Book club selection via Nicole (October 18, 2015). Interesting to see that it appears on lists of "100 greatest novels" or all time. I wouldn't say I loved the book, but I would say that I think I benefited - a lot from reading it. My main downside: I just couldn't really care about, or connect with, any of the characters.
I did care about the story arc - India around the time of the partition - but that wasn't enough. And the virtuoso writing doesn't move me so much. Same problem for me as with Laurence Stern (Tristram Shandy - which I gave up on pretty quickly so haven't included on this blog) or Marquez.
The protagonist was born at midnight on India's independence day from Britain (Aug 15, 1947). He had a huge nose (reminiscent of Sterne book, with same humor on that point). He had super-powers to communicate with others born at the same time - "Midnight's Children."
But even that conceit didn't entirely work - seemed like Midnight's Children didn't really end up doing much of anything, and fell out of the general story line.
Something I liked: author knew how to tell us about history without telling it directly or pedantically - I think he assumed his readers weren't looking for a direct history lesson - but he gives so much of it. One example of a clever device: where the protagonist is cutting letters out of the newspaper headlines as part of a plot sequence. Guess what: lots of history is communicated this way.
A glimpse, rare for me, of 20th century India/Pakistan/Bangladesh.
Reminder of Britain's hasty exit - no real preparation - the awful movement of peoples; what real for east-west Pakistan given geographic separation? The depth of the antipathy Islam/Hindu.
Also liked how he revealed a lot about India/Pakistan geography: author moves characters around: Bombay, Karachi, Kashmir, Bangladesh, Delhi.
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