Rating: 
Summary: The ordinary world, fringed with fantasy
Review: The premise of the book is just beautiful: the children born around midnight on the night that India gains independence from Great Britain all have special powers. One boy can jump through time at will. Another can change sex. The narrator can peer into others' thoughts, or at other times (surrounding an interesting plot device) can smell trouble through a remarkably sensitive nose.The book's style is addictive. The narrator liberally jumps into and out of his own story; he's reading it to his lover (Padma, a reference to Rushdie's own companion) as he rushes to tell the story before he disintegrates into 600 million pieces, as he foresees happening shortly. Since the entire basis of the story are these magical children, the book is necessarily part fantasy. (I've heard it compared to Garcia Marquez's ``magical realism", but I wouldn't know.) As a result, Rushdie can take frequent flights of fancy into events that wouldn't make sense anywhere outside of Midnight's Children. But it's all totally believable, because these children are all magical in their own way. Midnight's Children is Rushdie's way of describing India as he sees it. To him, the nation is part fantasy, part reality, part horror story. Some of the horrific events in India's postcolonial past come off sounding unbelievable, which is why they fit into the fantasy-fiction construct so well. One wonders throughout, ``Is this real, or is this India?" In this way, Rushdie's postmodern flights of fancy aren't just stylistic wankery; they serve a meaningful purpose in the plot. This is certainly one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. I went immediately from Midnight's Children into One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, which is something like moving from six years of filet mignon into a day of cold gruel. Nothing's wrong with Ivan Denisovich, but the stylistic differences are mighty. I can only recommend that you read them sequentially; you'll see what I mean.
Rating: 
Summary: A superhero with a really large nose
Review: .... This book is no doubt good, and possibly great. However, for me, it doesn't reach truly elevated sublime "best book in 25 years" or top ten list status. With that said it's a worthwhile read for a phantasmorgorical look at India and Pakistan history and the plight of the countries. The 1,001 Midnight's Children carry around supernatural gifts, some pretty powerful, some not so spectacular. The protagonist Saleem Sinai, just happens to have a super-dooper nose and can converse with all the midnight's children in his head. His archenemy, Shiva, he of the gargantuan knees spoils Saleem's leadership of the Midnight's Children .... It's a cautionary tale of what could have been and deeper underlying, Rushdie weeps for his country of India and what could have been. The most unique convention of the novel is that Saleem's life parallels the development of India. It's a rather ambitious task that Rushdie sets out to do to capture India's development within a fictional life. The writing is well-versed, intelligent, and compelling. There is a good command of language, not quite as elevated as that of Nabokov, but good nonetheless. It reminded me a great deal of Gunter Grass' Tin Drum in the aspect of a fanciful characters reflecting a Country's development, so may lose some originality points for that. All in all though, an enjoyable read, but not one that I want to go back and read anytime soon, which is the true test of literary greatness for me. I would read Catch-22, the Underworld, and Crime and Punishment again and again. For Midnight's Children, once was enough.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece, True Indian Literature
Review: MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN is a book that, outwardly, deals with the 1001 children born on 15. August 1947, the first day of India's independence from Britain. The book deals more specifically with two of those children, however, both born in a Bombay nursing home and switched at birth. One of them belongs to a wealthy Muslim family with roots in Kashmir, the Sinai's, while the other belongs to a Hindu street singer and an Englishman she happened to meet. The aristocrat, who grows up believing he's poor, is named Shiva; the poor half Hindu, half English boy, who is taken home by the aristocratic Muslim family, is named Saleem and it is Saleem who is the narrator of this book. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, however, is far from being a conventional story of "switched babies." If you're at all familiar with the writing of Salman Rushdie, then you'll know "conventional" stories are not what he writes. Saleem, of course, is given every luxury, but even luxuries can't prevent accidents and one day, when Saleem suffers a bump on the head, he discovers that he has a gift for telepathy. It is through this gift for telepathy that Saleem "learns" the secret of his own parentage and that all of the 1001 "midnight's children" possess special gifts no "ordinary" person ever could hope to achieve. Some have been gifted with the ability to travel through time while others can change their sex at will. Only one, however, is telepathic...Saleem. Saleem is the "leader" of the "midnight's children" and they await his call to meet and pool their supernatural resources for the good of India. Saleem's call, however, never comes, precisely because of the child whose rightful place he's "stolen." This child, Shiva, who should have grown up as Saleem (though only Saleem knows this), with all of Saleem's privileges, has instead, grown up on the streets of Bombay. Saleem fears Shiva and rightfully so. Although Saleem uses his powers to bring about death, destruction and evil rather than good, the 581 surviving "midnight's children" do eventually meet, but under very different circumstances than those originally ordained and their fate is a fate to be feared rather than envied. