I just finished 'Midnight's Children'...

And I hated it. It was a gift from a dear friend on my birthday, so I felt I had to read it all the way through. The only other person I know IRL who has read it is my priest, and he agrees with me that it's a terrible book.

Personally, I found it badly paced, lacking in imagery and descriptive language (I know that's a preference thing), and Salman Rushdie comes off as being incapable of handling sensitive subjects gracefully or intelligently. The only emotion this book inspired was occasional mild disgust. I'm curious if there's something I'm missing? Has anyone else read it? All the reviews I've seen call the book 'important' and 'evocative' but that was not my experience at all.