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Rushdie's narrator, Saleem Sinai, is the Hindu child raised by wealthy Muslims. Near the beginning of the novel, he informs us that he is falling apart--literally:
I mean quite simply that I have begun to crack all over like an old jug--that my poor body, singular, unlovely, buffeted by too much history, subjected to drainage above and drainage below, mutilated by doors, brained by spittoons, has started coming apart at the seams. In short, I am literally disintegrating, slowly for the moment, although there are signs of an acceleration.In light of this unfortunate physical degeneration, Saleem has decided to write his life story, and, incidentally, that of India's, before he crumbles into "(approximately) six hundred and thirty million particles of anonymous, and necessarily oblivious, dust." It seems that within one hour of midnight on India's independence day, 1,001 children were born. All of those children were endowed with special powers: some can travel through time, for example; one can change gender. Saleem's gift is telepathy, and it is via this power that he discovers the truth of his birth: that he is, in fact, the product of the illicit coupling of an Indian mother and an English father, and has usurped another's place. His gift also reveals the identities of all the other children and the fact that it is in his power to gather them for a "midnight parliament" to save the nation. To do so, however, would lay him open to that other child, christened Shiva, who has grown up to be a brutish killer. Saleem's dilemma plays out against the backdrop of the first years of independence: the partition of India and Pakistan, the ascendancy of "The Widow" Indira Gandhi, war, and, eventually, the imposition of martial law.
We've seen this mix of magical thinking and political reality before in the works of Günter Grass and Gabriel García Márquez. What sets Rushdie apart is his mad prose pyrotechnics, the exuberant acrobatics of rhyme and alliteration, pun, wordplay, proper and "Babu" English chasing each other across the page in a dizzying, exhilarating cataract of words. Rushdie can be laugh-out-loud funny, but make no mistake--this is an angry book, and its author's outrage lends his language wings. Midnight's Children is Salman Rushdie's irate, affectionate love song to his native land--not so different from a Bombay talkie, after all. --Alix Wilber
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Book Description Hardback. Condition: New. This item is printed on demand. New copy - Usually dispatched within 5-9 working days. Seller Inventory # C9781857152173
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 589 pages. 8.27x5.31x1.38 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __1857152174
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Brand New. 589 pages. 8.27x5.31x1.38 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # zk1857152174
Book Description Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Salman Rushdie is the author of thirteen previous novels ¿ Grimus, Midnight¿s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Moor¿s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown, The Enchantress of Florence, Luka and the Fire of Life, Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights, and The Golden House ¿ and one collection of short stories: East, West. He has also published four works of non-fiction ¿ Joseph Anton, The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, and Step Across This Line ¿ and co-edited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature. 589 pp. Englisch. Seller Inventory # 9781857152173
Book Description Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware -Salman Rushdie is the author of thirteen previous novels ¿ Grimus, Midnight¿s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Moor¿s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown, The Enchantress of Florence, Luka and the Fire of Life, Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights, and The Golden House ¿ and one collection of short stories: East, West. He has also published four works of non-fiction ¿ Joseph Anton, The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, and Step Across This Line ¿ and co-edited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature. 589 pp. Deutsch. Seller Inventory # 9781857152173
Book Description Buch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Salman Rushdie is the author of thirteen previous novels ¿ Grimus, Midnight¿s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), Shame, The Satanic Verses, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Moor¿s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown, The Enchantress of Florence, Luka and the Fire of Life, Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights, and The Golden House ¿ and one collection of short stories: East, West. He has also published four works of non-fiction ¿ Joseph Anton, The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, and Step Across This Line ¿ and co-edited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature. Seller Inventory # 9781857152173
Book Description Condition: New. A history of India since independence seen through the eyes of characters born on that independence was granted.Über den AutorrnrnSalman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels - Luka and the Fire of Life Gri. Seller Inventory # 597120857
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 1.46. Seller Inventory # Q-1857152174
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks454815