This was the first book by Salman Rushdie that I read. I couldn’t put it down, and I instantly knew why Mr. Rushdie is an award winning author.
Midnight Children chronicals the life of Saleem Sinai, through a first person view point, a child born on the stroke of midnight.
In tandem with his unusual birth, Saleem was gifted with special powers that children born near the witching hour all seem to possess, and him, being born exactly on the stroke of midnight possesed the power to read minds and telecommunicate over the nation with other children bnorn in the magical hour thus starting what he called the MCC.
The story depicts his life, starting from his grandfather with the majestic nose in KAshmir to the crowded MEthwold Estate, later as the war ravaged between Indai and Pakistan.
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This book has the power to make you feel. Saleem will take you through his amazement at finding his new powers, through his frustration with his family, through the tiring endless wondering in the Sunderbands and the war, through his listless none feeling years as the buddha and genereally through the confusion of his life.
I do find the narration of the book a little messy at time because Salman Rushdie jumps around in the chronological order of the story.. which adds to the authencity of Saleems existance, because, like an individual retelling your life, you tend to focus on what was important and your mind do tend to creat little blurps.
I find this way of writing created a bond between the reader and the character in the book, because you started taking Saleem as a real person, telling you a real story of his life.
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All in all, it might take a little patience to read this book because the story tends to drag in some places.
There are confusing moments because there’s so many peoplein the story that you might mix the characters up and at one point go... err who was that again?
But give it a go, if you survive the journey with Saleem, you’ll close the book with something totally new.. a bond with a fictional character