The question of truth and fabrication are present in both Naipaul and Rushie's novels. In A Bend in the River, the reader had to decide whether to believe Salim's accounts of his life and the lives of the other characters. This is also present in Midnight's Children. On page 62, Saleem says that "Family history, of course, has its proper dietary laws. One is supposed to swallow and digest only the permitted parts of it... Letting no blood escape from the body of the tale, I arrive at the unspeakable part; and undaunted, press on". Although he claims to be pushing out all the details of the past, there's no guarantee that the narrator is telling the whole truth. He might be fabricating the use of his grandfather's nose or about the prophet and so on. There's always a need to remind oneself that this story is being told from one perspective and from a narrator that wasn't even alive for a section of the book.
The use of ellipses throughout the novel also indicates that Saleem is either leaving certain details out or Rushdie is using them to create a more realistic narration (using ellipses to signify a break to think about what is being written, etc.). For example on page 74, "(But she remained susceptible to the forbidden dream-images of... and was always drawn to men with soft stomachs and longish, lankish hair.)"
On page 87, S.P. Butt said, "If they can change the time just like that, what's real anymore? I ask you? What's true?" What's real and what's true depends on who is telling the story. Saleem's perspective is real and true to him, even when he leaves out certain details, but can be a completely different experience for somebody else.
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