Alphabet Authors ~ N is for Naipaul

I found this idea on Simon's blog @ Stuck in a Book. He picks an author for each letter of the alphabet, sharing which of their books he's read, which I ones he owns, how he came across them etc. I might not do it exactly as he does but I will try to get to all the letters of the alphabet over time.

There are letters where you have a huge choice of authors and then there are others where you don't find even one. Well, there is at least one great author that begins with N, even though I have only read three of his books. But they were all fantastic and he totally deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature. V.S. Naipaul. And here are his books:

- "In a Free State" - 1971
- "A Bend in the River" - 1979
- "Half A Life" - 2001
- "A House for Mr. Biswas" - 1961

Facts about V.S. Naipaul:
Born    17 August 1932 in Trinidad and Tobago
Died    11 August 2018 in London, United Kingdom
He won several literature prizes, i.a. the Nobel Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, the Booker Prize. 

He was awarded the Trinity Cross, Trinidad and Tobago's highest national honour and received a knighthood in Britain.

V.S. Naipaul received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

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This is part of an ongoing series where I will write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.

Naipaul, V.S. "A Bend in the River"

Naipaul, V.S. "A Bend in the River: His Great Novel of Africa"  - 1979

Salim, an African of Indian descent, settles in an unnamed town at the bend in the river as a shopkeeper. With his “foreign” eyes we see part of Africa's history after the colonists left, the changes both in politics and the community, the problems with the economy, the war-like situations. The changes for the local community as well as for the outsiders like Salim who never really truly belong. As an expatriate myself, I can fully understand the problems he encounters, even though they are different from country to country.

Another highly interesting novel by this author who truly deserved the Nobel prize he received.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"In the 'brilliant novel' (The New York Times) V.S. Naipaul takes us deeply into the life of one man - an Indian who, uprooted by the bloody tides of Third World history, has come to live in an isolated town at the bend of a great river in a newly independent African nation. Naipaul gives us the most convincing and disturbing vision yet of what happens in a place caught between the dangerously alluring modern world and its own tenacious past and traditions."

I also read "A House for Mr. Biswas" and "Half a Life".

V.S. Naipaul received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories" and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for "A Bend in the River: His Great Novel of Africa" in 1979.

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Naipaul, V.S. "Half A Life"

Naipaul, V.S. "Half A Life" - 2001

After reading "A House for Mr. Biswas", I just had to read more by this wonderful writer. This novel takes place in a lot of different parts of this world, India, Africa, Europe.

A privileged son leaves his home and goes abroad to live a poor life. An interesting take on life in different settings. A lot of information about post-independence India, Africa and Europe during that time, a comparison, a view about completely different cultures and lifestyles. Brilliant read, often called the author's best novel.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"In a narrative that moves with dreamlike swiftness from India to England to Africa, Nobel Laureate V. S. Naipaul has produced his finest novel to date, a bleakly resonant study of the fraudulent bargains that make up an identity.

The son of a Brahmin ascetic and his lower-caste wife, Willie Chandran grows up sensing the hollowness at the core of his father's self-denial and vowing to live more authentically. That search takes him to the immigrant and literary bohemias of 1950s London, to a facile and unsatisfying career as a writer, and at last to a decaying Portugese colony in East Africa, where he finds a happiness he will then be compelled to betray. Brilliantly orchestrated, at once elegiac and devastating in its portraits of colonial grandeur and pretension, Half a Life represents the pinnacle of Naipaul's career."

Apparently, there is a sequel called "Magic Seeds" which I still have to read. I did read "A Bend in the River" in the meantime and really loved it, as well.

V.S. Naipaul received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".
 
I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Naipaul, V.S. "A House for Mr. Biswas"

Naipaul, V.S. "A House for Mr. Biswas" - 1961

"'A House for Mr. Biswas' portrays through a series of homes he had and fairly brief life of a poor Indian journalist turned civil servant in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in the years before and after World War II.”

I love V.S. Naipaul. He is a wonderful writer. Not only does he tell us about a life we would never be able to look into, but he does it in such an excellent way.

A man has a dream and he works for it. Not always easy. A lot of struggles. The more he tries to achieve his goals, the further away he seems to get.

A story about disappointments in life and shattered dreams, written in an exquisite way. I loved this book.

Apparently an novel with a large autobiographical background. The main character, Mr. Biswas who is based on the author's own father, is not a very likeable character, he is conceited, thinks very highly of himself and not a lot of others. Yet, with of V.S. Naipaul's wonderful use of language, the story is as beautiful as if he was talking about a beautiful and lovely princess. And even though the protagonist is not sympathetic, we can only feel sorry for those born into a certain life who have to follow the path described to them long before they were even here on earth. It does make you wonder, though, how good the relationship between V.S. Naipaul and his father was.

When following Mr. Biswas, we get an insight into the colonialism and the struggle of the natives to get out of it. We also live with the family and can get to know their day-to-day life and how a huge amount of people try to get on with each other in a crowded space.

A very complex story with a lot of subplots and minor characters that add to the fullness of this tale. It will become a true classic.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"The early masterpiece of V. S. Naipaul’s brilliant career, 'A House for Mr. Biswas' is an unforgettable story inspired by Naipaul's father that has been hailed as one of the twentieth century's finest novels.

In his forty-six short years, Mr. Mohun Biswas has been fighting against destiny to achieve some semblance of independence, only to face a lifetime of calamity. Shuttled from one residence to another after the drowning death of his father, for which he is inadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas yearns for a place he can call home. But when he marries into the domineering Tulsi family on whom he indignantly becomes dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on an arduous–and endless–struggle to weaken their hold over him and purchase a house of his own. A heartrending, dark comedy of manners, 'A House for Mr. Biswas' masterfully evokes a man’s quest for autonomy against an emblematic post-colonial canvas."

I have also read "Half a Life" and "A Bend in the River" which I liked just as well.

V.S. Naipaul received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".
I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.