A review by deegee24
A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul

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.