Prompt Proofing Blog Post: Book Review - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

VANCOUVER, BC, November 23, 2012 (Press-News.org) Midnight's Children is a multi-layered novel that, on the surface, is the autobiography of Saleem Sinai, one of 1001 children born in the midnight hour of August 15, 1947 as India gained her independence from Britain. Midnight's children - or at least the 581 of them who survive infancy - are "handcuffed to history", their lives mirroring the life of the newly independent nation. Each of the children has a special gift - one can levitate, one can change gender, one performs magic and one can time travel. Saleem, born on the stroke of midnight, has the gift of telepathy and can gather all of midnight's children inside his head for a 'conference' aimed at effecting change in the turbulent political events that shape India's future.

Also born at the exact stroke of midnight, and in the same hospital, is Shiva. In a plot device reminiscent of Indian movies of the time, Saleem and Shiva are switched at birth, condemning Shiva to a life of poverty and squalor and elevating Saleem to a comfortable childhood in a wealthy Muslim family. Shiva, whose life Saleem has unwittingly 'stolen', grows into a brutal killer who ultimately gains revenge on Saleem in terrible ways and their fortunes are quickly reversed once the boys are grown.

Without doubt, a knowledge and understanding of the history of India from 1947 to the mid-70s will prove helpful to a full understanding of this novel. Saleem's life - which he perceives, not without justification, as being cursed - reflects the violent changes taking place in India and the newly created nations of Pakistan and, later, Bangladesh, focusing in particular on the terrible events of the 'Emergency'. Indira Gandhi, instigator of the Emergency, is portrayed in the novel as the Widow, resulting in her suing Rushdie. The Emergency was a dark period in Indian history when arrests, torture, disappearances and forced sterilizations were commonplace.

Rushdie's novel is packed with imagery, symbolism and mysticism, conjuring a multi-faceted picture of Indian life that runs the gauntlet from the beauty and peace of Kashmir through colourful splendour to direst poverty in the slums of Bombay and unimaginable brutality and suffering. An epic novel in every sense of the word, Midnight's Children is not a quick or easy read. As a portrait of Indian life in the first thirty years of independence it is exquisite but Saleem's story, like that of the nation, is often harrowing and heartbreaking.

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