Reviews

Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul

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When I first started reading this book, I had no idea how it would turned out to be. The book was a gift someone gave me in 2002, I didn’t know who Naipaul was or why would he have been awarded a Nobel Literature prize. And most certainly I didn’t know that this book would end up to also be about the Wars of Liberation (Guerras da Libertação), particularly in Mozambique, in the late times of the Portuguese colonial empire. Naipaul writes magnificently about growing up and growing apart from your origins. And it also sheds light about what someone feels when they are doomed to live only half-lives. From India to England, from Portugal to Mozambique, this book was a great travel inwards and outwards.

read_with_pinot's review

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The writing could not overcome what I read about this author’s prejudices and were being reflected in the book.

hikemogan's review

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4.0

Since some of the reviewers here covered the book better than I could, these are just some of my thoughts on the first book by VS Naipaul that I've read.
"Half a Life" follows the life and travels of Willie, born and raised in India by a family of mixed caste background. Throughout his years as a young man Willie often refers to his mother as "unclean" and the marriage of his parents as both a negative violation of tradition and at the same time, a rebellious symbol of shrugging off that tradition. This paradox remains throughout the book, the theme of in a society with set ways and then the abrupt change in Willie's life, the societies' lives or both. The story ranges all over, from India (a colony on the verge of independence) to London (the heart of empire) to a Portuguese colony in Africa which is in the process of becoming independent as Willie remains there.
Willie changes location, friendships and lovers with little emotional investment, coming off as selfish and a bit cruel, leaving places and people behind when he no longer feels its worth the effort of maintaining the relationship. While this is a good metaphor for colonialism, all of this also leaves the reader with the urge to stay clear of this kind of "rootless" and rather soulless living by the final pages.
The most interesting part of this book is that, like a good record, at first it feels like nothing special. But after you've finished it, you'll find that you can't stop thinking about it. To me, this is the sign of a good novel.

tessaays's review

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1.0

I am a Naipul fan but this was awful. I gave up half way through after realising that the slog wasn’t going to become even slightly less sloggy. The characters were all utterly unlikeable and the plot went nowhere. Life’s too short man. I am determined to stop finishing books like this one for the sake of it.

massy_masroor's review against another edition

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2.0

My debut novel from Naipul’s writing, obvious choice would have been either ‘House for Mr. Biswas’ or ‘In a free state’, However, this book was available in my office library, so thought to give it a try. The story starts with a child questioning his father about his middle name, while unfolding the mysteries behind his name, he discovers different aspects of his parent’s life. His father was a brahmin who married to his mother, who was on the bottom rungs of societal ladder. This, so called socially dejected relationship of his parents leads to identity crisis in him, which further get reinforced by the psychological trauma by his father-who was a priest by chance (forced situation) and not by choice. Unsatisfied with his life, he wandered around different counties in search of self-discovery. I did like the story till I reach half, however, poor storylines and under-developed characters made it difficult to read afterwards. I somehow finished it with hope that it might get better at later stage, but it didn’t!