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Midnight’s Children

Salman Rushdie

Start date: July 1, 2019

Finish date: September 30, 2019

Discussion: Current Group Reads

Why we're reading this: 3rd Quarter 2019 Long Read
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What Members Thought

Jan 29, 2022 Kenny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: brits, magical-realism, classics

Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of h ...more

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Jan 29, 2018 Renate rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, classics, bookclub

It is a clever idea. A child born at the same time as his country, who is then forever twinned with it. What happens to the country is mirrored in the life of the child.

The title of the book implies that there are a number of such children. And there are. There are 1001 children. But although they are in the title, it has to be said that they don't feature much in the story.

Salman Rushdie makes a comment in the Introduction that