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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

Jul 09, 2019 Franky rated it it was ok

Shelves: classics, magical-realism, hated-but-everyone-else-loved, annoying-main-character, 2019-reading-challenge

I think the best word that can sum up my experience with this book was frustrating. I get that Rushdie can write (as he so blatantly proves to us), I get that there is an entire metaphor and symbolism running rampant throughout the book, and I get that there is this interconnectedness to the narrator’s story to India’s history and turbulence, but it was just so tedious to read this novel.

Problem one is the narrator. There’s a certain level of pretentiousness from the narrator and the storytelli I think the best word that can sum up my experience with this book was frustrating. I get that Rushdie can write (as he so blatantly proves to us), I get that there is an entire metaphor and symbolism running rampant throughout the book, and I get that there is this interconnectedness to the narrator’s story to India’s history and turbulence, but it was just so tedious to read this novel.

Problem one is the narrator. There’s a certain level of pretentiousness from the narrator and the storytelling that annoyed me to no end. And speaking of annoying, the constant asides are maddening and distracting to no end. At many points, the narrator’s digressions and his “unreliability” are quite tiresome and irritating. He will mutter things like “Did it happen this way or no?” “Yes? No? Maybe? Hmmm?” “Should I ? Shouldn’t I?” “But wait….before I get to this…let me tell you about..” “Oh I forgot to mention…” How about get to the point already.

Additionally, his “self-important “style of narration is irksome and tiring. He rambles on and on and on about his life for the first two hundred pages before he is even born. One way to make sure a reader doesn’t care about you is to say how important you are or how significant your story is. Much of the narrator’s “epicness “ waxed pretty artificial, in my opinion, like he was totally full of himself. Being along for the ride with this narrator is akin to being on a 10 hour flight next to a stranger who blabs on and on about every minute detail of their life and won’t stop.

Problem two is the glacial pacing of the novel, with overabundance of everything thrown at the reader in an incoherent and scattered way, from characters, events, history, relatives, etc. at nauseum from every single angle and place. I don’t mind tons of characters, tons of subplots or narrative diversions if there is a point or if it is engaging.

The magic in the book is a bit cartoonish, and so are the characters and situations. I get there a heavy dose of magical realism involved, but my gosh, this was a bit much to swallow, especially in the book’s final two hundred pages or so. Too much focus on body parts and bodily fluids and things coming out of bodies and just bizarre stuff.

To me, the point of tying the narrator to India’s history into one big metaphor is there, but the “rewards” of this for the reader aren’t worth it in the long haul and the frustration of having to wade through so much nonsense.

I know Midnight’s Children is lauded and praised, but I found this book to be pretty off putting in many ways.

This was my first reading of Rushdie and if this is a sampling of the style of his other works, I don’t think I’ll be reading anything else anytime soon.

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