Midnight's Children

It took me a ridiculously long time to read this book.. and I wont make any excuses. I will only say that it wasn’t because it wasn’t good. It was very good, just a little uneven in places. The story shifts around a lot, and aspects of it are better than others.

In many ways, Midnight’s Children is a fairy-tale. It’s also a family history of mythic proportions. The main character, Saleem Sinai, begins by giving us a family history of his grandparents, parents and the hand of fate that leads him into their family.

Saleem is born at midnight in Bombay, at the very moment that India gains it’s independence – and he and the group of children born at this time are intrinsically linked to the fate of the country. They also possess amazing gifts, ranging from an ability to change genders to the gift of magic. Saleem’s gift is an ability to read minds, and converse with others over great distances. He discovers this in a quirky little story involving a washing basket and his naked mother….

Saleem’s abilities link together the children of midnight, as he establishes the Midnight’s Children Conference. At first they have grand plans for how to change the world, but soon they fracture, and when Saleem’s gift is “drained” and he is taken to Pakistan.

The story is all told by Saleem in retrospect (who talks about himself in the third person throughout) – the changes brought about by his move to Pakistan, his forbidden love, his memory loss and the birth of is son, who seems to have his own legacy.

My favourite parts were Saleem’s childhood and the magic that Rushdie creates in linking the infant nation to the infant Saleem. It’s a beautiful wacky story, well worth reading. Remember it won the booker of Bookers!