Friday, November 22, 2013

V. S. Naipaul



A House for Mr. Biswas reminds one of all that a great novel can do: to recreate an entire world, to move and to instruct, to paint whole pictures in a few words, to delight and to astound, etc... This is no page turner: it is a novel to savour page by page, little by little as it reveals its incredibles riches. It is fundamentally a novel about poverty, but it is also a novel about exile, about aspiration  - mostly thwarted, but in the end successful after a fashion, since Mr Biswas does get his house. Satirical and compassionate, cruel and kind, a masterpiece.

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