Resumo de Midnight's Children

MIDNIGHT?S CHILDREN

What starts out as an intense preoccupation with the self in general and a nose , in particular, fans out in the later stages of the book into a tapestry that binds cultures, countries, histories and people of all ages. The beginning of the novel attempts to sweep you back a generation or two but tends to digress, into what seems unnecessary avenues, by the time you reach the end of the book. Themed around the sensory miracles of the protagonist and his band of ?Midnight? Children, the narrative weaves into one piece the story of Salim Sinai (the protagonist) and the rule of pre-meditation that dominates his life events beginning with his birth and acceptance into a family that was never his to begin with. It explores with an appetite, the young boy?s discovery of his ?snot nose? power, his forays into the most secret corners of the minds of those around him; his existence being the basis of events national and international, his nightly conferences with the other gifted children born on one fated midnight. The narrative runs from the most prosaic to the fantastic to the philosophic heights of a 10 yr old mind for most of the first half. The latter half of the story combines growing pains with growing realizations of Salim?s birth, the relationship between his parents, his complicated relationship with his sister and his alter ego, his banishment and re-entry into the Sinai world, his work in the CUTIA unit of the Pakistani army, his reunion with his brothers and sisters in birth, the children of midnight.
The shifting geographic landscape provides for shifts in his various perspectives. The story travels from the lakes and ice covered hills of Kashmir, to the cellars of Agra, to an elitist existence in Bombay to a banishment in Pakistan, to a mission in Bangladesh and circles back to India. Salim?s experiences span from the magical to the powerful, to the banished and spurned, to the vegetative bliss of amnesia to a total rejuvenation of his olfactory capacities which makes up for his lost powers. The novel triumphs in its interweaving of the social turmoil of the partition of India, the rebellions in fledgling Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh into the fabric of Salim Sinai?s somewhat fantastic somewhat mortal existence. The narrator(Salim) tends to digress at times, as he tries to foresee the events of the future but the author has superbly caught himself each time it has threatened his narrative and used it as a tool to help his story along. A story where the strong flavors of pickle vats contend for attention with stronger flavors and smells of love jealousy, anger, self pity, murders, friendships and collaboration. The backdrop of the novel is almost cruel in its candidness and leaves and breathes almost independent of the story or the protagonist.

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