Between Father and Son : Family Letters

Rating:
Summary: First-class letters.
Review: In 1950, 17-year old V. S. Naipaul left his home in Trinidad to study literature at Oxford. The letters collected here kept the Naipaul family connected from 1949 through 1957, and reveal the love, respect, and honest counsel "Vido" shared with his family during those years. They show that Naipaul's father Seepersad (1906-53), "Pa," was the family "guide" (p. 266) until his untimely death at age 47. For him, "the life of the mind--the writer's life--was everything" (p. vii), and he always reminded his son to "keep your centre" (pp. viii, 18, 31). He wrote to Naipaul: "Everywhere you will meet shallow-minded people; but it is precisely because they are shallow that they make a lot of 'to do'--we must learn to look at people objectively. Perception is rare and intelligence is by no means widespread. Those who have it to any unusual degree often suffer terribly: they are the most lonesome creatures in the world . . . Spot your drones and microbes among your fellow-creatures, but do not let them put you out of your centre" (p. 63). Naipaul's "Pa," we learn, also regularly coached him on writing: "When writing a good story it is a good thing to read good stories. Good reading and good writing go together" (p. 14).

Naipaul's father was always a source of intellectual encouragement, and these letters reveal a father and son always "in step" (p. vii). Naipaul recognized his father's influence upon him: "As I grow older, I find myself doing things that remind me of Pa, more and more. The way I smoke; the way I sit; the way I stroke my unshaved chin; the way in which I sometimes sit bolt upright; the way in which I spend money romantically and foolishly . . . The more I learn about myself, the more I learn about him . . . But who has shaped my life, my views, my tastes, Pa" (p. 126).

These letters not only follow Naipaul's intellectual growth at Oxford, but also reveal his periods of "black depression" (p. 235) and his nervous breakdown in 1952 and 1953. "I have found it difficult to live up to my own maxim," he advised his family prior to his collapse. "I say, 'We must ignore the pain-shrieks of the dying world,' yet I can't. There is so much suffering--so overwhelmingly much. That's a cordial feature in life--suffering. It is elemental as night. It also makes more keen the appreciation of happiness" (p. 9). He also reported to his family: "A feeling of emptiness is nearly always on me. I see myself struggling in a sort of tunnel blocked up at both ends" (p. 36). Later, he attributed his breakdown to "loneliness and lack of affection . . . some people, alas, feel more and think more than others, and they suffer" (p. 177).

The Naipaul letters also include correspondence from other family members, including the writer's free-thinking older sister, Kamla (1930- ). About the prospect of marriage, she wrote to her brother: "I have grown to hate the idea of marriage. I think it's the end of life" (p. 178). The letters are followed by an excellent Naipaul family bibliography and Editor, Gillon Aitken's index to the collection.

These are first-class letters. In an age when email is unfortunately replacing the personal letter, which has been reduced to "snail mail," the Naipaul family correspondence is a rare treasure full of genius I urge you to experience.

G. Merritt

Rating:
Summary: First-class letters.
Review: In 1950, 17-year old V. S. Naipaul left his home in Trinidad to study literature at Oxford. The letters collected here kept the Naipaul family connected from 1949 through 1957, and reveal the love, respect, and honest counsel "Vido" shared with his family during those years. They show that Naipaul's father Seepersad (1906-53), "Pa," was the family "guide" (p. 266) until his untimely death at age 47. For him, "the life of the mind--the writer's life--was everything" (p. vii), and he always reminded his son to "keep your centre" (pp. viii, 18, 31). He wrote to Naipaul: "Everywhere you will meet shallow-minded people; but it is precisely because they are shallow that they make a lot of 'to do'--we must learn to look at people objectively. Perception is rare and intelligence is by no means widespread. Those who have it to any unusual degree often suffer terribly: they are the most lonesome creatures in the world . . . Spot your drones and microbes among your fellow-creatures, but do not let them put you out of your centre" (p. 63). Naipaul's "Pa," we learn, also regularly coached him on writing: "When writing a good story it is a good thing to read good stories. Good reading and good writing go together" (p. 14).

Naipaul's father was always a source of intellectual encouragement, and these letters reveal a father and son always "in step" (p. vii). Naipaul recognized his father's influence upon him: "As I grow older, I find myself doing things that remind me of Pa, more and more. The way I smoke; the way I sit; the way I stroke my unshaved chin; the way in which I sometimes sit bolt upright; the way in which I spend money romantically and foolishly . . . The more I learn about myself, the more I learn about him . . . But who has shaped my life, my views, my tastes, Pa" (p. 126).

