Reviews

• Certainly NOT Harry Potter for readers!

  This review essentially deals with the author Salman Rushdie rather than this book, because after all Midnight's Children is the 'Booker of Bookers', what more can one add? - except to state that if you are preoccupied with 'magic' then you have spectacularly missed the point of this book. The allegorical nature of its construction, its metaphors and its historical dramas are what is important here; its allusions and not any apparent wizardry. As my title said, this most certainly is not Harry Potter for readers and I wish reviewers would stop wasting their words on that topic and instead re-read and re-examine the core themes, dramas and constructs of what is undoubtedly one of the greatest books ever written. Salman Rushdie is to Literature, what George W. Bush was to American politics. Seldom has history witnessed individuals who possess such an ability to thoroughly polarize their respective audiences. Love or loathe, there can be nothing in between. For reference, my feet are firmly on the 'love' side of the divide. In continuum, one thing I personally find fascinating about Rushdie is his ability to alienate people in equal numbers to those he utterly enthralls. As per the aforementioned correlation there are those that he utterly repulses and repels and that fascinates me. What is the reason for this? It is fair to say that, that which we are able to 'read' (and by read I mean in the Mortimer Aldler sense of the word), is a direct reflection of our own intellect or lack thereof, and I sincerely believe that this is one reason why Rushdie irritates so many people. He irritates people because most people are not that bright and are not really 'readers'; not actually literate per se. What I mean by that last comment is that people no longer seem able to concentrate on a book (or much else besides television), or to dig for deeper meaning; to read between the lines and to grasp allegory and metaphorical allusions. In today's world of get-rich-quick everyone wants to be Eric Clapton but no one wants to put in the hours, henceforth people buy 'Guitar Hero'. Life is not a game of 'Guitar Hero'. It's interesting to draw parallels between Rushdie and another English author, Stephen Fry. Fry is also an intellectual heavyweight with a wonderfully sharp and agile brain and an extensive vocabulary. Unlike Rushdie, however, Fry is big and cuddly, has round edges and not sharp corners and I think that is one reason why the public take to him more easily. Besides which he is also flawed and slightly imperfect; he reaches out to us where Rushdie pulls away. To Fry's non-threatening modelling-clay persona Rushdie is perfect, unforgiving and cold, a statuesque individual carved from the hardest granite. One can't also help but feel that perhaps Rushdie's ethnicity rubs people up the wrong way, or is that just a cheap shot on my part and merely an easy way to find an answer to my question? One cannot help but wonder, though, if it isn't hard for those outside the liberal Literary establishment to accept a man of colour is more brilliant, better educated and ore mellifluous than they could ever hope to be. Again, that might just be smoke-and-mirrors, a cheap shot on my behalf, a quick-fix to a more complex quandary. To return to my second paragraph, I personally adore the fact that I have to read Rushdie with a green highlighter in hand (green is my colour for unknown words). I adore the fact that Rushdie crushes my ego, and belittles my vocabulary. I love the fact he challenges me to become a better reader to widen my vocabulary. I love the fact that Cambridge-educated Rushdie has a higher intellect than I, because he is SUPPOSED to have. An author (like any artiste) should ideally not be an everyman, should not be a Stephen King or a Jeffery Archer. Authors of Literature should shoulder the responsibility of raising the bar and challenging our collective consciousness, and Rushdie relishes that opportunity and performs that r'le admirably, a perfect casting. If you don't get the beauty and elegance of this book, then you simply have not understood it and I sincerely urge you re-read it, preferably with a green highlighter in hand!

