Sunday, April 15, 2012

Review: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (Book 1)

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie is a two time winner of the Booker Prize and just a little intimidating (to me at least).  I started the book last year and, although captivated by it, I also found it tough going at times.  So, when I heard about a read-a-long hosted by Arti of Ripple Effects and Bellezza of Dolce Bellezza I thought this would be a great way to break the book down into small parts and finish it. The novel is broken into three "books" which divides nicely for a read-a-long.  First up,  

Book One:
In book one, we meet our narrator Saleem Sinai who tells of his birth on August 15, 1947  - the day India gained its independence from Britain. The novel parallels the history of India and many pivotal moments in the book, such as Saleem's birth, coincide with great moments in world or Indian history.  After recounting the story of his birth, Saleem takes us back to the story of his grandfather, Aadam in Kashmir.  Aadam falls in love with Naseem and their bizarre courtship takes place through a hole in a sheet (this, of course, has symbolic meaning). Saleem continues with the story, at the urging of his wife Padma, and fast forwards to 1942 when his grandparents are living in Agra with their five children.   Three of the five children are girls and are pursued by suitors.  Ahmed Sinai marries Aadam's daughter Mumtaz and she will ultimately give birth to Saleem on the birthday of modern India.

I have significantly skimmed the storyline in the summary above essentially only providing a sketch. The book is multilayered and the stories so fantastic it is impossible to get into too much of the plot without making a summary confusing.  Suffice it to say, there is a lot going on in Book One.  Saleem tells his story in an unedited style and it seems rushed at times - almost as if he needs to get the story out.  This style lends itself to a lot of detail and jumps forward and backward in time.  It does take some getting used to but by the end of Book One I have adjusted to it.

Overall, I am impressed by the many threads Rushdie has weaved together in the story so far and am looking forward to seeing what happens to those threads as we move into Book Two.  The image below of an Indian wall hanging reminds me of this novel - rich with detail and deeply layered.

Source
 You can read more recaps of Book One from the read a long participants at Arti's or Bellezza's blogs.  Book Two will be covered on April 30th.

Have you read Midnight's Children or anything by Rushdie?

12 comments:

  1. Great recap. I read this years ago and it is still one of my favorite books. I hope you stick with it. I agree it is a very multilayered novel, but I loved the element of magical realism Rushdie used in it.

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    1. Thanks Alex. Yes, I am definitely going to stick with it now that I am reading it as part of the group. I think I will be glad I hung in there!

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  2. I'm intimidated by Rushdie too so I'm very impressed that you're tackling this book. Hopefully I'll get to one of his books one day.

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  3. Thanks for a detailed recap of Book One. And what a wonderful visual metaphor that wall hanging is. Indeed, the story is multi-layered and like a collage. As an 'outsider', I know I've missed a lot, but, I enjoy the fascinating writing of Rushdie though. And, don't forget, we'll break Book Two into two parts. April 30 posting is for Part A which is up to the chapter of 'Alpha and Omega'. Looking forward to your sharing. Thanks for participating in the read-along!

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  4. I, too, am impressed by the many threads Rushdie is weaving together. I can catch a glimpse of how complex this novel is which makes me both anticipate more and glad we're in it together taking a portion at a time!

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  5. Oh man! I can't believe that I missed that there's a readalong of this one. I read it a few years ago in grad school and really loved it. Sometimes it was difficult to get through the sections but Rushdie's writing is fantastic. And such a great point about the layers and complexity. I'm not sure that I could summarize the book...at all!

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    1. Isn't his writing fantastic? Hard to imagine how a mind comes up with it all!

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  6. I really want to read a Rushdie book, but I never got around to it yet. Thanks for posting about this one!

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  7. Rushdie scares the beejeebers out of me, so kudos to you for reading him!

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  8. I would love to read this one with a group, sorry I missed it. I have at least one Rushdie somewhere but have never built up the courage to read it!

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    1. You can jump in - we are reading slowly - only 1/2 of book 2 for April 30th and the second 1/2 of book 2 for May

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  9. I read this book last year and I pretty much loved it. I do wish I had read it as a part of a group or a readathon...there are so many discussion points.

    If you are interested, my review is here:

    http://nishitak.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/midnights-children-a-book-review/

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