Hm. Where to start??? Okay... first of all, the book took me months to get through, about 2, but that could also be because of moving, etc etc. However, this is not a book that you could get through quickly or easily. A variety of colorful characters appear, disappear, and reappear later on, so you're constantly going back and checking who is who and how they're related! If i'd known that at the beginning, i would have listed everyone as they came up and kept track of all of them, :)

Rushdie is a master of detail. From the smallest detail to the larger motifs that reign throughout this book, he actually calls your attention to his intentions via his narrator, so you're kind of clued in at various times throughout the story for the metaphors and symbols he constantly employs.

It is a long, intricate family portrait and description of the formation and evolution of one Saleem Sinai, the narrator who goes all the way back to a great-grandfather and concludes in his current-time narration in a pickle factory. it is an incredible life, full of mystery and magic and tragedy and difficulties, yet you grow fond of the awkward Sinai and his struggle for pursuing the noble course amidst a life of chaos.

While I'm glad i read it, and he's an incredible writer, it is a book you have to conciously read page by page to get through.