• 若いうちに読んどけ！ 年寄りにはきつい

  Kindle版 Publisher: Random House; 25th Anniversary edition (July 23, 2010) ASIN: B003WUYQCS のレビュー。 20世紀の傑作であるという評価が確定しているこの大作、やっと読んだ。疲れた。 まず、どんな内容なのか、あまりはっきりしたレビューがない理由がわかった。あらすじを説明すると、ネタバレになってしまうし、細部を説明しようとすると、文体や政治背景や神話や宗教のことを細かく語る以外にないのだ。内容を短く要約できない小説の典型である。 読了して満足したかというと、わたし自身の正直な感想としては微妙なものがある。読みすすめるのがかなりたいへんなので、読み終えただけで何かを達成した気分になるが、それは小説を読む楽しみとはちょっと違うような気がする。作者のパワーと格闘する力がこちらに不足していて、小説全体として圧倒された気分にはならないかったのだ。 そしてなによりも、文体と語句が難しい。わからないところはバンバンとばして読んでもいいと思うが、やっぱり調べないと欲求不満になってくる。brass monkey なんて表現は今後一生出会うことはないかもしれないが、忘れないだろうなあ、（と思ったら、前にkindleで読んだ本に出てきているんですね。）ともかく、単語も語句も文体も超絶に難度が高い。 やはり体力があり、脳のはたらきが活発な若いうちに読んでおくべき作品だ。インド＆パキスタンの現代史やインドの神話やさまざまな日常生活の背景が壁のように立ちはだかるかもしれないが、部分的にわかればオッケーという気構えでいどんでよいと思う。この小説の背景や引用やモジリを完全にわかる日本人は、まあ、数人の研究者以外いないだろう。若い時に読んでおけば、あとで再読するという楽しみもあるでしょう。 わたしには、もう再読するエネルギーはない。でも、この作家の他の作品は読んでみたい気がする。

• インドの見出された声

  疑いようのない傑作です。 インド独立と同時に生を受けた主人公の半生を軸にした物語なのですが、露骨に寓喩的な設定にもかかわらず、逸話、メタファーの氾濫でそんなことは忘れてしまいます。 インドとパキスタンの現代史を背景に、主人公の周囲で超自然的で・一見荒唐無稽な事件が続き、それらを通して、強烈な風刺、アレゴリーが綯交ぜになって読む者の心を揺さぶります。まさに、マジックリアリズムの名手であるラシュディの面目躍如といったところ。プロットもすばらしく、また決して明るい内容の物語ではないにもかかわらず、コメディタッチの語り口は、非常にentertainingでもあります。 とかく「悪魔の詩」のイメージが強いラシュディですが、これを読んで現代文学における最高の書き手の一人であることを確認。

• ぶっとびました。

  今インドに駐在していて、仕事の関係上パキスタンにもよく行きます。この両国、パキスタンの独立以降ずうっといがみあっているのですが、ラシュディ先生の世界的なデビュー作であるこの小説を読んでいると、その二つの国、民族、宗教の対立、擦れ合いが背後から音を立てて迫って来るような感じがします。他の作品でもそうなのですが、先生は「人の悩み、悲しみ」を描くと言うより、「人類、民族の悩み、悲しみ」を鮮やかに浮き彫りにしてくれます。これまで余り好きになれなかったインドの人々のことが、少し分かったような気がしました。インド独立の日に生まれた子供達に不思議な力が与えられ、色んな目に会いながらインド亜大陸を飛び回るお話です。読みこなすにはちょっと骨が折れますが、メゲないダメ男君である主人公とその妹の二人が最高に愛すべきキャラクターで、暗く重くなっても仕方ないテーマであるにも係わらず、最後まで生き生きとしたストーリーになっています。インドに興味のある方にとっては必読の書、と言って良いのではないでしょうか。

• Favourite

  One of my favorite books of all time.

• A tour de force! The early decades of Indian and Pakistani independence through the view of Salim Sinai, one of the magical brood born on the stroke of midnight.

• It’s not an easy book to read. Not by any measure. But to me it was a rewarding experience and I enjoyed the challenge. Reading it is overwhelming and confusing, and it takes time to see and follow all the threads of the story, but what does unfold is captivating and beautiful. As soon as I finished I was googling essays on the book because there’s so much to it, I feel like I should study it more.

