Midnight's Children

De: Salman Rushdie

Narrado por: Lyndam Gregory

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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)

great book, poor narration

The reader overplayed it. I think he was trying to add to the humor in the story and in so doing, killed the funny. Subtlety is a key in these performances. I wish they would have had Simon Vance do it, or Simon Prebble or .... well anyway.
The story itself is funny and touching and provocatve. Historical fiction at its best, telling the story of the times with a wide vision, and at the same time not loosing the thred of a human, personal story. And of course, there's a bit of magic, a bit of destiny... good stuff. I would download it again if they released another performance. Maybe they will get Grimus out soon? I hope.

Twin Births of India and the Nose

Though Midnight's Children won the Booker of Bookers, this text is less engaging and, I believe, less successful than The Satanic Verses. While MC tells the story of one particularly magical child, Saleem Sinai, who is writing this story for the purpose of telling his young child, who perhaps retains some magical qualities of his parents. The story is also the narrative of India and Pakistan, and the tensions that have existed since their twin births. While the story of Saleem Sinai takes many turns, the narrative takes its most significant turn when Rushdie unleashes a scathing critique of Indiria Ghandi's leadership during "The Emergency." Rushdie, as he explains in the Preface, was sued for libel over one particular sentence that Ghandi found offensive, regarding her relationship with her son and her role in her husband's demise. While Rushdie removed the offending sentence, this incident proves that his takedown of Ghandi was, in fact, accurate over her power grab. This book demonstrates the necessity of literature, both in how narrative allows for someone to make sense of events and the power of literature as social critique. For anyone interested in serious literature, this book should be engaged with for both the pleasure of literature and the power of literature.

The history of India in one mans face

Where does Midnight's Children rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I have listened to a lot of books, it is among the best.

What did you like best about this story?

I learned the story of India from the revolution on through an amazing story that allows you be a part of that history. The rhythym and timing of storytelling is amazing.

What about Lyndam Gregory’s performance did you like?

Awesome! The indian accent and the rolling voice was like music. I laughed many times as well and every other emotion.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Every emothion is felt reading this book.

Any additional comments?

Enjoy!

Great Performance

Lyndam Gregory is pitch perfect in his reading. He total inhabits the many characters presented in the novel.

The narration was the best!

First and foremost, I am a Midwest white woman and trying to differentiate Indian names on audio proved difficult for me. This book followed listening to A House For Mr. Biswas - both interesting and enlightening, but challenging in very different ways. Thank goodness for Google and Wikipedia in lieu of a college course. Those 2 entities will help make sense of this complicated novel (which can't be pigeonholed into any one genre). It certainly piqued my interest in what exactly went down with India's Independence, followed by Partition, etc.

From the beginning, when someone's tears are described as diamonds, I was entranced. The narrator was arguably one of the best I've heard, capturing the lilt and expression of Indian English, while expressing the words into life in a way we seldom get to hear outside of good theatre. He was marvelous!

So many great/ good things about this story, but I have to admit to having to slog through sections that related more to the history. I love history and I believe a reading in print would have been easier, but this narration is so good, I stand by this audio book for one of your readings. I'm 67, so I'll be moving on to another of The Modern Library's list of the Best English Novels of the 20th Century (this is ranked as #90).

Beautifully narrated

Beautifully narrated. The voice is so engaging, it just takes you to the land of midnights children.

The State as a projection of Man

The State as a projection of Man

As his sophomore novel #salmanrushdie attempted to tell the children complicated story of #indiaindependence through #midnightschildren . The story is narrated from the main character's perspective in an autobiographical approach of #saleemsinai who had the unique historical quirk of being born at the stroke of midnight precisely when #india became an independent state and the first thirty years as #pakistan and #bangladesh undergo their own independence wars. Born to a middle class Indian family in #bombay , the story travels across from #kashmir where Saleem's grandparents were born to #agra , #newdelhi , #lahore as his parents followed the lead of many #muslim Indians and relocated to #pakistan to escape the #hindu majority of India.

Salman Rushdie employs #magicalrealism which particularly makes sense with the religious and mythological aspects that pervade Indian culture. At the same time, the book details many well documented historical events of the time. Rusdie's debut novel is generally dismissed though it applied many similar devices. This second novel, however, gave him the fame and recognition previously missed, selling million copies in the just the #unitedkingdom alone. it also earned him the #1981 #bookerprize and landed him at #90 on the #modernlibrarytop100novels which is how it landed on my reading list. It can be a bit difficult to discern one character from another in some of the secondary characters but part of the fun is his frequent literary allusions peppered throughout this very long novel. Rushdie also gave very vivid descriptions of the varied and unique regions that make up the #subcontinent , many on yet another list of mine.
#readtheworldchallenge #globalreadingchallenge #englishliterature #indianliterature #readtheworld

Beautiful rendition, but...

Listening to books is an unforgettable experience, especially the books one loves. "Midnight's Children" is one of my favorites, and continues to be in audio form as well. Lyndam Gregory does a beautiful rendition of Midnight's Children. He gives each character a unique voice that makes them come alive. As the listener, you can see the characters in your mind. Gregory has the ability to evoke the essence of each character. Most importantly, he delivers the high drama of Rushdie's book. But... the only thing that was a bit of a put-off was the pronunciations of the names of the characters. Gregory does an excellent job with various kinds of Indian accents - it is obvious that he has really worked at it. However, he is not quite able to pronounce names, i.e., the proper nouns. Every time he says "Parvati" it sounds like "poverty", and "Nizam" always comes out as "Nazim", and so on. I would still highly recommend this audio book - it is a wonderful companion on a long drive.

Great book, not a fan of fake indian accent

What did you love best about Midnight's Children?

This book is very good and as reviewed by many, it stands as Salman Rushdie's best.

What did you like best about this story?

This is an awesome and fantastical account of India's birthing and growing pains. Some of the really important historical moments are told in a way I have never heard them before. The pain and suffering of all those years is hidden in plain sight by way of Rushdie's whimsical writing.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The performance was good in parts, but, I can't stand that fake Indian accent. I am an Indian and I implore all the Narrators to stop doing that. I get it, we don't speak like you do but please stop over emphasizing those "t"s "d"s and "r"s. It is really jarring!!!

Rushdie's Epic

A sweeping novel of Mid 20th Century India told with fantasy and humor. Rushdie is a brilliant writer who shows the history of India through the eyes of Salim, one of the children born on the stroke of midnight that heralded India's independence from Britain. This book is not an easy listen - one that you can listen to while doing other things. There are multiple characters and for someone not real familiar with Indian names, it is difficult to remember who everyone is, especially when you hear but not see the written names of people and places. I would recommend reading this instead of only listening to get the most out of the novel and if you are not familiar with post-independence Indian history, then you should check out some other sources. I have a cursory knowledge, but found myself not knowing who the author was referencing at times. I will probably get the book to read as this is a novel that can be read many times.

I liked the narrator very much, although I understand that he is using more a British than Indian accent. His voice was pleasant to listen to and his female voices were good.