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A House for Mr Biswas

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 6,869 ratings · 350 reviews

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...more

562 pages

Published (first published 1961)

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Dec 12, 2011 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: someone who's already decided to read it

Shelves: novels

This one might make you pull your hair out. So if you're already bald you may need to read it wearing a wig. Also, you need a magnifying glass to find the plot. I had to take samples & send them off to a lab. Apparently there are detectable traces of story in here. But not so's you'd notice.

No.

The whole thing is a slow, ponderous crawl through the life of a Mr Third World Nobody who gets married by accident and appears to have four kids also by accident, without having any sex as far as I co...more

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Apr 22, 2008 Bloom rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Have you ever gone for a book, one heralded as a classic no less, only to find yourself fighting with it, page after page, trying to stave off sleep, all in the hope something, anything will take shape that makes it all worth while?

Of course you have, so you perhaps you can commiserate with my experience with A House for Mr Biswas, an unfortunate slog if there ever was one. Night after night I dove in, hopeful to roll into a breakthrough moment (similar to the one I had in Atonement or Sons and...more Have you ever gone for a book, one heralded as a classic no less, only to find yourself fighting with it, page after page, trying to stave off sleep, all in the hope something, anything will take shape that makes it all worth while?

Of course you have, so you perhaps you can commiserate with my experience with A House for Mr Biswas, an unfortunate slog if there ever was one. Night after night I dove in, hopeful to roll into a breakthrough moment (similar to the one I had in Atonement or Sons and Lovers), only to come up craps every time.

Here’s the thing: it’s a cradle to grave account of his life, a pretty tough form to pull off in the first place. We see the following: a young boy shuttled off to family members after his father dies tragically. We see this boy become a sign painter who, while on assignment for a local merchant family, the Tulsis, stumbles into a poor marriage with one of their daughters. An orphan, a bad marriage, jackals for inlaws? It is all quite Victorian, but there is none of verve, fun, or heartbreak of the great Victorian novels. Instead we see a man going soft around the middle as he struggles to gain the respect of the family as his own family of four children come into the world, and he takes the book with him as he goes. With the brief exception of middle a chapter in which Mr Biswas tries to have a house built on the cheap in midst of the Tulsis’s sugar plantations—a chapter that rings like the best of Melville or Dickens—the novel is bereft of any momentum. Mr Biswas plods along, and the novel bobs in his wake.

Great writing exists sentence to sentence, indeed; flashes of characters and relationships that matter, particularly between Mr Biswas and his eldest children, Anand and Savi, rise up and illuminate; there are comic moments when Mr Biswas discovers a career as a journalist; and certainly there is sly commentary about poverty and colonialism, but these parts fail to make a meaningful whole. Mr Biswas gets his house and he dies—no spoiler here, all this is revealed on the first page—and none of it really seems to matter.
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Jan 20, 2011 Praj rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There it is, a modest roofed structure in Sikkim Street standing tall amid the perfumed beds of anthurium lilies. New memories of wet earth after the rain, freshly painted picket fences, the sweet flowers of laburnum tree, mixed aromas flouncing through the warm rooms and wind whiffing through the trees telescoping the painful past. A sense of belonging cherished with merited identity-Mr. Mohun Biswas’s house.

I shy away from the postcolonial contemporary third world fiction. Most of them overwhe...more There it is, a modest roofed structure in Sikkim Street standing tall amid the perfumed beds of anthurium lilies. New memories of wet earth after the rain, freshly painted picket fences, the sweet flowers of laburnum tree, mixed aromas flouncing through the warm rooms and wind whiffing through the trees telescoping the painful past. A sense of belonging cherished with merited identity-Mr. Mohun Biswas’s house.