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN is a complex, complicated book and one that contains a very convoluted plot, the centerpiece of which is always Saleem. Although MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN contains about twelve narrative strands, Rushdie does manage to bring them together and integrate them beautifully in the end. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN is, of course, a "big book," encompassing many characters, subplots, metaphors and even several themes. It's also a book that is quintessentially "big city" Indian. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN is no lush, dreamy romance embodying an India that never was. It's coarse, slangy and very aggressive...just like India, herself. Rushdie exposes, rather than hides, all that's wrong in India, and thus, MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN paints an extraordinarily rich and evocative, though really a rather vulgar, picture of Bombay. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN begins on a rather contrived note, but as the book progresses, the story takes on a much darker quality, especially as it becomes more and more clear that the character of Saleem is a metaphor for post-colonial India. The political backdrop of MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN, together with its mix of the magical and the fantastic are reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez in ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE and Guenter Grass in THE TIN DRUM, though I think both Garcia Marquez and Grass probably had an easier time of mythologizing their characters. Rushdie, however, employs a far more intense prose style than does the melancholy Garcia Marquez and one that's far more angry than is Grass's. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN is definitely a masterpiece. The blend of the historical and the fantastic is perfectly balanced, the prose is brilliant (though wild and angry), there is humor, there is pathos and there is bitter irony in the book. There is also a wild energy that I have never really seen in the works of any other author. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN won the "Booker of Booker's," meaning it was the one book among all the Booker Prize winners judged to be the very best. I can't decide if I agree with this or not (not that it matters). I sometimes think THE REMAINS OF THE DAY is a "cleaner," "purer," more perfect book. MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN is certainly more complex and convoluted and it expresses a far wider range of emotional experience. While THE REMAINS OF THE DAY was brilliantly understated and almost claustrophobic, MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN is practically epic in scope. Both books are brilliantly written, so I guess it just comes down to a matter of personal taste. I would certainly recommend MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN to anyone who loves great literature. In fact, if you love great literature, you really can't afford to miss this book.
Rating:
Summary: Richer than all his tribe
Review: This is a landmark novel. Not many people can do something so original in this post-modern age. Although this style is not unique to Rushdie, his analogies and metaphors stand him out from the crowd. As Joyce was to Dublin, Rushdie is to Bombay not merely a stream of consciousness but a torrent, flowing perpetually with the rhythm of India at the time of independence. The modern and the traditional clash with an unbelievably colourful explosion in this book. The story swings in and out of magic and realism. Rushdie was born himself at the birth of independence in India, he is therefore putting himself forward as the special few, the "Midnight's Children", with special powers, indeed he has. He is as colourful and diverse as the new India. The "sequel" "The Moor's Last Sigh", has nothing on this his best work. He casts a dream, and as for the cast - a boy with super strong killer knees, a boy with a radio in his head and with the sense of smell that can sniff out hate, love and colours. I don't know much about the politics of India or the partition of Pakistan, but it didn't matter. This is a masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Once is definitely enough
Review: The ideas behind this novel are very creative and promising however the actual story drags more than once. The last third of the book is slow and boring then rushed at the very end as if Rushdie lost interest himself. I was enraptured for the first half and yawning for the second. I'll pass on seconds.
Rating:
Summary: Reader's Digest version of great books
Review: This is the Everyman's Library edition of the text; a generic title that robs the book of its soul. At first touch, the paper seems thin and glossed, giving the book a cheap quality. There is little spacing between chapters which gives a cramped feeling. I once borrowed the orginal edition from the library and it is what I am comparing this edition to. I am one who is thrilled to get original copies especially when they have great covers. The only reason I bought this edition is because it was the only hardcover available. The Library binding is what I now desire to own. This book is one of the best I have read. It's a well built man with a mind like a razor's edge. Such is why I long to have a good copy on my shelf.