• To say I've devoured this book would be a lie, so I'll just state the truth. It took me two weeks to finish it, and this is all due to the enormity, the greatness, the ever expanding world of this book. There are longer books in literature, yes, but this book, in its almost 650 pages, manages to give several points of discussions about a different variety of topics. The story, which starts from the end like most magic realist books, is meant to be the autobiography of Saleem Sinai. Saleem tells us who he is, as every respectable biography does, and he says that his birthday is important because he was born on August 15th, 1947, on the stroke of midnight, right when India gained its Independence from the British rule. Now he's about to turn 31, but the clock is ticking, and he needs to tell his story before he forgets and it is lost forever. In a meta-narration where Saleem, our narrator, tells us about the past but also comments in the present about what happened in a precise moment, we are thrown back into pre-Independence India as Saleem starts the story by recounting his grandfather's Aadam Aziz story of how he met his grandma, in 1915, Kashmir. The place is not casual at all, because Kashmir will be one of the most reclaimed territories by both India and Pakistan after the Partition, and it's not casual everything started there, in that paradise. It's not a coincidence the grandfather is called "Aadam". It all starts from a perforated sheet where Aadam sees bits of his future wife Naseem. The perforated sheet, as well as the theme of holes in general, is recurring in this book, and greatly connects the beginning and the end that you can't fail to see the parallels, the mirrors. In this story, nothing is casual, especially the fact that Saleem was born on midnight. He, and the other children born at midnight of the same day, possessed great powers. But there are secrets behind Saleem's birth, secrets that will make or break relationships, obsessions, love and hatred. You know what they say, the more powerful you are, the more feared you will be. I wish I could say more than this, but I don't want to spoil anything to you, because this book really manages to shock you until the very end. The writing is flowing, fresh, you never get annoyed because you want to know how did that happen, what will be of this or that character. The story may seem all over the place because Saleem starts retracing his origins back to his grandfather, but it isn't at all. It is a story full of history, hybridity, identity, religion, politics... it is a world in its own right, with tragic moments made less sad by the grotesque, by the irony and the sarcasm Rushdie is able to deliver majestically. It isn't just Saleem's story, it is a story of a country divided, partitioned. A country that is looking for a mother, for a father, someone to guide them, to mend the cracks. But Saleem knows that it's impossible, because there are cracks - like the one in the perforated sheet - that you can't mend, that you won't be able to mend, especially if your fate is doomed. Rushdie is a British author but he is also Indian, which mean this novel also deals with the problem of hybridity, because Saleem also moves to different places in his life. I could say more but I think you should read for yourself the waste number of topics that this book discusses, because they can't be narrowed down. I think lovers of magic realism but also fantasy will like this book.

• Muy interesante la historia - muy diferente.

• Having red the "Satanic Verses" a few years ago I definitely waited too long to pick up "The Midnigt's Children". For anybody who can appreciate the literature and prefers a gourmet meal to chicken fried steak- stop reading reviews and start this book right now- it is a masterpiece. BTW - to those who give it three stars or fewer- I can only hope that they write something better and show us what a good novel should be- forgive my sarcasm. Initially the book may not be the easiest too read, as although the story is told mostly in chronological manner, it is interwoven with obscure at the time glimpses of the future. In Rushdie's world everything is connected, no thing is too small or inconsequential. Ideas, objects and small events initially loosely connected shape Saleem's life. As the story develops everything starts coming together, making sense, no longer obscure. Therefore the book becomes easier and easier to read and even more engaging the further you get into it. The reality and fantasy are tied together in this novel- typically for this author, fantasy serves to highlight and magnify the reality. The life of the protagonist, Saleem Sinai is magically tied to the life of the nation as he is born in the exact moment when India is born as a nation independent from the British rule. In the same hour 1000 of other children possessing supernatural abilities are born in India. Some say that the idea of magical children is not fully utilized by the author or perhaps even unnecessary, as the reality of the times is captivating enough. This is debatable, but in any case don't expect the magical children fighting villains, this is not Avengers or Fantastic 4. The extraordinary abilities of the children are more a curse and a source of misfortunes than they are a blessing as the world is not ready for them. Superstition, backwardness of the adults, causes them to pass the suffering on the children. The adults "make children the vessels into which they pour their poisons" of unhappiness, prejudice and intolerance. As the protagonist grows up, the insults from surrounding him adults and his own peers are replaced by much worse mayhem unleashed on him and the whole nation by the politicians and tyrants. As such the broken life and body of the midnight's child becomes a mirror of what happens to the fractured nation, divided by languages, religions and political ambitions. In this aspect the novel is a powerful accusation and the author takes no prisoners, historical figures even the reverend ones come under the fire of his literary weapons. Even though the optimism of the people is shown as a disease and completely unjustified the author leaves room for a sliver of hope- symbolized by the little Aadam. The use of visions, prophecies, colors, objects loaded with meanings, historical events and psychological insights along with rich and almost poetic prose create a book that is full of impact and should not be passed.

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