Midnight's Children

It is not often that I truly enjoy a novel I am required to read for class. There is a preemptory disdain for the inevitable picking apart of the written word that is sure to follow any assigned book. Yes, I have read wonderful literature because I have been told to, but not necessarily something I would willingly curl up with on a Sunday afternoon when the mountain of homework we all have had diminished just a bit. However, I have found that magical book, the assigned novel that I actually enjoyed tremendously, in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. With its sweeping plot and exquisite language, Rushdie’s novel was the well-deserved winner of the Booker Fiction Prize in 1981 and subsequently named the “Booker of Booker’s” twenty-five years later. But enough about the novels accolades! Onto the actual point of reading a book. Because it is good.

            Set in India, Midnight’s Children is the account of Saleem Sinai, whose birth at the stroke of midnight on the night of India’s independence ties his life to his country in magical and haunting ways. Mentally connected with the other children born at midnight, but forever alone in the greatness of his own intuition and connection to the country’s well being, Saleem’s life provides a fascinating read, even for someone (like myself) who doesn’t quite catch every one of the overwhelming historical allusions to India’s volatile early years of independence. Rushdie has achieved a truly sweeping narrative, following Saleem’s family drama across three generations, while simultaneously managing to include a story of vast and painful history between India and Pakistan. Occasionally this sweeping nature overtakes itself, leaving the reader adrift in a sea of detail and narrative tangents. We don’t even get to Saleem’s birth until about one hundred pages in, although that historical lead up is warranted. Towards the end of the novel, details again hinder the progress of plot, and Rushdie, in his desire to make is point clear, trends towards repetition and verbosity.

            Never fear! I’m not about to completely bash this novel. In fact, get ready for some intense praise. Midnight’s Children is the story of the past, told by a present day Saleem. He is writing his history, retelling his life to his companion Padma, thus maintaining two separate narrative tones. Rushdie also occasionally switches perspectives, leaving Saleem to the world for a while in order to investigate the inner struggles of other characters. This structure adds interest for the reader, pulling you out just as you become comfortable within India’s tumultuous past. And what a past it is! Saleem takes on a Forrest Gump quality, influencing moments in history in impossible ways, lending the entire novel a cinematic air.

            Adding to the cinematic quality of the novel is the absolute beauty of the language. Never before have I encountered someone who can craft a sentence with such skill and grace, and even still manage to tuck some humor in as well. His descriptions of people are spot on, pin pointing the features that we are always drawn to in the real world but never dare acknowledge. Saleem, for instance, has a nose that generally is compared with a cucumber. We’d never actually describe someone like that in real life, but definitely would think it. Rushdie takes that very human tendency to the pages of Midnight’s Children. It is a novel driven by its characters, and the believability of these people, despite their sometimes-grandiose lives and problems, is Rushdie’s greatest achievement. You care about these people’s stories.

            I must only fault Rushdie once more before telling you emphatically to go out and read this book. There is elitism in the novel that will not appeal to everyone. Often I found myself thinking, “The book is smarter than me!” during particularly deep historical and political plot turns. However, there is enough plot available to move through these moments with the confidence that you will come out on the other end not being mocked by the novel and it’s celebrated author, but having experienced a epic story of fate and feeling against a back drop staggering in scope and beauty.