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zaira_frank_2108's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
deegee24's review against another edition
5.0
Without a doubt, one of the best novels since 1945. The narrative style is a throwback to the Victorian era, but Naipaul makes it seem entirely fresh and natural. Mohan Biswas, one of the most memorable characters in modern fiction, struggles to lift himself up into middle-class respectability. His lifelong quest to build himself a house is foiled time and time again by life's little disappointments. Naipaul in life was evidently quite the misogynist, but his female characters are intelligent, sympathetic and quite independent, though their lives are necessarily circumscribed by the patriarchy of a traditional Hindu society. The book is filled with beautiful passages rendering the life of the Indian diasporic community in Trinidad--landscapes and urban dwellings leap off the page and you feel almost as if you've been there.
veecaswell's review against another edition
2.0
if the first 90 pages of bickering and complaining continue for the next five hundred, a summary of this book is fine by me.
rudy99's review against another edition
2.0
So I get that you're not supposed to like Mr Biswas - he's petulant, rude, abusive, and conceited. But I just couldn't enjoy this book. Most of the characters seemed very one dimensional to me, and 90% of the dialogue is just driven by people living in the same house being petty and rude to one another. For a book about family, there's very little love even within the nuclear Biswases (and maybe that's the point).
I get that Naipaul is trying to comment on how false senses of superiority contribute to a lack of fulfillment, and I get that a lot of the book is largely based on his own experiences. But Naipaul himself isn't exactly a model person - and even in the text, his misogyny and racism come through quite starkly. The way he simply brushed off wife-beating and other physical abuse within the book is startling, and left a sick taste in my mouth that I couldn't get rid of.
If I could boil the book down into it's essence, it was that Mr Biswas wanted to feel superior to those around him (including, but not limited to his in-laws) and those around him wanted to feel superior to him. Being the lord of his own house was the way he could show everyone else up, so he relentlessly pursued that dream to the detriment of his wife, children, and any other relationships he might have had.
I get that Naipaul is trying to comment on how false senses of superiority contribute to a lack of fulfillment, and I get that a lot of the book is largely based on his own experiences. But Naipaul himself isn't exactly a model person - and even in the text, his misogyny and racism come through quite starkly. The way he simply brushed off wife-beating and other physical abuse within the book is startling, and left a sick taste in my mouth that I couldn't get rid of.
If I could boil the book down into it's essence, it was that Mr Biswas wanted to feel superior to those around him (including, but not limited to his in-laws) and those around him wanted to feel superior to him. Being the lord of his own house was the way he could show everyone else up, so he relentlessly pursued that dream to the detriment of his wife, children, and any other relationships he might have had.
ajreader's review against another edition
3.0
Read my full thoughts on this book and hundreds more over at Read.Write.Repeat.
The story of Mr. Biswas is simultaneously entertaining, sad, and a good reminder of the importance of diversity in literature.
The story of Mr. Biswas is simultaneously entertaining, sad, and a good reminder of the importance of diversity in literature.
emilyisreading2024's review against another edition
3.0
I liked A House for Mr. Biswas but I am not sure that I agree with those who call it one of the best novels in recent history (or whatever it is that they say).
lindseyzank's review against another edition
4.0
Though I didn't find myself as consumed with the characters like I often hope for in a novel, I read this at a quick speed and kept wanting to come back to it. I think it was due to Naipaul's beautiful writing style that truly captures the atmosphere of his settings and the mood of his characters. I also found the swooping topic of one man's quest to be independent in a nation that is also strugging to be independent very intriguing. Something minor about his writing style that I really appreciated in a complex novel full of multiple characters was the fact that Naipaul constantly refered back to previous actions characters had performed when writing about characters readers may have forgotten over the course of the novel to enable readers to easily identify which character is at play. This was extremely useful to me because I'm not a very detail-oriented reader. I would have liked to have seen more of the internal dialogue scenes, ones similar to when Mr. Biswas's first house is burning down. That was by far the best scene in the book and made all the rest worth reading.
shellkyle's review against another edition
5.0
This was a triumph of post-colonial literature, and dearly I wish I read it closer to when I ventured through One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Here is the narrative of the indomitable Mr. Biswas, a man who was, in uncountably many ways, the square peg to every round hole the circumstances of his life forced him into. From his birth as a blight to his parents to a thorn in the bristling bush that was Hanuman House, he just did not fit into whatever situation life threw him into. At times a man deserving of hate and at others the underdog you'd root for in a TV drama, he is drawn so humanly and comically in his misadventures that he inspires understanding, more than anything else. Shama is equally a victim of their cat-in-bag marriage, the both of them boxed into their status for better or for worse.
Yet more than a study of Mr. Biswas' life and family this novel is the meticulous study on the politics of households. Houses, in his world as in many others, are not just dwelling-places or hearts for families - they are little kingdoms, with rulers, hierarchies, and regulations with corresponding rewards and consequences. In taking us through these houses, Naipaul tours us through the cultural landscape of Indian Trinidad. In the organization of the Tulsi fiefdom, I couldn't help but notice some similarities in our own Filipino extended families, where the collective always takes precedence over the individual and in unyielding deference to the ones in charge. For so long in the novel, Mr. Biswas is but one of the cowed in-laws in the Tulsi fiefdom that I couldn't help but root for him to finally find his own in spite of himself and his relentless bad luck.
This is by no means a page turner, but there is so much to be seen and felt. Mr. Biswas' endless frustration, Shama's silenhelplessness, and the children's resiliency. The hustle and bustle of a house bursting with families, the smells and sounds of a morning puja.
Here is the narrative of the indomitable Mr. Biswas, a man who was, in uncountably many ways, the square peg to every round hole the circumstances of his life forced him into. From his birth as a blight to his parents to a thorn in the bristling bush that was Hanuman House, he just did not fit into whatever situation life threw him into. At times a man deserving of hate and at others the underdog you'd root for in a TV drama, he is drawn so humanly and comically in his misadventures that he inspires understanding, more than anything else. Shama is equally a victim of their cat-in-bag marriage, the both of them boxed into their status for better or for worse.
Yet more than a study of Mr. Biswas' life and family this novel is the meticulous study on the politics of households. Houses, in his world as in many others, are not just dwelling-places or hearts for families - they are little kingdoms, with rulers, hierarchies, and regulations with corresponding rewards and consequences. In taking us through these houses, Naipaul tours us through the cultural landscape of Indian Trinidad. In the organization of the Tulsi fiefdom, I couldn't help but notice some similarities in our own Filipino extended families, where the collective always takes precedence over the individual and in unyielding deference to the ones in charge. For so long in the novel, Mr. Biswas is but one of the cowed in-laws in the Tulsi fiefdom that I couldn't help but root for him to finally find his own in spite of himself and his relentless bad luck.
This is by no means a page turner, but there is so much to be seen and felt. Mr. Biswas' endless frustration, Shama's silenhelplessness, and the children's resiliency. The hustle and bustle of a house bursting with families, the smells and sounds of a morning puja.
sohva's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
An interesting description of life and strugglesof one man in Trinidad, but was a bit of a struggle to get through.
shailendraahangama17's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0