely not an airport novel to skim through pleasantly. Oh no. Read more
Published 1 month ago by archibaldb
Midnight's Children Review
You could call this novel hardwork and the sheer volume of observed/researched data from India's historical landscape can be cumbersome and the language felt overly parochial at... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. Dean Evans
A hard read
I read this book whilst on a visit to India. It informed me about the country during an important time in its relatively recent history. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ian
Rich and beautiful but too cold for me
The language is as multi-layered and detailed as a Klimt, the imagery, rich and dense as Christmas cake - there's no doubt Midnight's Children is a unique and remarkable book, but... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Book Critic
I think needs to be read twice to fully appreciate it
Once I downloaded the book and I started to read it my heart sank when I realised the novel was an example of 'Magic Realism'. Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. Willis
Brilliant!
This book is fantastic. It tells the tale of Saleem, whose life and family history are intimately tied to the story of his nation. Read more
Published 6 months ago by AG
a book for literary appreciation, not for enjoyment
I bought this because I am a fan of Booker winners and I always meant to read a Salman Rushdie book. I was seriously under-impressed. Read more
Published 6 months ago by ninjapiano'smum
Majestic
This is a challenging, twisting tale that talls the story of Saleem and the Country whose life he reflects. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Christian
Midnight's Children
If you want to read a classic set in India then try Vikram Seth's excellent 'A Suitable Boy'. For easy reading, John Master's 'Bhowani Junction' is also highly entertaining. Read more
Published 10 months ago by PAllen
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