There's no back of the book info, so I'm going to quote from the BBC Big Read Book of Books.

In the first hour of India's independence, on 15 August 1947, 1,001 children are born, their lives destined to be entwined with that of their nation. Among them is Saleem Sinai, or rather the baby who assumes the identity of Saleem after a midwife swaps the real Saleem with the poor, orphaned baby - named Shiva - of a Western woman. By a twist of fate, the assumed Saleem's already large nose and blue eyes are attributed to Kashmiri heritage and his identity is never questioned as he grows up in a middle-class Mumbai home amid an eccentric family and neighbours. At the age of nine - triggered by a violent sneeze - Saleem discovers that he has the power to see inside other people's minds, a skill he applies within ever-widening parameters, from cheating at school to exploring all the corners of the land. This leads him eventually to all the other "midnight's children", each of whom has a supernatural power of their own, and over the years Saleem begins to mould the children into a force that can shape the nation's future. But things do not turn out as planned, and Saleem's life becomes increasingly troubled when he encounters his bitter "alter ego", Shiva. He finds that his gifts have destroyed far more happiness than they have created.

So in an attempt to read some of the great books in the world I've decided to take on the BBC Big Read challenge, along with some of the members of my book club. Midnight's Children is #100, and when I first heard about it I wasn't at all sure I'd get through it but having read more about it, I'm now really looking forward to it. I read the first page and very much liked the humour and style, and am now finding the book a less daunting prospect.

December 5th 2003

What a disappointment this book was! The writing was a punctuation explosion, with random commas scattered around the prose in the most irritating way possible. Excessive punctuation is rapidly becoming my least favourite thing when reading, and recently I've hit a glut of books using this technique. I didn't get far into this book before I gave up. It entirely failed to capture my attention, and the narrative didn't seem to follow any logic known to man. I couldn't understand how it had managed to win the aclaim it clearly had as a Booker Prize winner, and Big Read Top 100 Member. I'm baffled. Other members of the reading group (and also my father) managed to read further, and confirmed that my initial response was the right one, and none of those that had read it finished it either. Life's far too short to read bad books, so I'm moving on and discarding this one. Maybe one day I'll come back to it, but I doubt it. Until then I'm considering it read, though I won't give it a star rating as it's not finished.