Local Note: Questions regarding A House for Mr. Biswas may be answered next Tuesday night, October 19 at Kleinhans Music Hall as V.S. Naipaul kicks off the Just Buffalo 2010/2011 Babel season.
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library Staff Review by Peter Carlini:
For anyone who has ever had a turbulent relationship with their in-laws, Mohun Biswas is a character you can certainly relate to. That’s not to say you’ll have anything else in common with this complex and, at times, contradicting protagonist of V.S. Naipaul’s classic novel A House for Mr. Biswas.
Born under a bad sign, Mr. Biswas is not exactly cherished by his family, with whom he lives in a tight-knit community in post-colonial Trinidad. This childhood is not improved by the death of his father and is converted into a similar adult life through his hasty marriage to Shama and her domineering family, the Tulsis. Having to share a roof with this large and often harsh extended family, Mr. Biswas strives for nothing more than a house to call his own.
An account of Mr. Biswas’ life from birth till death, the story can seem to drag on at times but is also masterfully written. Readers will get a vivid sense of life on this south Caribbean island during the mid-twentieth century and of the cultural conflicts that exist within immigrant communities.
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