Rushdie's novel has always been on my "need-to-read" list, but only this year have I sunk my teeth into what (I surmised) may have become a dated novel. To my infinite surprise I discovered one of the true masterpieces of 20th century literature. My only complaint is that the latter half of the book does not seem to follow the impressive lyrical precedent of the first 300 pages - but this is to be expected as the beauty of the writing is unparallelled.