Rating:
Summary: Midnight's Children
Review: Midnight's Children is considered to be Rushdie's masterpiece; it won the Booker Prize, and then, in 1993, it won the 'Booker of Bookers', ie the best book to have won the Booker Prize in the first 25 years of the award. In addition to this, Rushdie's reputation is not built upon his literary merits so much as the surrounding controversy of another book, The Satanic Verses, which all but condemned him to years of hiding and constant moving about in an effort to escape fundamentalist Muslim assassination-attempts. The premise for this novel is amazing. At the stroke of midnight on August 15th, 1947, India achieved independence and became a valid country, free from the shackles of Britain. One thousand and one children were born in the hour from midnight to 1am, one thousand and one children with magical powers, the potency of which increases the closer the child was born to midnight. The narrator, Saleem Sinai, was one of two children born on the exact stroke of midnight, and throughout the novel various allusions to yin and yang, good and evil, up and down, et cetera are made between Saleem and Shiva, the other child, but unfortunately nothing really comes from this. Although mentioned often and with great vehemence on the part of the narrator, Shiva never really came across as a 'bad guy', or even someone that should be worried about at all. The story meanders through thirty odd years of life before Saleem's birth, detailing the lives and idiosyncracies of his parent's and grandparent's adventures, which, admittedly, are described with great sweeping motions and tantalizing literary strokes. Sentences marvel, paragraphs sing with wit or beauty, but...what was the point? After Saleem is born, events take an incredibly epic turn, as the implications of the children of midnight are revealed, but then, the narrator just sort of forgets about it and rambles on about things that, given the immensely intruiging concept of the children, just doesn't spark any interest. The narrator is an interesting writer. He repeats reiterates recapitulates words in threes, often, and that works. He used parentheses artfully, and well. But the narrator foreshadows everything and anything, so that we are always reading about events that will come to pass, soon or otherwise, and in cryptic ways, 'He kept himself in the background of our lives, always, except twice...once when he left us; once when he returned to destroy the world by accident'. It is an exceptionally annoying literary technique, serving only to make the reader wish that events would hurry up so that the portentous-sounding episodes will occur, but...even they are marred by fore-shadowing and never really live up to the promises, anyway. The last one hundred and fifty pages drag, seemingly without cohesion, in an effort to combine the plot-threads, to actually make the children a part of the story - and, disappointingly, they really aren't very predominant - but it doesn't work. Then, in a whirlwind twenty pages, everything is tied up neatly, the children are dealt with, and the book ends. The fantastic premise never really lived up to its promise, and the book suffers. Is Midnight's Children a failure? No. As a story, it is enjoyable, written well, and at times, beautiful. Certain passages are crafted with amazing skill, and the narrator is a pleasant enough fellow. But the concept of the midnight's children should have been ditched - the story would have worked well enough without them because they never really played a part - and the book would have been greater as the spectre of great things to come would not have existed.
Rating:
Summary: Truly a masterpiece
Review: A beautiful book of epic proportions. Some compare his work to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and I wholeheartedly agree. His mastery of fantasy is unparalleled, yet unique in it's simultaneous portrayal of reality. In addition to learning about spectacular writing and enjoying the construct of each sentence, I also found my knowledge of the regional history greatly expanded. One of the top ten books I've ever read. Truly a masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: If I wasn't completely convinced before that Salman Rushdie has a claim to be the most gifted writer on the planet, I am after reading this book. This novel is a generational saga along the lines of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and Jeffrey Eugenides's "Middlesex". As those two novels reflect the history of their own respective nations, so does "Midnight's Children." It is the story of one family, and one person in particular, Saleem, who is born on the stroke of midnight on the exact day and time India achieved its independence from Britain. From that propitious birth onward, Saleem's life becomes a reflection and representation of the young Indian nation itself. The title refers to the 400 odd children who were born at or near this same midnight. Each one of them have magical skills which vary in strength and importance in direct relation to their birth's proximity to midnight. Since Saleem was born exactly at midnight, he has the most valuable skill, the skill to look into people's hearts, minds, and souls, and to commune with the other midnight children mentally. In this vein, he forms the Midnight Children's Conference, a meeting of these 400+ children who communicate through Saleem's telepathic mind and have the stated goal of reforming India. If this sounds unbelievable, it is not. It is the same sort of magical realism fans of Latin American authors will be familiar with, and adds to the strength, beauty, and ultimate brutality of the story without making the reader roll his eyes in incredulity. As is India, so is Saleem. He hears the multitudinous voices of India in his head, a mess of contradictions: peace and violence, forgiveness and revenge, progress and tradition. His family also reflects the indefinable character of India. They are by turns real and fantastical, living and dying, perservering and escaping. The amalgam of these voices and Saleem's family is an India that Rushdie seems to understand no better than anyone else, but his affection for and frustration with India could only come from a native. The reader also follows Saleem's physical life. His face mirrors a map of India, and his enormous nose is gifted at sensing emotions. From the life of a rich boy in Bombay, to a fighter in the India-Pakistan War, to a broken carnival traveller, and finally to an owner of a pickle company, Saleem's journey through life is expansive, human, and always entertaining. The side characters are just as engrossing, and all have a part to play in the tumolt of Indian history. To keep the earlier analogy going, I found this to be a slightly more difficult read than "One Hundred Years of Solitude" but just as entertaining as "Middlesex". Rushdie writes with wit, style, anger, and absolute brilliance. He is generous with allusions, but I felt they were also extremely accessible. I recommend this book not only to India-philes, but also to fans of literature in general. This is a master in peak and rare form, and this is one of the finest novels written in a generation. Most highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece. This book will survive.
Review: Rushdie lectured the motto in this tome: the life story of anyone can be the result of the whole world, and the whole world can be nothing but triggered by or explicited on someone. This is a historic fiction with fantasy, and a great fiction in its own. Rushdie is so ambitious that he tried to depict the history of India in a book, in a very gorgeous language and style, while simaltaneously ruthlessly burdening our poor good protagonist, Saleem, and his morbid family. I am so dazzled by the ambition and the language of the book, and am deeply moved not only by the book itself but also Rushdie. I can feel the ardent love and eager struggle for India in Rushdie. It is definitely not for the faint-hearted. And I am so happy that I finally finished this book. Its a deeply true-heartedly wow.
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