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Midnight's Children (Vintage Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Salman Rushdie
Publisher: Vintage Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.33
You Save: £4.66 (58%)
New (29) Used (6) from £3.33
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 754
Media: Paperback
Pages: 672
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.1 x 2
ISBN: 0099511894
EAN: 9780099511892
ASIN: 0099511894
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Before Salman Rushdie had that problem with a certain religious-political figure with a serious need to chill out, he'd already shown he was an important literary force. Quite simply, Midnight's Children is amazing--fun, beautiful, erudite, both fairy tale and political narrative told through a supernatural narrator who is caught between different worlds. Though it's a big book, with big themes of India's nationhood and of ethnic and personal identity, it's far from a dry history lesson. Rushdie tells the story in his own brand of magical realism, with a prose of lyrical, transcendent goofiness.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Disappointing and dull September 18, 2008
PGR Gallagher (Accrington)
It's hard to live up to the "Booker of Bookers" tag but this comes nowhere near. Rushdie can write: bursts of compelling narrative display that. Unfortunately the whole story is trussed up in that clever "flash-back", "flash-forward" conceit which eventually bored me. No, I didn't finish it. I got a little further than I did with Ulysses, but eventually hurled this into the same Pseud Bin.
I've read somewhere that the author intends the time switching to be like the digressions of an oral storyteller but I think that's like trying to capture ballet in a poem or the moon in a bucket. The device is overused and tiresome. Want a Third World Magic Realism Family Saga? try "House of the Spirits".
 An important, and dare I say enjoyable read August 20, 2008
Ibrahim Ali (London)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Whatever controversies arise from Rushdie one cannot but marvel at the depths of his imagination. Midnight's Children whilst containing some of the most beautiful language and imagery is no easy read. As with most Rushdie novels we venture into the world of magic realism and we witness the life of a child born on the stroke of midnight hour when Nehru announces the "tryst with dynasty". Born with special powers Saleem is witness through the whirlwind of events that make up India's first thirty years and we see his attempted interfering. Again with Rushdie's novels we're unable to sympathise with any of the characters but nevertheless the strength of the writing keeps us plodding through.
 Comment on previous review August 12, 2008
C. Vaughan (Gibraltar)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I would not usually indulge in a review. It is only reading the previous review that has prompted, less than a reply, than a reaction.
Midnight's Children is a good book. Does this make me a fraud? No, it just happened that I enjoyed it, savoured it's scope, it's humour, it's allegory - all of this is not difficult to grasp, only if some people did not try so hard. When a person put the word intellectual in brackets it is fairly obvious that they see a distinct 'us and you'mentality in the literary world. And as much as there are the literary squabblers and vacous acedemic blabbers, these do not rule the litrary roost.
Midnight's children is a book to be read without too much initial analysis. Lap up the world inside the book, not the underlying allegory of Indian independance. Laugh and Saleem's akwardness, do not over-exert yourself by picking apart each sentence. Ride along with this book and you will enjoy it.
I think a large part of the problem is the current image of Rusdhie. He is a celebrity, but for all the wrong reasons. Ignore Rushdie and listen to Saleem himself, it is the work and not the author your reading here.
I find it hard to believe that the previous reveiwer actually finished the book. And these literary deathmatches (Nabakov is better than Rusdhie) are pointless defences for a floundering argument.
I suggest that you ignore the last review and make your own mind up.
How to spot a fraud.... July 31, 2008
Douglas Bates (UK)
4 out of 11 found this review helpful
Anyone, and I do mean anyone, who tells you that this is a good book is a pretentious fraud. Rushdie doubtless has an excellent command of language but is unable to stop himself overindulging, as a result the book is wordy, disjointed and goes nowhere. Midnight's Children is a classic fraudster's book, praised only by those who want the reflected glory of association with a book supposedly only capable of being understood and appreciated by "intellectuals." It's a shame really as Rushdie clearly has talent, however his writing is simply abysmal and because he is the darling of the literary establishment people pretend that they like and appreciate his work - don't waste your money, if you want to have a good read try Lolita by Nabakov, a true wordsmith from whom Rushdie could learn alot.
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