Dissecting Rushdie: notes and scores

Hi Rampire Readers!

Many thanks to Mira for hosting such an animated and lively discussion last night. Rushdie managed to trigger so many different emotions in all of us, whether we loved or hated Midnight's Children. We all felt irritated by the narrator at some point or other though...

Reading Anja's comments prompted further insights into the novel and the group's views were indeed varied.

Here follow the scores we awarded so far:

Characters Topic Style UPD Best Character Worst Ch. Final Score /40

Anja 4 6 3 3 Aadam Saleem 16


Heather 6 8 7 1 Aadam Aziz Alia 22

Mira 7 6 POO 5 3 Brass Monkey Saleem 21

Monica 9 10 7 7 Reverend Mother Shiva 33

Raka 7 7 6 5 Mary Perreira Shiva 25

Sara 7 9 8 5 Adaam Aziz Emerald 29

PART THREE: In The Sundarbans

Oh Dear!

Having reached page 504 (!!!!), I finally admit that I am now totally lost....

Can't wait to be able to discuss this reading journey with you next Wednesday...

:-~

All-India radio

Hi Rampire Readers,

if by any chance you are, like me,struggling or have struggled with Rushdie...
Please soldier on!!!

I have just reached the "All-India radio" chapter in Book Two where all is revealed finally...And it is well worth it!!

Can't wait to read what happens next!! If you are sailing ahead of that chapter, would you agree with me or not?

"In Their Own Words: British Novelists" on BBC i player

BBC 4 series looking at the story of the British novel in the 20th century told by those who know it best - the authors themselves.

In part three Rushdie talks of Midnight's Children.

Here is the link.

http://bbc.co.uk/i/tlvtj/
or
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tgz5d


I have utterly enjoyed the whole series by the way...

CUTTING FOR STONE: our scores _ /10

We devised this grid last night and thought of the following categories:

Characters, Topic, Style, UPD*(plot), Best and Worst Character, Final Score
We then added our scores for each one as follows:

Anja 6 8 7 8 Gosh Rosina/Mary 29/40

Heather 6 8 7 8 Gosh Rosina 29/40

Monica 6 9 7 8 Hema Jenet 30/40

Mira 7 6 7 7 Hema Thomas Stone 27/40

Sara 7 8 6 7 Hema Stone’s father 28/40

*UPD = Unputdownableness

Discussing Cutting for Stone

Hi Rampire Readers,

we had a brilliant time last night discussing Cutting for Stone and many thanks to Heather for hosting the session. Many issues were raised although we all agreed that it was an enjoyable read, despite the plot being rather far-fetched at times.

As Mira and Raka were not there unfortunately, we felt that it would be great to hear their thoughts on the novel nonetheless and hope that our scores would prompt them to post their contributions.

As we are now officially reading Midnight's Children, we also thought that we could start posting comments on our October choice as we read along, without having to wait for Wed Oct 6th at Mira to discuss it.

Midnight's Children

Hi Rampire Readers!

Hope you are having a lovely summer and that you are enjoying/ have enjoyed Cutting for Stone.

I just wanted to let you know that I have already collected our copies of Midnight's Children from the library...Our next excting read is here!!!!

Look forward to seeing you all on Wed 1st at 18pm chez Heather. I shall hand out the copies then, unless you would like them in advance. Just let me know if you do and we can arrange an earlier delivery...

Ciao!

Monica