I just finished Midnight's Children yesterday after at least a month of reading. It's about 500 pages of small print, so it took a really long time to finish. I even owe a small fine to the library, even after renewing two times. It was worth it to finish the story - I liked the ending.
Midnight's Children is a fictional story intertwined with the history of India and Pakistan. It's the story of Saleem, born at midnight at the exact moment of Indian independence. Because of this unique timing, he has.....superpowers. Saleem is tightly connected to the history of his country. Midnight's Children is both of their stories weaved together.
I was really hoping I would love this book like I loved A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. There are a lot of similarities, yet I loved A Fine Balance and only enjoyed Midnight's Children. Mistry's novel is even longer, but it took me far less time to read. Yes, it could have been the brain explosion factor, but also, Midnight's Children lost me once or twice. It occurs over such a long period of time that it felt like Saleem-the-boy and Saleem-the-man have drastically different stories. After the boy's story ends, I lost interest enough that I read another book in between (yes, as long ago as my last book post). I can't give a book an A that I fell off of twice*. Yet I'm glad I stuck around for the ending. If your looking for a book with substance and history, give Midnight's Children a try.
Grade: B+
* I would have done better with this book if the breaks were more abundant and the chapters shorter. It's a tough one for people with attention span issues...I doubt I'm the only one.
No comments:
Post a Comment