A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A House for Mr. Biswas
Book Review: This book defines "engaging"
Summary: 5 Stars
This book defines "engaging". Though I have never been to Trinidad, I now feel like I've spent significant time there. Using very few words, Naipaul paints a portrait of what poverty in Trinidad looked like, emotionally, economically and socially. He also takes a protagonist who seems very harsh and abrasive at first, and makes him into a sympathetic character. We grow as he does. I've seldom read books that have made me able to so fully climb into the skin of a character, but this one does it. You feel his anguish, and understand his few joys. All of this is done with a very economical use of words. This is truly one of the best books I've ever read. I can't reccommend it enough.Book Review: This one will take some time...
Summary: 4 Stars
A House for Mr. Biswas was my first foray into V.S. Naipaul's writing. Perhaps I should have started with a shorter book. However, the character of Mr. Biswas is one I will never forget.Take your time reading this one. Naipaul's writing is wonderful but a bit slow at times. You will be rewarded in the end as this novel will stay with you for quite some time. It definately makes me want to explore other novels by Naipaul.
Book Review: Trapped, trapped, trapped!..
Summary: 5 Stars
You cannot help being captivated by the prose of V.S Naipaul. While the phrasing is more ragged and stretched than the one found in his masterpiece, A Bend in the River, it's still state of they art. There is however much more to this book than excellent writing, it's also a beautiful story of the birth, life, dreams and death of a human being.
The novel's main character, Mr Biswas, is skillfully used to lighten the short comings of the family oriented rural community where one is supposed to do what is expected of you and not necessarily what will be best for your own happiness. In this trapped life Biswas coins his life dream: his own piece of this earth, with his own house on it where he can live in accordance to his own values and be free.
One cannot help feeling that this book is really about a modern westerner being dropped into a ancient culture he does not belong in, respects or understands. A truly powerful story that made me realize how fundamental the right to your own life, property and thoughts really are
Book Review: dickens in trinidad
Summary: 5 Stars
THis is a novel of epic proportions about the struggle of an individual against his in-laws, a "mini-totalitarian society" as Naipaul put it. While the plot is simple - Biswas wants his own house - the struggle is so painfully real. You will laugh and cry with this book, and learn about the Third world as well. Naipaul said that this book marked his maturing as a writer, and in many ways it is his best novel. Warmly recommended.
Book Review: unbearable
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm amazed that I'm completely at odds with the majority of the reviewers. Now, I consider myself an intelligent person and an avid reader but I fail to see what's so great about this novel. For the first time in my life, I stopped reading a book after 400 pages into it. It was, with the only word I can think of, unbearable.
Why would you like a novel? The least sophisticated reason might be the story being interesting, or entertaining. If your idea of an interesting story is one of a lifetime loser who keeps changing jobs, constantly complaining about his rich in-laws but after every failure goes back to them to live with 50 other people in the same house, sleeping on the floor; endless family quarrels; ignorant people who speak broken English etc, this book might be for you, because from the beginning to the end, that's what you get. There is nothing that gives you a curious, exciting feeling of "what's going to happen next?"; from his birth to his death you read the uninteresting life story of a loser with uninteresting details. You don't feel badly about him, you don't sympathize with him, you don't hope him to "make it this time", but you read and read and read and nothing changes. As such, I wouldn't be exaggerating much if I say that there isn't really a plot. If you listen to your grandfather's life story one night and write it the next few days, you can do just as well as the author of this novel, if not better, because at least there is a good chance that anybody's grandfather had a more interesting life than the completely uninteresting life of the protagonist, Mr. Biswas. As for humor like the other reviewers found, that's also a complete mystery to me. There is no humor.
I read other novels with stories that doesn't interest me but the way the story was told was so beautiful that I couldn't stop reading. Immediately, "Old Man and the Sea" of Hemingway comes to my mind. Fishing, personally, is not interesting for me; as such if a fishing lover friend starts telling me how he tried to catch a fish in details, I would quickly find a way to change the subject. But "Old Man and the Sea" happens to be one of my favorite novels because the language, the prose is just beautiful. Naipaul, however, is not Hemingway. It was further amazing for me to read that a lot of reviewers praised Naipaul's prose. In my opinion, his prose is better than an average high school student, but that's as good as it gets. There is no "art", no elegance in his prose. He just writes Mr. Biswas' life in historical order. It's like a chronology without the dates.
If I should force myself to say anything good about the book, maybe it exposes you to a foreign culture little bit. But just little bit and not in a thought provoking way.
I realize I feel and think so much opposite to the majority. When so many people like and praise this book and my position is the exact opposite, maybe the problem is me. Maybe I fail to see what they see. Logically, it is quite possible that I am just wrong. But as a well-read person, it is hard for me to put aside my confidence and accept that. So another possibility I can think of is as follows: Giving literary awards is not an easy task. Literature is not mathematics, literary taste is in some degree, subjective. Sometimes there might even be other influences, political or otherwise. One way or another, once a work gets awarded Nobel prize however, it becomes difficult for people to open mindedly criticize it. They try to force themselves to like it, and if they can't like it they don't express it for fear of sounding unsophisticated, unintelligent, or downright stupid. So usually you only see positive criticisms.
If you are still curious about the book, read it. I leave it up to you to decide between the to possibilities.