Rating: 
Summary: pleasant enough diversion and has a salutory message
Review: Margaret Thatcher had one simple insight which converted Britain from Socialism to Conservatism--people who own their own homes are conservative. We see this property=conservatism maxim playing itself out today, in 401k's. The fact that the great bulk of the population is invested and doing well has served to insulate President Clinton from virtually every degenerate or incompetent thing he's done. As long as the market's cranking, everyone just wants to leave things as they are--no change, please. What does this have to do with Mr. Biswas? Well, V.S. Naipaul's novel is profoundly conservative in just this way. At a time when many in the Third World, & the First & Second for that matter, were demanding that wealth be redistributed and the West pay them reparations for colonialism, he gives us Mr. Biswas a decent hard-working Trinidadian of Indian decent, whose sole motivating dream in life is to own his own home. His simple virtues and noble aspiration stand in stark contrast to the lazy, the tradition bound, the politically myopic and the morally dubious characters around him. I'm not sure the story warrants it's enormous length, but it's a pleasant enough diversion and has a salutory message. GRADE: B-
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Summary: The Master of 20th Century Prose
Review: For my money, this masterpiece of tragi-comedy is one of the most wonderful books of modern times. Since the day I read it years ago it has been a staple on my top 5 list, above HERZOG, and yes, even above LOLITA or ADA. Naipaul is The Master, and clearly the writer most deserving of the Nobel, but whether he wins it or not can have no bearing on his status as the greatest living writer, with the most powerful, affecting and important body of work. His technique, control and humanity are awesome and inspiring. I highly recommend that you track down an early Naipaul, very little known, a tiny novel that is unjustly out of print: MR. STONE & THE KNIGHT'S COMPANION. A beautiful story, perfectly told. Not one unnecessary word, every sentence luminous.
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Summary: Naipaul's Best
Review: As always, Naipaul's writing is brilliant. In this novel, unlike many of his others, he has a compelling story to tell, which he invests with great humor and effectively restrained emotion. While many of his subsequent works are masterful, they all seem to be tainted by bitterness and an odd combination of condescension and defensiveness. While "Biswas" is completely unsentimental, it is never bitter or mean.
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Summary: Extraordinary power in its comic understatement
Review: V.S. Naipaul is a master of understatement and his mastery gives his work real strength in its execution. The author is humble, self-effacing and unobtrusive, which enable the reader to become lost and often transported by the story. The language is unadorned but beautifully crafted. The tale itself is sanguine and endearing about a simple Indian man who seeks his own home in Trinidad. The text is imaginatively laced with brilliant comedy and rich irony. Home ownership for Mohun Biswas is always just beyond his grasp or temporary in its occupation or destroyed by man or nature. While he conducts his search and finds the means to own his house, he is enslaved to the will of others offering him shelter. Life invariably confounds him in his inability to impose his will to shape his own destiny. His stint as a newspaper reporter for The Sentinel, the search for oil, the river drowning, the tempest, his journalism series on the Deserving Destitutes and the construction of his home on Sikkim Street were tragi-comic gems. Naipaul's ear for dialogue always rang true. Educated at Oxford, Naipaul stayed close to home on this tale: his father wrote for a newspaper in Trinidad. The characters appear to be extensions of his family (his father and sister) or himself at various stages in his life. This is a truly great book! I cannot recommend it highly enough to readers seeking a rich literary experience.
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Summary: A miracle of a book
Review: A House for Mr. Biswas is one of the few books I tend to "push" people to read. I first heard about Naipaul in 1980 when Elizabeth Hardwick wrote a piece on him in the New York Review of Books. So I read A Bend in the River and loved it. A bit later that year, I moved to London, England to study for a year. I decided to spend the year studying V.S. Naipaul and wrote a book-length paper on him. Biswas was the fourth book I read by him and it just blew me away. It's one of handful of books I'd take to the fabled desert island. Naipaul, I've learned, is not everyone's cup of tea. His maddening fastidiousness can just about drive a reader nuts, especially in his travel writing. But, my God, what a prose master he is! It's an absolute disgrace he hasn't won the Nobel yet. I highly recommend The Enigma of Arrival, one of the strangest and most beautiful books ever written. It's rivetingly haunting. Please read it, folks!
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Summary: A fine novel.
