Jon Nixon reviewed MIDNIGHT's CHILDREN (READING GDE) by S. RUSHDIE
Review of "MIDNIGHT's CHILDREN (READING GDE)" on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
I enjoyed this one but found it exhausting to read. It took me four months to finish because I had to keep breaking off to balance it with something lighter.
Every page is beautifully written and densely packed with wonderful descriptions and metaphors and looping allusions to other parts of the book. The trouble is it’s a long book with no texture, just a constant barrage of ideas.
There is a lot of humour in the novel and some great one liners (eg. one character is strong enough to squat forever, “simultaneously defying gravity and cramp”). I enjoyed the magical realism. Unbelievable stuff is just thrown in as if it’s totally mundane so you just accept it and move on (eg. contortionists who can swallow their own legs up to their knees). There’s a lot of tragedy too but even though I liked the characters I didn’t find their fates …
Every page is beautifully written and densely packed with wonderful descriptions and metaphors and looping allusions to other parts of the book. The trouble is it’s a long book with no texture, just a constant barrage of ideas.
There is a lot of humour in the novel and some great one liners (eg. one character is strong enough to squat forever, “simultaneously defying gravity and cramp”). I enjoyed the magical realism. Unbelievable stuff is just thrown in as if it’s totally mundane so you just accept it and move on (eg. contortionists who can swallow their own legs up to their knees). There’s a lot of tragedy too but even though I liked the characters I didn’t find their fates bothered me much (probably because I was being overwhelmed by the dense text.
I’m only giving it 3.5 because, although I thought it was worth reading, to me 5 means “read again” and 4 means “read other stuff by this author” and I don’t think I’ll do either of those.