Even for Salman Rushdie’s fans, his books are hard to read and digest but they enchant and hook them up. While his non-fictional works appear rational, his fictions are very different. He employs ‘Magical Realism’, a style where-in protagonists of his plots have unnatural powers and he mixes up the characters from the real world with imaginary one’s. So, an ordinary reader would find it difficult to make sense of what he is reading. Well, Salman Rushdie is no ordinary writer. The reader should not pick his books like any other regular novel. If one can keep away the common notions, a finer world unravels.
Here is an excerpt from “Midnight’s Children”:
“Unless, of course, there’s no such thing as chance; in
which case Musa – for all his age and servility – was nothing less than a
time-bomb, ticking away softly until his appointed time; in which case, we
should either – optimistically – get up and cheer, because if everything is
planned in advance, then we all have a meaning, and are spared of the terror of
knowing ourselves to be random, without a why; or else, of course, we might –
as pessimists – give up right here and now, understanding the futility of
thought decision action, since nothing we think makes any difference any way;
things will be as they will.”
