Rating: 
Summary: A Good, Slowly Engaging Read
Review: This was VS Naipaul's break-out book, although it took a few years for it to really take off, first in England, and then everywhere else. If you're familiar with Naipaul, you will notice that it is in this book that he begins to shed the comicalness that marks his earlier works.
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Summary: Mr. Biswas, Homeless
Review: A House for Mr. Biswas, is not so much the story of Mr. Biswas, but of the South Asian extended family - its turmoil, gossip, reunions and joys. Naipaul is unerringly accurate when describing the extended Indian family: the competition between parents over the successes of each other's children; the power of money and elder authority; the elevation of boys over girls in terms of future possibilities and education.Mr. Biswas is a heartbreaking and frustrating character. His mistakes, his ignorance, flares of tempers, and his valiant attempts at tryng to become independent from his mother's family turn him into a three dimensional character - one that you can both love and hate. His family is also well developed and complex - from his wife Shama to his young son, Anand, struggling under the weight of familial expectations. This book didn't receive a four star review because it doesn't always capture your full attention. This is not the type of novel you spend all weekend reading. It is the type of novel that you read for a half hour to twenty minutes before going to bed, it's good but it's not enough to keep you up all night unable to put it down. The second criticism I have of the book is its rushed ending. The novel itself has an interesting structure, in that we learn the future of Mr. Biswas, backtrack and then follow the course of his life up until his death. However, those few pages at the beginning of the novel are the same as what you receive at the end - a rushed and incomplete rendering of Mr. Biswas's dream - a house of his own. Also, the reader after several hundred pages is expected to remember the details from the beginning that Naipaul neglects to reiterate at the end. Considering the tremendous detail that accompanies the rest of the book one has to wonder if this was a planned theme: the realization of a dream isn't all that fulfilling; or was it simply laziness on the part of the author? That dilemma is for you to resolve.
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Summary: mr. biswas
Review: i went though an "indian author" stage and mr. biswas was one of my favorites...i could actually smell the deteriorating paint on the house, it's dreams, the human sweat that turned it into the foundation for the biswas family.
a great novel.
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Summary: Mr. Biswas
Review: Tragi-comedy about a funny little man and his war with his inlaws. Mr. Biswas finally achieves some personal satisfation by buying and living in his own home; even if he is only able to inhabit his house a short time before his death. Funny and sad character study of a born loser and an odd race of people, Indian hindus living in Trinadad.
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Summary: Nobel Prize Press Release
Review: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2001
V.S. Naipaul The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2001 is awarded to the British writer, born in Trinidad, V.S. Naipaul "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".
Rating:
Summary: A Nobel Prize for Mr. V.S. ( Naipaul, that is)!!
Review: 'A House for Mr. Biswas' is all of the following -- complex, psychologically perceptive, emotionally difficult, rewarding, moving, depressing, tragi-comic, deeply ironic, metaphoric, nightmarishly surreal, utterly believable, honest, exasperating, claustrophobic, prudish in some ways (no sex, for instance), deeply human, liberating, brilliant, frustrating, beautifully written ' and much more. It is a book which very well may tempt you, as it tempted me, to just say 'the hell with it' about halfway through, as Mr. Biswas struggles, but never seems able to achieve, autonomy, self respect, happiness, freedom (especially from the suffocating, sprawling Tulsi family ' the ultimate in-laws from hell!!), let alone the 'house' referred to in the title. But don't give in to temptation! 'A House for Mr. Biswas' is a book that richly rewards those who stick with it, who persevere, just as Mr. Biswas does, although at times you may feel like you can't take it anymore (one step forwards, two steps back, argggghhh!). Perhaps a helpful attitude in reading this book, which I strongly recommend you consider, is to think of yourself as a 'reader and learner' (to use V.S. Naipaul's term for the Tulsi schoolchildren) at the feet of a superb writer with something to say and a great deal of wisdom to impart. In sum, 'A House for Mr. Biswas' is a deeply satisfying (as opposed to 'entertaining' or superficially 'enjoyable') book, NOT easy summer 'beach reading', but a book which confirms the psychological cliché that it's the HARD STUFF which is potentially the most rewarding emotionally. So, don't let the fact 'A House for Mr. Biswas' is not 'easy' scare you off, because this is truly a brilliant book, and one which richly deserves its ranking as one of the 'best books of the century' (#72 on the Modern Library's best fiction list, for instance). Oh, and by the way, why hasn't V.S. Naipaul won the Nobel prize for literature yet? (Earth to Nobel Prize committee, come in please!) Anyway, for what it's worth, I hereby nominate him, and hope that many of you will second my nomination!