I shy away from the postcolonial contemporary third world fiction. Most of them overwhelm me enlightening the crude aspects of economic claustrophobia which my snobbish approach thoughtlessly overlooks. Keeping in mind this criterion, I cautiously pick out the respected genre books anticipating a satisfying comprehension. Naipaul pens a coherent depiction of impoverished dwelling lost between self-identity and rigid ambitions. It is an exasperating yet rewarding life of a simple man who survives the nightmarish surrealism of being born at the devilish midnight hour. Meet Mohun Biswas, the youngest son of a pitiable sugar-cane labourer whose birth was cursed upon by superstitious omen and was destined to be a ruinous disappointment. Mohun’s life churns out be a metaphoric banner for destitution and misfortune. Blamed for his father’s death and the dissolution of the Biswas family, he struggles through every twisted fate of his life trying to find a speck of self-respect, contentment and independence. His marriage in the celebrated Tulsis family is burdensome and intoxicated with him being a mere accessory in his wife’s home. Dutifully carrying on with the mundane obligations, he berates his sympathetic existence. The only shining beacon of hope is a far-fetched dream of buying a house he can call his own. The notion of acquiring an abode becomes an eternal symbol of Mohun’s own existence as a journalist, a father, a husband and moreover a liberated individual.

Naipaul’s vastly elucidated and slow-paced prose underlines quite a few post- colonization inadequacies prevalent in several third world settings till date. Poverty, illiteracy birthing preposterous superstitious dogma, ethnic categorization of class superiority (restricted only to rural infrastructures) and tribulations of pecuniary discrepancies outwitting social hysteria.

Mohun’s tale is heroic in its own humble way. All the man wants in his life is a cozy dwelling without the fear of acerbic prejudices. Some would ridicule on this psychological aspect of obtaining a house. It’s a house, for crying out loud! Why make a big deal of it? For an individual who not only thrives in poverty but is tossed among bizarre quarters of underprivileged hardships; the belief of owning a house becomes deeply satisfying, somewhat a battle in itself. Hear, Hear! To Mohun for making peace with his maddening ordinary living.

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Mar 22, 2012 Eman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

تفاصيل حياة تافهة لصحفي مهمش ممرور منذ ولادته وحتى مماته. مواجهة سيكولوجية الفقراء توجع القلب والقولون.

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Apr 22, 2013 Ben Thurley rated it 5 of 5 stars

A hugely enjoyable, though simultaneously excruciating, novel. Naipaul has created a character in Mohun Biswas who is, at once, deeply unsympathetic – prone to minor spites, absurd self-regard, and the petty enactment of drawn-out and demeaning grudges against those nearest to him –but whose struggle to assert his independence, identity and worth against the odds (even against the fate outlined for him at birth) is utterly compelling.

The descriptions of family life, of community, and of the nat...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Tanuj Solanki rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: library, favorites, britain, nobel-prize

'The world is what it is,' and so is Trinidad

While Naipaul may seem to be copying the modality of the nineteenth century novel, his main intention here is to construct a self-propagating comic system (in a post-colonial set-up). And he succeeds marvelously in that. The Naipaul system: layered through family, religion, poverty, national identity issues, third-world-ism, third-world journalism and, last but not the least, third-world individuality, is a triumph of twentieth century literature. Inc...more

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Apr 20, 2008 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

A life, from start to finish.

This is a book for adults--people who have struggled continually to figure out how to live their lives, people who have dealt with the opposing forces of obligation to family and the desire for independence.

It's not a page-turner--and I admire that. There are satisfactions to be found in reading besides wanting to know what happens--the ever-changing balance of power in families; the slight accidents that change lives forever; the mulled-over decisions which change...more

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Jan 04, 2010 Rob Manwaring rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Age, apparently confers wisdom. In my case, this sometimes happens. As a young, foolish young under-graduate I could not understand why the scholarly and genuinely quite brilliant Mr R G Barnes would wish to study and read 'post-colonial' literature. It is, after only after 15 years or so I see the attraction. I praise your visionary fore-sight, Mr Barnes. That pre-amble aside, just started reading this, and enjoying it a lot.

Finished this in the run up to Christmas, and I have to say, as a nov...more

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Aug 01, 2008 Pat rated it 3 of 5 stars

Just catching up with one of my book groups. We discussed this book on April 8, 2008, when I had read a little less than half of the book. My typical passive-aggressive book club behavior . . . When I set this book down, I think I probably won't pick it up again; it's a rather depressing view of an ill-fated character . . . but then I find myself quite eager to get back to it, and it draws me in right away. That's good writing, I guess.

