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Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children: Adapted for the Theatre by Salman Rushdie, Simon Reade and Tim Supple (Modern Library Paperbacks) | |||||||
 
| 80% Recommended by our customers. Publisher: Modern Library Catalog: Book Release date: 2003-02-18 Media: Paperback Number of pages: 144 Ean: 9780812969030 Book Isbn: 0812969030  Tip: compare prices with similar booksAuthor:
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 Written on February 2, 2008 Summary: The Magic of India Rushdie employs magical realism to unveil the soul of India. An incredible fiction that tells the true story of India's birth as a nation. I read the book years ago, and then felt it come to life as I spent 6 months wandering around India. A work of art, and one of my favorite books ever. Written on January 28, 2008 Summary: Classic Prose, Great Allegory [100][90][T] Dipping into controversial and expansive review of India's nouveau independence, Rushdie's autobiographical recitation (in fiction) of protagonist nasal-telepathic Saleem Sinai bestows lessons and conjures imagination. Some novelists have received acclaim for making allegory through adventure - Coello for "The Alchemist" or Kosinski for "The Painted Bird." As great as those novels are, neither has the depth of review that this novel has. And, much to Rushdie's credit, this adventure intertwines with real events of the recent histories of India and Pakistan - thereby making it more relevant to those who lived or have heard about the many historical references contained throughout this book. Being an American usually means reading little about the history or culture of India. We are ignorant of their struggles - and this book enlivens us to a certain degree - such that the reader can conclude from reading this book that this country has struggled as greatly since its independence from Britain, than it did under British rule. Forster's portrait of British degradation of India in "A Passage to India" made westerners believe that Gandhi's plight was both necessary and inevitable. This book tells us that freedom from British rule did not necessarily deliver better karma or even sounder ruling. The "Emergency" of Indira Gandhi delivers an appalling caricature of Indians being cruel to Indians - as Saleem must be emasculated by the ruling party's dictate - for reasons no more discernable than the German holocaust or any other genocide. This book travels chronologically from Saleem's grandparents' romance to his 31st birthday. Saleem lives an incredible life -worthy of this book's size. His life - or really his son's life - is encapsulated in one sentence: "He was the child of a father who was not his father; but also the child of a time which damaged reality so badly that no one managed to put it together again; He was the true great-grandson of his great-grandfather. . ." It makes nonsense until you read the book - then this statement is both valid and true. Amid this adventure we meet snake charmers, a succubus wet nurse, a witch, a 512-year old prostitute - as well as typical western literature characters, e.g. a man who shoots his wife and her lover, a corrupt general, and a son who kills his father out of pure hatred. This is a thoroughly drawn portrait of a literary character. Amassing 445 pages in my hardback edition - each page having approximately 550 words - it is a long read. And, Rushdie's swirling writing style, where he touches upon a topic and a few paragraphs or pages later descends upon that same topic with more resonance or more detail, can leave readers feeling half empty at times as the complete description will not come to light until a later time. This is not a quick read. This is not easy reading. But, this is worthwhile reading. Rushdie writes with great literary style. Full of metaphors and complete with magical insight, this book is understandably incorporated by many universities' English departments  Written on October 16, 2007 Summary: Tedious and boring I wanted to read a Rushdie book and I've heard this book being called the "Booker of the Bookers" (referring to the prize). Rusdie's writing may be poetic and beautiful, but it is hard to trudge through this fairly long book. Furthermore, Midnight's Children is not particularly educational as far as Indian history and culture. The author may deserve his great reputation for his writing style but don't expect to be entertained. Reading this book made me feel like I was back in highschool and reading a required book for English class. My apologies to literature lovers who may consider me a philistine. Written on September 14, 2007 Summary: Born to Greatness, Mired in Madness: Rushdie Laments India's First 3 Decades. "Midnight's Children" is Salman Rushdie's fictional rumination on the first 30 years of India's independence