Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Just starting to dive in today! I've never read Rushdie before and I'm already breathless.

It's a good one!

As a non native reader this was a hard one!

I am now 1/4 of the way through. It was a touch slow feeling to start, but the prose has a really magical, rhythmic quality to it that I'm really enjoying. It has the feeling, and scope, of a Victorian novel in a lot of ways. The elements of magical realism or incorporated so neatly, it's hard to believe it took me 25% of the book just to get to our protagonist's birth.

I might step in and join you all if you don't mind. Just got this book from the library today, so I'll make a start this evening. :)

That would be great! So far I don't think that anybody else has started.

So I started. I didn't have as much time as I hoped to, so only managed the first chapter of book one - enjoying it so far, though. It is quite wordy, but in a beautiful way. It's quite poetic and I love his use of similes throughout.
The one thing I am struggling with is his use of political/historic references - I don't know all the people/events he is talking about and am reading on and just getting the gist because if I stop to research them all I'll be reading the book forever! I'd guess that once the story gets a real flow there will be fewer of these references so it's not spoiling the read for me.

Hey guys. I didn't know there was a BR thread for this, so I'm already done :( Curious to know what you'll all think, so I'll lurk around if you don't mind :D

Yes, please do! I'd love to know what you think. I've stalled at around page 150, but mostly because I'm just not in the mood to read, and not because of the book itself. I'm going to try to get into it again this weekend.

Tonia, I had a bit of the same issues as you and also chose to just read on, and figured I can dive in later re. research if things are still niggling later.

Tonia wrote: "The one thing I am struggling with is his use of political/historic references ..."

I read this a few years ago and also got bogged down with all those political/historic references. I want to say the last half has fewer of these? But it's been years and my memory is shaky.

I just plunged on and tried to understand as much as I could and ignored the rest. If I ever re-read it though, I'll probably read up on Pre-Partition politics in India/Pakistan, and try to get a bit more of it.


For whatever reason, I always have trouble reading Rushdie - I try to read it and get nowhere - but I enjoy him a lot in audio.

Slowly dragging myself through, I've hit just below the halfway point. Was supposed to go for coffee and to a farmer's market with my boyfriend today but it's pouring (wouldn't stop me...) so I think I'll try to push myself on to 50% completion, today. I've had to pick up another book to read while reading this because my reading had stalled almost completely. It's odd, because it isn't a bad book. I just can't seem to really get into it, although I find it's picking up now.

I'm the same. Whilst I am enjoying the read, it does feel like wading through treacle. I haven't yet managed to gain any sort of sympathy for any of the characters - and I am at times struggling to even remember who everyone is. I want this to be easier, because the writing is still so beautiful and poetic but it is feeling out of reach.

I'm sticking with it, maybe things will suddenly slide into place.

I'm not sure if you can access it outside the UK, but there is currently a dramatisation of Midnight's Children airing on BBC Radio4 - the first episode is here:
Midnight's Children Radio Series

Please continue discussion in the Midnight's Children threads here:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...