Finally done, only a few months post-discussion-of-it. There...more

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May 13, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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.

...more

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.

Review

"Naipaul has constructed a marvelous prose epic that matches the best nineteenth-century novels for richness of comic insight and final, tragic power."–Newsweek

From the Inside Flap

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.

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Apr 26, 2013 Laurie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-started-but-not-read, read-in-2013

Mr. Biswas was such an annoying character that after 130 pages (small print) I decided I could not put in the time to finish this 564 page book. The story is set in post-Colonial Trinidad in the Indian community. Mr. Biswas was born last in family of four children. The pundit comes to evaluate him at birth (he was born the 'wrong way' with six fingers on one hand) and says he will be a lecher and a spendthrift and will 'eat up' his parents. Mr. Biswas should be kept away from natural forms of wa...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Alejandro Canton-Dutari rated it 5 of 5 stars

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Reviewed by Alex Canton-Dutari
I always try to spot a special detail by Nobel Prize Winners -- in this case Trinidad and Tobago's Nobel Prize Literature Winner.
The Prologue prepares the reader for learning about the life of Mr Mohum Biswas. Right from the beginning the author refers to Mohun as Mr Biswas beginning when he was a baby and on to the end.
This novel exposes the reader to life in the Caribbean islands-country during the early days of World War II....more

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Oct 27, 2012 Sonia Gomes rated it 5 of 5 stars

All that Mr. Biswas wants is respect, not money, not love, not recognition just respect……
Born in Trinidad in a poor home he is tricked into marrying Shama Tulsi daughter of the well known, very rich Tulsi House, all because he had had the temerity to write ‘I love you’ on a scrap of paper and hand it over to her. Although warned by many he persists in marrying her.
Everyone knows that the Tulsis are on lookout for drones for their daughters, once married the husbands become their property. They...more All that Mr. Biswas wants is respect, not money, not love, not recognition just respect……
Born in Trinidad in a poor home he is tricked into marrying Shama Tulsi daughter of the well known, very rich Tulsi House, all because he had had the temerity to write ‘I love you’ on a scrap of paper and hand it over to her. Although warned by many he persists in marrying her.
Everyone knows that the Tulsis are on lookout for drones for their daughters, once married the husbands become their property. They live with the Tulsis, eat what food is doled out to them, work on the Tulsi farms and holdings, scraping out an existence as the Tulsi ‘sons-in-law’.
Strangely Shama Tulsi never protests, never feels that her husband and children could be treated better, on the contrary she is of the firm belief that she and Mr. Biswas should be eternally grateful to Mai and her brothers. ‘Remember’ she says, ‘You came with just the clothes on your back’
How Mr. Biswas longs to get rid of these shackles of charity and gratitude.
He throws tantrums, he flings his food out of the window, he insults Shama and her family, he stops having sex with her, feels terribly lonely, ends up having four children.
He builds a small, cheap house but at the first heavy shower the roof is blown away, Mr. Biswas suffers a nervous breakdown and is promptly yanked by Shama to the Tulsi House to recover with cups of Ovaltine.
He builds a decent career as a journalist, but is relegated to the post of a lowly reporter once the Editor goes away.
The little grocery shop they had opened goes bust as Mr. Biswas is unable to collect the credit he had so generously given his customers.
All through these abysmal failures the Tulsis treat Mr. Biswas as one would a recalcitrant child, nothing more, laughing indulgently at his tantrums. And all the time Mr. Biswas realises that he has not even made a little dent on the Tulsi composure.
In desperation, Mr. Biswas does acquire a little, badly constructed house and he lives for the first time in his life away from the Tulsis, although Shama can never sever the umbilical chord.
Strangely, although Mr. Biswas’ life seems one of constant failures and misery, it just does not appear to be so. Reading through Mr. Biswas’ life, you get the feeling this has echoes of your life too…….I have done that, maybe I should have done that……. It is everyone’s life
But the overwhelming feeling is that charity enslaves you, charity chokes you.
The Donor will always want you to be grateful, and grateful, and grateful, never for a moment will he let go of you until he has extracted every ounce of gratitude from you and never ever will you be respected for having taken that charity in the first place.

