top 20 books 13

Top 20 Books, #13

After a one-week hiatus, the top 20 book list returns with number 13,

Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children.

My junior year at Occidental, I took an amazing class called "World

Literature" from Prof. Modhumita Roy, an associate professor of

English who can best be described as a tiny, sari-clad, with bright,

shining eyes and a winning smile. She was a wonderful professor who

taught a magnificent class covering world literature, but with an

Asian influence. I wish I still had the syllabus from this class and I

have even toyed with contacting Prof. Roy (now at Tufts) and asking

for a new reading list.

To the best of my memory, she introduced us to Jean Rhys' Wide

Sargasso Sea, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust, J.M. Coetzee's

Waiting for the Barbarians, Saadat Hasan Manto's short story

collection Kingdom's End and Other Stories, and Salman Rushdie's

Midnight's Children.

There were other titles in there, but these are what pop to mind.

Alas, I read them all, but due to some circumstances, did not get to

or through the Rushdie title. I still feel guilty about missing that

opportunity.

In fact, a year later, I think I ran into Prof. Roy at some English

Department function and confessed that I had managed to skip the book

in her class. She appeared distressed, not that I had traversed her

class without reading an assigned text, but that I had not read this

particular one. "It's such a wonderful book," she quipped in her

proper Queen's English,"you really should give it another go. You

won't regret it."

It took the Ayatollah Khomeini and his fatwa against Rushdie to

finally get me to read Rushdie, and then it was The Satanic Verses.

This title, much maligned, was very difficult, but I discovered while

reading it how wonderful Rushdie's writing was. I struggled through

it, driven by the fact that, despite the tough narrative, I would give

Midnight's Children it's due.

Like someone kicking himself after falling in love with someone who's

been under his nose for years, I embarked on this remarkable novel and

Rushdie skyrocketed to the top of my favorite author's list. I have

since read nearly everything by him (except for his last book Fury and

the recently-released Shalimar the Clown), but Shame, The Moor's Last

Sigh, and The Ground Beneath Her Feet all followed on my reading list

through the years and Rushdie seldom disappoints. Ground Beneath Her

Feet is also truly remarkable.

Midnight's Children tells the tale of the children of India born in

the moments after India attained independence from the British. These

children, spread out across the subcontinent, by chance of their

birth, have each obtained unusual and mystical powers that separate

them from the world. It is a truly wonderful story and I strongly

recommend it to all.

And no, I do not have a hardcover 1st edition, signed or unsigned, of

Midnight's Children. A true first, US edition, unsigned, is $1000 and

up. So if you win the lottery, think of me. Channukah is just around