following British rule. Saleem Sinai, an Indian Muslim born on the stroke of midnight August 15, 1947, at the instant of India's independence, recounts a mystical, doleful tale of his own birth and trials as they coincided with those of India and Pakistan. All children born at the hour of independence were endowed with extraordinary gifts, the great potential of a new nation. Saleem of elephantine nose and dual parentage sees them all in his paranormally perceptive mind as he is witness to the initial optimism, two Indo-Pakistani wars, and India's oppressive State of Emergency instigated by Prime Minister Indira Ghandi. "Midnight's Children" is an opinionated, critical tour of modern India's struggles with its own diversity and demons. Its overwhelming pessimism seems out of place now, as India has become one of the world's fastest-growing economies. The book must be viewed in the context of the time at which it was written, the late 1970s. Salman Rushdie has a lot to say, and says most of it more than once. He pulls no punches and makes no excuses for anyone. In spite of Saleem's first-person narration, Rushdie's fractured, repetitive prose style impedes its accessibility and slows the reader down. And I would not have thought it possible to pile so many metaphors on top of metaphors and remain coherent. "Midnight's Children" is a long, provocative lament but somewhat overworked. Written on August 30, 2007 Summary: A Stream of (Enlightended) Consciousness Much has been written about the unique writing style of Salman Rushdie and Midnight's Children. It is hip to like it and thus call oneself a literary, and not unusual to dislike it as an uninitiated reader who cannot possibly know what to expect a priori. For what it's worth, here is my attempt to characterize the style. The book is written as a "stream of consciousness", long long long sentences, side-by-side repetition of adjectives for emphasis (hint hint hint!), use of synonyms similes parellels without punctuation or separators (again for emphasis), revealing the plot's end-game in advance yet (or thus) engaging the reader in the path to getting there, repeated summaries each to make an overarching point than to simply recollect the story so far, admitted insecurity and intermittent defense of the story's believability, and did I mention rechristening of events and characters with metaphoric names. If you could read and follow the last sentence in one shot, you are ready to read and enjoy Midnight's Children. The story-telling is hallucinatory on the surface, but enlightened underneath; deliriously exaggerated on the surface, but scrupulously balanced underneath; grossly fatalistic on the surface, but hopelessly optimistic underneath; carelessly raw on the surface, but meticulous genius underneath. Never judge a book by its cover, judge it by its metaphors. Besides being one intense allegory, the book is a collection of the richest metaphors I've ever read in a piece of literature. Metaphors, mind you, and not its evil cousin, Analogies. Every event and character is first rechristened with its metaphoric name. In the process of writing the book, Rushdie has created a new vocabulary of words that become the best way (if not the only way) to describe those characters and events. Spoiler alert: To pick from this new vocabulary, one way of characterizing the life of Saleem Sinai, and therefore the book, is Sperectomy: the draining-out of hope. To quote the last sentence of the book that sums it up "...because it is the privilege and the curse of midnight's children to be both masters and victims of their times, to forsake privacy and be sucked into the annihilating whirlpool of the multitudes, and to be unable to live or die in peace." Midnight's Children is a great way to live vicariously through post-colonial India. If A Fine Balance is a bus-ride through India with a good commentator, Midnight's Children is your dark roller-coaster with ghosts popping out at you at every turn. If A Fine Balance is real in a touchy-and-feely way that you wish it was unreal, Midnight's Children is unreal in a mystical way that you will hate to, and yet force yourself to believe it is real; just like a post-traumatic nightmare, only it was a re-enactment. |
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| Catalog | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book |
| Release date | 2003-02-18 | 2008-03-11 | 2008-05-27 | 2008-10-14 | 1998-05-06 | 2008-09-02 |
| Media | Paperback | Paperback | Hardcover | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback |
| Number of pages | 144 | 576 | 368 | 304 | 336 | 352 |
| Ean | 9780812969030 | 9780812976717 | 9780375504334 | 9781416562603 | 9780060977498 | 9781594483295 |
| Book Isbn | 0812969030 | 0812976711 | 0375504338 | 1416562605 | 0060977493 | 1594483299 |
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