Review: Reading " A house..." was an experience in itself for me.A fine novel. The story, beautifully crafted, was more pathetic than humorous. Even Mr. Biswas's sardonic humour is strangely more tragic and ironic than funny. His struggle for economic independence from his domineering in-laws, to his loveless marriage to a fatherless and abusive childhood made me empathise with him. He is at times, exhasperating, but i understand why he acted the way he did. Contrary to what another reader felt, i think his unfulfilled life was not entirely his doing. He was a definite victim of circumstances and the myopic customs very much a part of his society. Biswas's struggle is one more for self-expression than one with the Tulsis. The claustrophobic and constricting atmosphere of Hanuman House leads him to his crusade against the Tulsis...It is a struggle for assertion of his self...a need to be.
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Summary: A beautiful novel
Review: Like most of the other reviewers, I was captivated by Naipaul's obvious mastery of the language. This book is worth reading for that alone. But it also worth reading for the beauty of the story. It is a simple story: a man is born into a world devoid of opportunity; he feels himself belittled by that world, trapped in a role that makes him merely an appendage in other people's lives; against the odds and all expectations, he carves out a place for himself, a home, where he can be his own man and the leading actor of his own life. While it is true that the character Mohun Biswas is not entirely sympathetic -- indeed he is often exasperating and occasionally contemptible -- I felt I understood why he acted as he did, and could empathize. This is a testimony to the power of Naipaul's artistry; he has, in tracing Biswas from birth to death, created a fully developed human being, as perfect a simulcram of a real person as exists in modern literature. Being able to understand, and share in, the life journey of such a character is a powerful experience.
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Summary: How did this novel get the reputation of humorous?
Review: I heartily endorse another reviewer's opinion who found this novel beautifully crafted, intelligent, painfully authentic. It has been touted as being very humorous, but be advised, that is not true. There are a few laugh lines in this very sad story, but one doesn't feel much like laughing at this unrelieved, hopeless, unlikeable loser. Any reference to a comparison with Dickens is indefensible. Our poor "hero' is a loser without any of the redeeming charm one finds in Dickens's losers. The endless chronicles of his losing wears one down to the point where one begins to hope for the inevitable end and is relieved to get there. The quality of the writing is first rate, and hence my fairly generous rating, but for five-star Mr. Naipaul, compare with 'Bend in the River'.
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Summary: Wonderful Prose and Style
Review: This book is about a man who spends his life trying to make a mark on the world. Though this desire is universally recognizable, Mr. Biswas's environment and culture must seem utterly foreign to many readers. He is buffetted by strong ties and powerful forces, cultural, environmental, and familial: poverty, the desire to be loved and respected, the desire for wealth, power, and self-determination, the loyalty and simultaneous petty back-stabbing between family and friends. Although this is not the best book I have ever read, it deserves much of the eloquent praise given by other reviewers. Naipaul's prose is compact, direct, and powerfully expressive. What I found most fascinating about this book is the way its semi-biographical nature is subtly revealed. Mr. Biswas represents Naipaul's father. The beginning of the book is surreal (by Naipaul's own admission). It has the directness, brutal honesty, distorted perspective, and casual acceptance that we see in myths and in children. By the end, we hear occasional judgments and analyses of people and events. These show the perceptiveness and compassion of a mature, adult writer. The transition is visible, but gentle.
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Summary: Biswas tops all the other "classics"
Review: This is probably the best fiction book I've ever read! I just finished it a week ago and I am ecstatic. Naipaul's prose is superlative, his narrative style beyond comparison with the vast majority of modern and classic writers. Naipaul doesn't fuddle his story with lengthy descriptions of insignificant detail or write so esoterically that no one can understand what he's saying. The tragi-comic story of Mr. Biswas is at times wonderfully hilarious and at other times agonizingly sad. His struggle for economic independence from his well-to-do in-laws produces scenes of touching emotion and rollicking comedy. And throughout, V.S. Naipaul's remarkable ability to write clearly, evocatively, and precisely will keep any reader enthralled. Paul Theroux, who has taken Naipaul as his mentor, wrote that "A House for Mr. Biswas" possesses all the power of Dickensian comedy and even satire without Dickens' lengthy tirades. I believe this book is more powerful and well-written than any nineteenth- (and many a twentieth-) century classic I've ever read. I heartily agree with the other reviewer below that Mr. Biswas kicks butt!
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