Among postcolonial novels, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children and Pramoedya's Buru quartet bear a clear resemblance, for both are responses to the degeneration seen in postcolonial societies. This article, a comparative study of the two novels, seeks to understand the value of the realistic historical novel; the individual's relation to the national community; the reasons for the degeneration of postcolonial societies and the significance of exile.