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Aug 20, 2012 Smcleish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Like A Bend in the River, a large part of A House for Mr Biswas is about the search for roots in the post-colonial world. Mohun Biswas spends his entire life looking for a place to live which feels like his own, something which is already complicated by his place in the large Indian community in Trinidad. He is poor but of high caste, and this gives him strange relationships with the people around him, especially when he marries into the Tulsi family, rich but of low caste and trying not to beco...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Roberta McDonnell rated it 4 of 5 stars

As other reviewers have noted this book is not for the fainthearted, but it is a masterpiece. Slowly you find yourself feeling Mohun's agony as life fires st him all manner of trials, tribulations and deprivations. The core message is that he keeps fighting back and finally achieves his dream - a home of his own where he and his family can live free from the dependency, control and demoralising attitudes of his in-laws. The pure comedy with which the pathos is matched leaves you at once sad and...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the second time I have read House for Mr Biswas. The first was for my English A' Level in 1981-2, the second in 2012.

I remember my first experience as a teenager being totally engrossed in this character Mohun that Naipaul had created. Tragic, comedic and the novel being a bit confusing at times getting to grips with the number of characters involved in this story.

At the age of 48 I had another read and the perspective is of course very different.

I think above all this is a very human...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: time-100

A lot of these Time 100 books deal with worlds of people who are so rich that I almost can't comprehend how this subsection of society functions or ever did function. A House for Mr. Biswas shows a poverty so widespread and seemingly crushing that I can't comprehend how people might have ever lived that way.

In particular, the chaotic atmosphere of the Hanuman House, and other assorted dwellings of Mr. Biswas' Tulsi in-laws (with whom he has to live for most all of his life after he marries one o...more A lot of these Time 100 books deal with worlds of people who are so rich that I almost can't comprehend how this subsection of society functions or ever did function. A House for Mr. Biswas shows a poverty so widespread and seemingly crushing that I can't comprehend how people might have ever lived that way.

In particular, the chaotic atmosphere of the Hanuman House, and other assorted dwellings of Mr. Biswas' Tulsi in-laws (with whom he has to live for most all of his life after he marries one of the daughters) are so frenetic that I can barely imagine it. Various female relations of the surviving matriarch, Mrs. Tulsi, are all packed into this place, the size of which I never quite absorbed. Sisters (of Shama, Mr. Biswas' wife), brothers-in-law, kids, widows, these are all present constantly and yet only a handful ever actually receive names. Mostly they are a group: "the widows" always embarking on ill-fated economic ventures and then later, "the readers and the learners" who are packed into a smaller house. Some of the ones he does single out are not even worth naming, such as an in-law who reads books by W.C. Tuttle, and is therefore referred to as W.C. Tuttle and his children are "the Tuttles".

This is a crazy situation and it's no wonder that Mr. Biswas always desires to escape it. His journey to do so as he goes through his life, without a lot of education but with a lot of heart, is usually funny and occasionally quite sad as he reflects back on opportunities lost. The tyrannical in-laws are so nuts as to be nearly comical, with the abusive Mrs. Tulsi and son-in-law Seth being the principal figures of the ire for Mr. Biswas. Even when they show him kindness he imagines ulterior motives: in everything a greater scheme to further trap him. They are not very nice people, and so the times where they don't screw over Mr. Biswas are all the more interesting.

