A House for Mr Biswas

VS Naipaul is one of those names of authors that I've seen around forever and been meaning to read, but never get around to. Somebody told me A House for Mr Biswas was a good place to start, so I did.

Published in 1961, loosely based on the biography of Naipaul's dad, it's a very good book. It is neither easy nor hard reading, per se, nor is the tale it tells easy (in the sense that is inspires and has an uplifting moral) nor hard (in the sense that it exposes the terrible cruelties of colonial society or the fundamental injustice of Being). Instead, it reflects pretty well the story of the protagonist's life -- to the extent that the typical reader -- incarnated as me -- has a solid frame of reference to evaluate it.

Even as I write this I feel the theoretical critic in me looming over my shoulder ("reflects? What do you mean? It's fiction, created from whole cloth"). But I have to let this go.

In any case, the reader gets a good sense of what it was like to strive, flail and make limited progress in life in colonial Trinidad. I'm sure the book will bounce around in my head for a while. It was unlike other things I have read, and I pushed through north of 500 pages pretty quickly, so I have no regrets about taking it up.

(call came in re board responsibilities while writing. Now am a little behind, so must push forward)