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Title: A House for Mr. Biswas (Twentieth-Century Classics) by V. S. Naipaul, Ian Buruma ISBN: 0-14-018604-2 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: May, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.66 (44 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Naipaul's Masterpiece
Comment: This book is deservedly regarded as the new Nobel laureate's masterpiece. It is tells the life story of Mr. Mohun Biswas, a Hindu born in rural Trinidad. Mr. Biswas (and Naipaul ironically refers to him this way even when describing his infancy) is a poor Brahmin struggling to make something of his life. His father dies while he is still a boy and this causes him to exist as a poor relation held in low esteem first living with his mother on the stingy charity of his aunt and uncle and then with his wife's family, who treat him with similar contumely. Along the way Mr. Biswas has several children, including Anand who is the narrator of the story. Anand is, of course, Naipaul and Mr. Biswas is the author's father. On first reading I had believed that the book was much more of an autobiography than it really is. Naipaul has changed many of the names and places, perhaps to avoid giving offense to chararacters still living at the time the novel was first published (1958). Naipaul's brother Shiva, who was an accomplished author in his own right and who died prematurely in 1985, is not described at all. The ironic style gives the book a serio-comic feel that is quite true to life. The title's characters makes numerous failed attempts to at last have a house of his own, to get back to what he lost when his father died those many years ago. Every endeavor to make something of himself goes awry. His first job in a rum-shop ends when he is beaten and falsely accused of theft. His next job as a pundit's apprentice ends when he accidentally throws feces on to a sacred tree. There follow several other jobs, all of which eventually go wrong. Mr. Biswas is a failure at everything he does until the day he leaves his mother-in-law's house for the big city, Port of Spain. It is there that he first becomes a modest success as writer for the one of the island's major newspapers. My description does not do the book justice. The story itself is perhaps not very interesting at face value. It would seem at first that there is little in this book for a reader who is not a Hindu Trinidadian. That is not at all the case. It is the writer's gentle and loving telling of Mr. Biswas' life story interspersed with ironic and sarcastic comments resonating with the reader's own experiences of love-hate realtionships with his own family that make this a masterpiece.
Rating: 5
Summary: The best book I have ever read
Comment: Reading A House for Mr Biswas for the first time some years ago was a tremendous experience for me. In the story of Mohun Biswas -- particularly in the story of his muddled attempts to realize his aspirations -- I could see, with sometimes painful clarity, aspects of my own life and my own emotions. I could see also images of things that I knew of my father's life; and I was particularly moved when I learned later that Biswas was based loosely on the life of Naipaul's father.In Mohun Biswas, Naipaul has constructed a character, while not heroic nor particularly admirable, who embodies the struggles and desires and self-doubts that a lot of us (non-heroic and non-admirable) people experience. And Naipual has brought to his study of Biswas (and by extension to his consideration of his father's life) an extraordinary insight, one that is compassionate yet clear-sighted. I felt, after reading Biswas, that I understood myself better, more clearly, than before. No other novel I have ever read has given me this feeling to quite this extent. I would not hesitate to rank A House for Mr Biswas as the equal of the best nineteenth-century novels.
Rating: 5
Summary: Naipaul's Masterpiece, to Date
Comment: I've known many people who didn't like A HOUSE FOR MR. BISWAS because of the bleakness of the story. And, it is bleak, but V.S. Naipaul is such a marvelous writer that he can write about bleakness and cause that very bleakness to enrich our lives and reward us as readers. He can even turn that bleakness, at times, into gentle comedy. That is certainly genius.
The protagonist of the book, Mr. Mohun Biswas, has yearned for one thing all his life...a house of his own. For him, having his own house represents autonomy and triumph over the adversities of life. In many ways, I found Mohun Biswas to be the quintessential "Everyman."
Mohun Biswas was born into the world in Trinidad, with an extra finger (a bad omen, said some) and he was born into a life that was almost completely devoid of opportunities to better himself no matter how much he tried. The opening scene of the book is both bleak and darkly comedic and it sets the stage for all that is to come. Needless to say, Mr. Biswas doesn't have an easy time in life and much of the book is filled with despair and deprivation. Still, Naipaul manages to infuse these grim scenes with a dark comedy that offers some relief from the book's bleakness.
There isn't a lot of plot in A HOUSE FOR MR. BISWAS, but that doesn't really matter. At least it didn't to me. The narrative is very straightforward, without gimmicks or twists and turns of any kind. I think it says a lot about Naipaul's towering talent (and he is a towering talent whether you like him or not) when you realize that gimmicks and twists and turns were simply not needed. This very simple story of a very simple man is so beautifully told that it stands on its own.
Mr. Biswas seems to be thwarted in his quest for his own home when he marries Shyama. Shyama belongs to the Tulsi family and this family of many daughters insists that the sons-in-law move in with them, rather than establishing their own independent households. Shyama's mother, in particular, is very much at odds with Mr. Biswas. The problems Mr. Biswas encounters with his in-laws provide many of the book's lighter moments (if they can be termed, "light").
Mr. Biswas, however, is not a man to give up so easily, even in the face of overwhelming odds. He attempts to overcome his misfortune with a variety of jobs, but none of them work out very well and he rarely manages to rise above the poverty level.
Although it might seem that a book about a poverty-stricken man with little opportunity to rise above the misfortunes in his life would not be interesting, this is absolutely not the case. The writing in A HOUSE FOR MR. BISWAS is straightforward, but it is so lovely and fits the story so well, that it is totally engrossing. Even though I have never been to Trinidad and have never been as poor or as destitute as Mr. Biswas, I could identify with him and sympathize with him. If life doesn't offer us financial challenges, it offers us other, sometimes greater ones, and, for me, at least, Mr. Biswas personified the challenges we all face.
This book is bleak. It's not a book that's going to make the reader feel good about life (it might do just the opposite), but it does have its moments of gentle comedy. And, more importantly, this is a very rich book, one that is infused with the full spectrum of the indomitability of the human spirit. I think only the most superficial of readers could fail to see the humanity in the character of Mr. Biswas and fail to identify with him on some level.
Although, as I said, I know people who do not care for this book because of its bleakness and despair, I think it is an absolute masterpiece of post-colonial literature. Anyone who is serious about literature and wants to familiarize himself with the work of the greatest authors simply cannot afford to pass this up. It is, I think, Naipaul's masterpiece...so far.
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Title: A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul ISBN: 0679722025 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 March, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Mystic Masseur by V.S. Naipaul ISBN: 037570714X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie ISBN: 0140132708 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: An Area of Darkness by V.S. Naipaul ISBN: 0375708359 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Kaddish for a Child Not Born by Imre Kertesz, Katharina M. Wilson, Christopher C. Wilson ISBN: 0810111616 Publisher: Hydra Books Pub. Date: 25 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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