Discuss the function of errata or 'unreliable narration' in Salman Rushdie's "Midnight's Children".

In Salman Rushdie's critical essay, '"Errata": or, Unreliable Narration in "Midnight's Children"', he comments that 'It is by now obvious, I hope, that Saleem Sinai is an unreliable narrator, and that "Midnight's Children" is far from being an authoritative guide to the history of post-independence India.' Throughout the course of this essay I shall be examining the techniques Rushdie uses to create the unreliable narrator, his authorial purpose, and the effect the …

…conclusion, it seems that the unreliable narrator in "Midnight's Children" has many functions. Rushdie employs the technique as a channel for developing and representing his views on historical legitimacy, the importance of memory in reconstructing a story, and his rejection of the India of the communalists. Rushdie himself believed that 'the reading of Saleem's unreliable narration might be [...] a useful analogy for the way in which we all, every day, attempt to "read" the world' .