These letters not only follow Naipaul's intellectual growth at Oxford, but also reveal his periods of "black depression" (p. 235) and his nervous breakdown in 1952 and 1953. "I have found it difficult to live up to my own maxim," he advised his family prior to his collapse. "I say, 'We must ignore the pain-shrieks of the dying world,' yet I can't. There is so much suffering--so overwhelmingly much. That's a cordial feature in life--suffering. It is elemental as night. It also makes more keen the appreciation of happiness" (p. 9). He also reported to his family: "A feeling of emptiness is nearly always on me. I see myself struggling in a sort of tunnel blocked up at both ends" (p. 36). Later, he attributed his breakdown to "loneliness and lack of affection . . . some people, alas, feel more and think more than others, and they suffer" (p. 177).

The Naipaul letters also include correspondence from other family members, including the writer's free-thinking older sister, Kamla (1930- ). About the prospect of marriage, she wrote to her brother: "I have grown to hate the idea of marriage. I think it's the end of life" (p. 178). The letters are followed by an excellent Naipaul family bibliography and Editor, Gillon Aitken's index to the collection.

These are first-class letters. In an age when email is unfortunately replacing the personal letter, which has been reduced to "snail mail," the Naipaul family correspondence is a rare treasure full of genius I urge you to experience.

G. Merritt

Rating:
Summary: Can understand Naipaul better
Review: Reader's of Naipaul's works, especially his travel books, are intrigued by a variety of things: his genius for observing people and places, his rational perspectives, his dispassionate comments etc. At the same time, one wonders when did this real Naipaul evolve? This book, which is a compilation of his correspondences with his late father and elder sister, convinces one that Naipaul was always like this from a very young age: a gifted man. The elder Naipaul, despite his many troubles as a homemaker, deserves credit for instilling an intellectual atmosphere in his household; which obviously Vidia has run away with.

Rating:
Summary: Can understand Naipaul better
Review: The book offers insight into the life and thoughts of Naipaul and shows us a more personable side of the author, who seems to be on such a solo mission. Furthermore, we learn of his relationship to his father and the background of Naipaul's greatest character, Mohun Biswas. Naipaul's father was a true writer, a literature buff, unlike Biswas, who liked Marcus Aurelius and kept info in a Shakespeare that he may or may not have ever read. In letters, we don't see much of the temper or the actions of the character Biswas, but we see the meditations of the man who was his source. We also see VS Naipaul's transformation from West Indian student leaving the island for the first time, to a published author four years later. We read that "useless letter" that Naipaul describes in A House for Mr. Biswas, sent home following Biswas' death, and we learn all about the sympathy and respect that Naipaul had when writing this character. From this time on, he knew he would be a writer. He has longings and inklings towards India and Africa, he is already an anglophile with a strong rejection of coloured people, and an inclination to disassociate himself with these people, whom he finds ignorant and barbaric, a common criticism of his literature. There seems to show, in the uncommented upon letters, some of Naipaul's faults and prejudices and feelings of shortcomings, as a West Indian in England, as an outsider, always. But he never rejected his family, and was in fact a very sincere and loving brother and son. This is somewhat surprising considering the coldness that he sometimes can exude. His discussions of loneliness, of brotherhood and the need to take care of each other seem like preludes to stories from "In a Free State." Naipaul describes his life as an extention of his father's, fulfilled. And his father was already talking about writing an autobiography in the third person. Naipaul may have fulfilled this in Biswas, a fictional account. There is a hopefulness in Naipaul's letters that may not be as apparent in some of his later works, there is also the dark depression and dim view of the world and its inhabitants that is seen. His social attitudes and the way he writes about them shed more insight into his characters' social interactions as well. "The women I have known I have met quite by chance. Acquaintanceship is struck up almost unconsciously." This is similar to relationships that develop in Bend in the River and other books. Mostly, this is the development of the ideas of writing, the motivations, financial (primarily), emotionally. Both Naipauls saw writing as a profession, not a spiritual letting out of feelings or something, they approached writing professionally and with dignity, even in their letters, which they do critique. This book is a primary source of insight into the life and mind of one of the greatest writers of our time. I recommend it to any Naipaul enthusiast. Naipaul's literary career seems to have been well-plotted and worked out before it even began.

Rating:
Summary: An insight into the mind of a genius
Review: This book of correspondence between VS Naipaul who is a student in Oxford and his family who is in Trinidad and India is a fantastic insight into the mind of a genius in his early years. Unedited, these letters also afford a glimpse into the difficult life that Naipaul and his family led during his years at Oxford. In midst of an uncertain future, the self confidence and arrogance of VS Naipaul (18 years of age) stands in contrast to the humility and frustration of his father- both great writers in their own ways. It also helps us to understand the complexity of VS Naipaul's personality esp. as it relates to the embarrassing and difficult relationship between him and Paul Theroux. A fascinating book- a must read for every person who enjoys biographical literature....

Rating:
Summary: "Must" reading for all V.S. Naipaul fans.
Review: V.S. Naipaul's Between Father And Son gathers family letters, revealing family interactions and a powerful drama with insights into Naipaul's formative years. Fans of Naipaul's writings will find this essential to understanding his works.