I have a feeling I probably missed a lot of subtext that was going on here. Often the books where I feel that's happened are the ones I hated, but Mr. Biswas is touching even without. At least he finally got his house. Otherwise it would have been depressing beyond all belief.(less)

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Jul 25, 2009 Dawsmarkaol.com rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book when I was about 30. This book is really for a very mature audience, for people who have experienced life. The main character is mercurial in a sense. We all at some point in our lives become anxious with life, that we should be more than what we turned out to be. For some people, this is an obsession. When we hit mid-life, there's an urgency to achieve what we dreamed of when we were younger but never achieved. For Mr. Biswas, since there is no way he will be anything more, a h...more

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Apr 18, 2009 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

In short, Mr. Biswas begins his life tragically. It is foretold that he will destroy his father which accidentally comes to pass. His whole life is spent moving through his Trinidadian world trying to gain independence by acquiring a home of his own. This is thwarted by his inadvertent marriage to a girl whose family has wealth. Things do not go well as he is adopted into this family. His conflict with the matriarch lead him to take his wife and child to a small hovel where he owns a unsuccessfu...more

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Mar 23, 2007 Aaron rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone

Living legend V.S. Naipaul's masterpiece. This anti-bildungsroman traces the protagonist (supposedly based on Naipaul's father) from being "born wrong" to his tragic but timely death. The sweep and detail of the novel will amaze you, but it's not for the faint-of-heart: Mohun Biswas is not a likeable character, and the circumstances of his life (post-colonial Trinidad) are difficult. Put aside your judgements of him and let yourself get caught up in the story. You won't be disappointed.

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Dec 18, 2012 Stuart rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-classics

"A House for Mr. Biswas" is set in post-colonial Trinidad and takes place in a rural Hindu community. It is the story of the struggle of Mr. Biswas against destiny—to achieve independence from the family he marries into and success on his own accord separate from the family enterprises. He sets his eyes on owning his own home which he attempts throughout the course of the book with varying degrees of success. Along the way he is beset with misfortune, oppression, and ridicule.

The author employs...more

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Sep 18, 2009 Andrea Guy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A House For Mr. Biswas isn't one of my usual novels. Its a story of Mohun Biswas from his birth til his death and his quest to better himself and find a household of his very own. Its a long journey and very seldom do things go right for Mohun.

He was born with a sneeze that precedes doom and a sixth finger that a pundit said would bring nothing but trouble and perhaps that is so. His childhood is full of tragedy including the drowning of his father in a search for Mohun, who was hiding in his ro...more

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Apr 05, 2011 Daryl rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the things I found interesting about this novel was its setting: Trinidad. I know nothing about the island nation, but was fascinated by the little bits of details about the culture revealed herein. The novel itself follows the story of Mohun Biswas from his birth throughout a troubled life until his death. Mr. Biswas goes through a succession of different jobs, but mostly he has to deal with a large and unpleasant family of in-laws. While not a great novel, it had its share of enjoyable...more

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Oct 24, 2011 Scott rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This if the fourth Naipaul I have read, and it is probably my least favourite. Which is somewhat surprising, since this is one of the books usually listed as among his best.

I did like it. The characters are fun and engaging. The story kept me interested, and I read the book every chance I got.

But it did have some flaws. Trying to be Dickensian, there is too much going on. Too many characters, too many subplots, too many episodes of the plot that make the same points and delay developments. His m...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Doreen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I know that this book is celebrated as possibly being the author's best work. I've read nothing else by Naipaul, so maybe it's true. The characters, locations, and traditions in post-colonial Trinidad are beautifully and thoroughly described. There are moments of wit and sarcasm which I appreciated. Unfortunately, Mr. Biswas is not the hero I expected to find when I began reading. In the front flap of the dust jacket, "hero" is the word that is used to describe him.

Mr. Biswas has a skewed vision...more I know that this book is celebrated as possibly being the author's best work. I've read nothing else by Naipaul, so maybe it's true. The characters, locations, and traditions in post-colonial Trinidad are beautifully and thoroughly described. There are moments of wit and sarcasm which I appreciated. Unfortunately, Mr. Biswas is not the hero I expected to find when I began reading. In the front flap of the dust jacket, "hero" is the word that is used to describe him.

Mr. Biswas has a skewed vision of himself and of the world into which he is born. His pursuit throughout the entire book is to have a house of his own. In his quest, he alternates living with bullying in-laws and/or in properties that these relatives own, to moving into make-shift structures of his own creation, to finally inhabiting a place on Sikkim Street which is mortgaged to the rafters!

