This was challenging and excellent.

For the first hundred pages or so, I constantly felt like I wasn’t paying close enough attention, then it all came into focus and took off like a rocket.

Rushdie’s writing is dense and demanding. Every day, I had to talk myself into picking this up. Then as soon as I did, I didn’t want to put it down. The writing feels modern and fresh, which (considering the publication date) really surprised me.

The narrator was incredible. The story was full of surprises, fun distractions, and human emotion.

It felt like it dragged on too long, or maybe it was just my own fatigue, but it felt like there were a couple of points after the 450 page mark where I felt I could have put the book down. Maybe a few too many digressions. I’ve never been a big fan of magical realism, and I think it began to wear on me.

Still, a clear classic that stands up really well in 2023.