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Summary: dickens in trinidad
Review: THis is a novel of epic proportions about the struggle of an individual against his in-laws, a "mini-totalitarian society" as Naipaul put it. While the plot is simple - Biswas wants his own house - the struggle is so painfully real. You will laugh and cry with this book, and learn about the Third world as well. Naipaul said that this book marked his maturing as a writer, and in many ways it is his best novel. Warmly recommended.
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Summary: The Trinidad version of an Indian Al Bundy.
Review: To those who remember Al Bundy from the show Married with Children, this book would seem very similar. Mr. Biswas, from a poor family, is rushed into a marriage that he wasn't prepared for, is at the mercy of his in-laws, has a low paying career, and is stuck with a wife that hates his guts. Mr. Biswas is presented as a loser whose one goal of finding a place of his own. Without giving too much away, this book follows the simple struggle of Mr. Biswas's life. It presents a fascinating view of Trinidad and Indian families within. From crowded Indian houses, to sugarcane fields, to villages, to crowded buses, to resorts, the reader gets a great glimpse of life on the Island. The reader also gets to follow the life of this man as he struggles in his marriage, his career, with sanity, and the search for his house. Throughout his life, he lives in crowded and squalid residences, and wishes to live independently from it all. Thus the name of the book. The one flaw of this book is the monotony. Mr. Biswas did not live an exciting life, and Naipul forces the reader to look into his most mundane activities. This readability of this book greatly declines as the book nears the end. Tedious at some points, this book does a great job bringing Mr. Biswas's perspective to the reader. I would recommend this book to those with some time and patience.
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Summary: an epic: sad, funny, rambling.
Review: in a way, the tone of this book is slightly familiar: a tale of one man, from childhood to death, in trinidad. Mohun Biswas seems cursed from birth, and after his father dies we trace him as he tries his hand at various trades and occupations before he marries into the tight-knit and tyrannical Tulsi family. Mr Biswas is a struggler, and he alienates almost everyone as he gives voice to his considerable, though at times intractible and immature, mind. but the primary lesson in this book is that *time passes.* and things evolve. after an exhausting chain of negative events that bring the reader to the point of putting the book down -- "this is too depressing!" things start to turn out a bit better. not spectacularly -- just the kind of improvements that come from *growing older.* only in the final third of the book do you start to realize -- hey, I've been reading one of the best books I've ever read. This was an incredible journey, and I'm wiser about lives and souls under colonialism, wiser about how we age and struggle and grow, and wiser about how like deals two bad blows for each good development, and still life could be called good. a truly great book.
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Summary: Is his enemy himself or colonialism?
Review: Mr Biswas is a member of the East Indian community in Trinidad. His attempts to gain some freedom and dignity in life (especially to be owner of a house) are constantly thwarted. He is trapped into marriage, becomes subservient to his wife's awful family and loaded with debt. Is he held back by poverty, or by the chains of Hindu tradition, or by the colonial system, or racial prejudice, or is his problem his own personality? Are these separate problems or one problem? One reviewer questions whether a book about such a frustrated life can be called funny. I think that it's one of those books with such a broad and rich view of life that humor inevitably finds its way in.
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