Michael's Reviews > Midnight’s Children
Midnight’s Children
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Fantastic, intelligent, hilarious, profound, and historically illuminating. And the narrator is deliciously unreliable too! Need I say more? I will. His sentences are the kind of energetic super-charged masterpieces that I could quote endlessly. Here's one plucked utterly at random:
"Into this bog of muteness there came, one evening, a short man whose head was as flat as the cap upon it; whose legs were as bowed as reeds in the wind; whose nose nearly touched his up-curving chin; and whose voice, as a result, was thin and sharp--it had to be, to squeeze through the narrow gap between his breathing apparatus and his jaw...a man whose short sight obliged him to take life one step at a time, which gained him a reputation for thoroughness and dullness, and endeared him to his superiors by enabling them to feel well-served without feeling threatened; a man whose starched, pressed uniform reeked of Blanco and rectitude, and about whom, despite his appearance of a character out of a puppet-show, there hung the unmistakable scent of success: Major Zulfikar, a man with a future, came to call, as he had promised, to tie up a few loose ends."
"Into this bog of muteness there came, one evening, a short man whose head was as flat as the cap upon it; whose legs were as bowed as reeds in the wind; whose nose nearly touched his up-curving chin; and whose voice, as a result, was thin and sharp--it had to be, to squeeze through the narrow gap between his breathing apparatus and his jaw...a man whose short sight obliged him to take life one step at a time, which gained him a reputation for thoroughness and dullness, and endeared him to his superiors by enabling them to feel well-served without feeling threatened; a man whose starched, pressed uniform reeked of Blanco and rectitude, and about whom, despite his appearance of a character out of a puppet-show, there hung the unmistakable scent of success: Major Zulfikar, a man with a future, came to call, as he had promised, to tie up a few loose ends."
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Yes, so many deft little touches throughout this book.
Thanks, Julie! It's an amazing book. My first Rushdie, and certainly not my last.
I couldn't cross first 100 pages without feeling a mental dullness,now I must continue....:)
Nice one--I love it! :-)
Satanic Verses is incredible - it is just - if not more than Midnight's - magnificent. it can be read alone....but do recommend reading 'Shame' as well as it follows on from Midnight's Children looking at the other sibling - Pakistan.
Thanks you, Haroon! I too have wondered whether Rushdie is still producing great work, but I've got both Shame and The Satanic Verses on my bookshelf, and I appreciate your endorsement. I'll also have to pick up Haroun and the Sea of Stories, too! I appreciate the recommendation!
Betsy--I know, this is the blessed curse of Goodreads!
Thank you, Ellie! I too want to finally read The Satanic Verses. Maybe we can read it together someday and it will be less intimidating that way!
Thanks, Haroon. I do enjoy reading a number of books by the same author, especially if there are thematic connections between them, as it sounds like there are here.
great stuff Michael..don't forget 'East West' his collection of short stories....together they capture life in South Asia as well as the diaspora that has come with what Louis Bennett i think it is calls 'colonization in reverse' - fantastic poem btw....let me look for it...
Original: Colonization in Reverse
By: Louise Bennett
Wat a joyful news, Miss Mattie,
I feel like me heart gwine burs'
Jamaica people colonizin
Englan in reverse.
By de hundred, by de t'ousan
From country and from town,
By de ship load, by de plane-load
Jamaica is Englan boun.
Dem a-pour out o'Jamaica,
Everybody future plan
Is fe get a big-time job
An settle in de mother lan.
What a islan! What a people!
Man an woman, old and young
Jusa pack dem bag an baggage
An tun history upside dung!
Some people don't like travel,
But fe show dem loyalty
Dem all a-open up cheap-fare-
To-England agency.
An week by week dem shipping off
Dem countryman like fire,
Fe immigrate an populate
De seat o' de Empire.
Oonoo see how life is funny
Oonoo see de tunabout,
Jamaica live fi box bread
Outa English people mout'.
For wen dem catch a Englan,
An start play dem different role,
Some will settle down to work
An some will settle fe de dole.
Jane say de dole is not too bad
Bacause dey payin she
Two pounds a week fe seek a job
Dat suit her dignity.
Me say Jane will never find work
At the rate how she dah look,
For all day she stay pon Aunt Fan couch
And read love-story book.
Wat a devilment a Englan!
Dem face war an brave de worse,
But I'm wonderin how dem gwine stan
Colonizin in reverse.
Thank you, Haroon, for those wonderful recommendations and this fantastic poem! I will definitely have to check out East West. The idea of "colonization in reverse" is a fascinating one, as it captures not just the notion of diaspora (the leaving from a place) but also the idea of destination (the coming to a place) and why that particular one.
Ben--Midnight's Children was my first Rushdie, so I'm a little biased in thinking it's a great place to start. I'm glad you share my enjoyment of unreliable narrators! They're so wonderfully dodgy.
pleasure Michael....glad you enjoyed the poem and pretty sure you'll enjoy East-West too (",)
It's a deal!
Wonderful!
Ah, that's just how I like 'em!
So pleased that you enjoy Rushdie's delightfully overblown descriptive imagery (many people don't: it's the left-side/right-side of the brain bias).
Fab review!
Thank you, Kimber! It really is a spectacular book--I'm so glad you enjoyed it too!