Initially, Mr. Biswas's world seemed comical. As the story progressed, I realized that Biswas and the people in his life had stepped from the pages of a psychiatric textbook. Characters were manipulative, narcissistic, envious, scheming, paranoid, and usually without conscience. If this is the Trinidad of the 30's, 40's, and 50's, then I am even more thankful than ever to have been born in New England in the 50's! Mr. Biswas could in turn be passive...aggressive...and passive-aggressive! And he thought himself so much smarter and more entitled than everyone around him. He was the fellow who could cast aspersions on everyone while never once seeing his own faults and misdeeds. Of course, those around him were no better than he. Virtually everyone in this story exhibits one or more traits found in journals covering psychiatric disorders. The characters in this book provide fodder for a psychiatric journal of their own!

I'm just glad I finished reading this. It's a much wordier novel than it needed to be. I would omit about 100 pages of repetitious, in-law crap from the middle of the book. While descriptive, I also found it cumbersome and exhausting. The remaining 300 or more pages could stand on their own as a very, good novel. (less)

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Dec 28, 2012 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the last book I anticipate finishing in 2012 andit required more then a bit of effort but in the end I am glad I took the time to read this 560 page narrative about life in the Indian colony living in Trinidad in the years immediately before and after World War II. Mr Biswas is modeled after Naipaul's own father and he is an interesting character. An agnostic Hindu he struggles through out his life to earn a living and a life while living withby his wife's relative's the Tulsi clan.
Bisw...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Jake rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: caribbean, post-colonial

Naipaul's style is willfully simple and to-the-point, which I really respect. I contrast his writing favorably with that of a truly awful book, The God of Small Things, where no sentence could sit, unelaborated, expressing a normal human thought, and instead had to spiral into maudlin wordplay and sentiment.

A House for Biswas is the second book by Naipaul that I've read (after A Bend in the River) that is preoccupied with the corruption, decay, and general shabbiness of the post-colonial world....more

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Sep 27, 2012 Johnny D rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Knowing virtually nothing about this book before I opened it, it took me some time to adjust to it. You see, this is not a drama or an adventure, it is the story of one man’s life. Once I became used to the idea that this book would not have a traditional plot, that it was a darkly humourous take on the life of the “little man”, I was immediately engrossed. Mr. Biswas is an unlikeable chap. He repeatedly embarrasses himself, he is weak, he is temperamental, he strikes out irrationally at those c...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Catherine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookcrossing, more-than-once

My reading of this was somewhat slow - not because it's a bad book, but because it was interrupted by a weekend away and a couple of books on rings.

The last time I read it was while a friend of mine was doing VSO on Nevis and I was using information supplied by him to write my PGCE dissertation on education in the West Indies, so I probably approached it then in the spirit of research. I enjoyed it much more than I had remembered: perhaps because the Indian-ness of the families is a far more fam...more

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Jul 28, 2011 William rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: uk, empire-post-colonial, 20-ce, fiction, signed

Fun fact: "The origins of the James Bond theme are disputed. Mr. Norman [Barry's biographer] said that Barry brushed off a musical passage from “Bad Sign, Good Sign,” a song he had written for a musical version of the V. S. Naipaul novel A House for Mr. Biswas. With a few adjustments, it became the theme to Dr. No." John Barry's obit, NYT, 2-2-11

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About V.S. Naipaul

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

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“He read political books. They gave him phrases which he could only speak to himself and use on Shama. They also revealed one region after another of misery and injustice and left him feeling more helpless and more isolated than ever. Then it was that he discovered the solace of Dickens. Without difficulty he transferred characters and settings to people and places he knew. In the grotesques of Dickens everything he feared and suffered from was ridiculed and diminished, so that his own anger, his own contempt became unnecessary, and he was given strength to bear the most difficult part of his day: dressing in the morning, that daily affirmation of faith in oneself, which at times for him was almost like an act of sacrifice.” — 6 people liked it

“Some lesser husbands built a latrine on the hillside.” — 2 people liked it

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A House for Mr Biswas

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