Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

This book is popular.  Not only did it manage to impress the judging panel in 1981, the year it won, but also a panel who chose the ‘Booker of Bookers’ to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Booker prize.  In addition to being voted for by the public via an online poll to mark the 40^th anniversary of the prize to win ‘The Best of the Booker’.  So no pressure then…!  Thankfully it lived up to expectations.  Although, as you may have grasped if you read what I thought of ‘The Famished Road’ I’m not sure that the ‘magic realism’ genre is really for me and there was a significant amount of the unreal in this particular story.  However, crucially there was enough grounding in reality and plenty else about the book which made it a thoroughly entertaining read. 

I really liked the self-conscious nature of the writing style; whetting the reader’s appetite with hints of what was to come or reminding the reader of key points mentioned previously and how the protagonist debated about how best to tell the story, crafting it into a masterpiece.  And it wasn’t just the writing style that so appealed; it was a cracking story with gasp-inducing twists, propelling the reader through the characters’ lives in page-turning fashion at times.

I was particularly drawn into the characters of the family, feeling as though I could picture them fully with a real grasp of the family dynamics.  So much so that once the story got outside the confines of the childhood homes it lacked something for me.  However, perhaps the most impressive aspect of the book was the way that the story was interwoven into the historical context of the struggles of an independent India.   This was informative, giving the reader a perspective of events from the characters’ points of view and also highlighted the interconnectedness of sequences of events.  Furthermore, how the pressure to achieve significant things given a fresh start or new life can overshadow the flame of optimism that is so strong initially, leading to a sense of helplessness and impotence.

In addition, this story stressed the interaction between luck or randomness with sequential cause and effect and how this shapes lives of individuals and thus the nations of the world.  I think that Rushdie achieved great things with this book as not only did he create an existence of characters in which the reader had a great interest but he masterfully grounded this in a significant context elevated by giving the reader a great deal to reflect on beyond the confines of the novel.