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A review by debicates
A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
2.0
The author has stated publicly that his work is superior to any by women writers. Imagine my disappointment.
It took me over a month to read about the mild misadventures of Mr. Biswas and his efforts to gain a house of his own. (I'm reminded of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.) There were a few pleasurable episodes (especially during Mr. Biswas' early career as a roving, loose-with-the-facts journalist), but because the book is mostly about a querulous child-man, living in a house of equally querulous childish in-laws and their petty squabbles and name-calling, it was a chore. I suppose ultimately Naipaul was saying something about the simple dignity in having a place to call one's own and the indignity of poverty, and perhaps also how Colonialism made children out of men, but Mr. Biswas' personality was so off-putting that it's only now that I think of that message. While reading it mostly I thought, "How many more pages?"
Then, as I turned off the light, I thought instead of other writers I love, "Jane Austen, Willa Cather, Margaret Atwood, Edith Wharton, Marjorie Kinan Rawlings, Katherine Anne Porter, Dorothy Parker, Harriet Doerr, Toni Morrison,......."
It took me over a month to read about the mild misadventures of Mr. Biswas and his efforts to gain a house of his own. (I'm reminded of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.) There were a few pleasurable episodes (especially during Mr. Biswas' early career as a roving, loose-with-the-facts journalist), but because the book is mostly about a querulous child-man, living in a house of equally querulous childish in-laws and their petty squabbles and name-calling, it was a chore. I suppose ultimately Naipaul was saying something about the simple dignity in having a place to call one's own and the indignity of poverty, and perhaps also how Colonialism made children out of men, but Mr. Biswas' personality was so off-putting that it's only now that I think of that message. While reading it mostly I thought, "How many more pages?"
Then, as I turned off the light, I thought instead of other writers I love, "Jane Austen, Willa Cather, Margaret Atwood, Edith Wharton, Marjorie Kinan Rawlings, Katherine Anne Porter, Dorothy Parker, Harriet Doerr, Toni Morrison,......."