I love The God Of Small Things! I actually liked it better than Midnight's Children, but I read MC second so that could have a little bit to do with it. With Rushdie's novel, while it was well-crafted, I couldn't help but think that it really dragged for a good chunk of it. I thought the different unexpected paths that the lives of the characters took in Roy's novel were heartbreaking (especially the mother's) and even those characters that on the surface where very unsympathetic (like the grandma), she did a good job of providing enough nuance so that you understood them and could feel bad. But more importantly, I loved, loved, loved Roy's vivid imagery and general style of writing. It was almost...poetic.

I do, however, agree that there are serious similarities, thematically, in the two works. In fact, I think I wrote a paper once on their different uses of history and magical realism. That was fun to write.