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Midnight's Children  By  cover art

Midnight's Children

By: Salman Rushdie
Narrated by: Lyndam Gregory
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Publisher's summary

Man Booker Prize Winner, 1981

Salman Rushdie holds the literary world in awe with a jaw-dropping catalog of critically acclaimed novels that have made him one of the world's most celebrated authors. Winner of the prestigious Booker of Bookers, Midnight's Children tells the story of Saleem Sinai, born on the stroke of India's independence.

©1981 Salman Rushdie (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“Burgeons with life, with exuberance and fantasy . . . Rushdie is a writer of courage, impressive strength, and sheer stylistic brilliance.” (The Washington Post Book World)

“A marvelous epic . . . Rushdie’s prose snaps into playback and flash-forward . . . stopping on images, vistas, and characters of unforgettable presence. Their range is as rich as India herself.” (Newsweek)

“Extraordinary . . . one of the most important [novels] to come out of the English-speaking world in this generation.” (The New York Review of Books)

Featured Article: Totally Tubular—The Best Audiobooks of and About the 1980s


When you think of the 1980s, what comes to mind? Big hair? Shoulder pads? Ronald Reagan? Madonna? The 1980s were a big time of change in politics and pop culture, and that time remains fresh in our minds because of the iconic moments that mark its importance in history. Whether you're nostaglic or curious, this list of listens will immerse you in the decade that brought us Pac-Man, MTV, Madonna, Ronald Reagan, and the Rubik's cube!

What listeners say about Midnight's Children

Average customer ratings
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    4 out of 5 stars

Reader is phenomenal

Reader reproduces the gush of emotions of the author, waxing and waning with flow of thoughts of the writer, seemed to me floating in the mind of the author. Superb variations in dialect adaptability to Indian and regional pronounciation.

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Recommend

Well read, well paced, unique historical novel.
Poetic at times. Lengthy at times. Great point of view(s) structure.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Trite and Drawn Out

The book has it's moments but felt a bit drawn out. The view of Indian/ Pakistani women is quite condescending.

The protagonist has a exaggerated view of himself and seems to be overtly encouraged by the author to keep the view. A hint of ridicule towards the main character would have been more than welcome.

I guess the book works as a caricature of subcontinental people but for caricature it is too long. Though the effort is apparent, the different timelines didn't quite come together convincingly for me.

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Wonderful book, poor narration

This is an exquisite love letter to Bombay and the India of Rushdie’s youth, unfortunately marred by the jarring mispronunciation of nearly every Hindi, Sanskrit, and Indian term (of which there are many) by the narrator who gets nearly NO Indian word right. For anyone familiar with India, the incongruity of the pronunciation of even words now common in the international lexicon (like Shiva and Ganga) is enough to repeatedly pull one out of the story. A pity. This book deserved a better treatment.

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Lyndam Gregory did wonderful!

The guy who read this book did such an absolutely perfect job he is worth noting. As for the book I had to score it low because of three things I didn't like about it. #1 part one #2 part two and #3 part three this book was an absolute struggle from the beginning to end I only finished it because I had told some one I would or else I'd have returned it in the first two hours not waiting for the other 23 ughhhh...

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Worst book ever

Worst book I've ever listened to
I will return it
Short on history, long on flowery language, tries to be humorous and fails miserably

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Ugh.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Most everything.

Would you ever listen to anything by Salman Rushdie again?

Nope. Maybe Satanic Versus, but it would be a long shot. When I read the Satanic Versus in college, I thought maybe I was missing something of Rushdie's profundity because I was unfamiliar with Islamic history. Now that I'm more familiar with that history, I could be persuaded to give it another go. After listening to Midnight's Children, however, the persuasive effort would need to be profound. It's an interesting idea--telling the story of place or ideology through fictional characters and absurdist exaggeration--but it's too much and too silly to be considered profound. I'd much rather just read the history.

What does Lyndam Gregory bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Accents.

Did Midnight's Children inspire you to do anything?

Like what? Start a revolution? Work on my mystical powers? Read more? Ask stupid questions? No. I don't think the book is supposed to be inspirational, is it?

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Whew!

A great book, but quite the challenging read/listen...A pantheon of larger than life characters populate the magical and real worlds of Saleem...The lyrical writing of Rushdie reminds you of Garcia-Marquez or Vonnegut...

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A Pickled History of India's Twin Brother

This is a history of modern India as told by a resident with an overactive imagination, an inflated sense of self worth, and a short attention span. It's a magical, romantic, and quite funny story of three generations spanning the region from Bombay to Kashmir.

Briefly summarized (giving nothing away), we have the adult twin of India, a Muslim born at the exact same time as his home country, and therefore gifted with magical powers. He tells the story of his paternal grandfather and of his parents, and his childhood in Bombay. These characters witness India's changing landscape.

So, at best, we have our history told to us third hand. Moreover, the narrator himself admits to the flourishes, the omissions and additions, and the exaggerations in his story. This makes for a lot listener head scratching, brow furrowing, and sometimes belly laughing.

If the subject matter isn't your cup of Darjeeling, but you're still curious, I strongly suggest you spending your credit here. If you've read The Satanic Verses and are looking for more of the same, you'll find a lot to like in Midnight's Children. If you've read The Satanic Verses and have sworn off of Rushdie forever, take heart. Midnight's Children, to me, was a bit easier to read and much better grounded (see what I did there?).

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

GOD AND THE SNAKE

"Midnight’s Children" is about God and the snake. Written by Salman Rushdie, it is a story about religion and knowledge. It raises issues about God, Allah, Shiva, Buddha and many fundamental religious beliefs. In "Midnight’s Children", Rushdie uses a satiric pen to tell the story of India’s independence and the role of religion in Indian/Pakistani society.

"Midnight’s Children" is a “coming of age” saga about one child born at the strike-of-midnight August 15, 1947, the day India became an independent nation-state. Rushdie demythologizes religion and promotes humanism by telling a story of India and Pakistan’s history. He infers the prime mover of life is human nature; not God.

Rushdie uses the snake as a symbol of knowledge; knowledge that contains both good and evil. Rushdie writes that snake venom kills and heals; i.e. it kills when there is too much; heals when used in correct proportion. Saleem, as a young boy, survives early death with administration of the right proportion of venom; i.e. the right amount of knowledge.

Prominence of a nose is a recurrent theme in Rusdie’s story. At times, Rushdie’s writing is laugh-out-loud funny, like when he describes the prominence of a big nose. Though the clairvoyant quality of Saleem’s life is lost when his nose is operated on, the nose offers other extraordinary powers. A listener is inclined to believe, as Saleem matures, that a nose knows about life and living in the Middle East and other regions of a troubled world.

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