Oct 25, 2002 04:04 PM
4194 Views
(Updated Oct 25, 2002 04:06 PM)
This is my first V S Naipaul book.. recently bought to start reading V S Naipaul ..the Nobel Laureate...
Do we not expect a bit more ? and was that why I was disappointed ?
It is a book about the boy - Willie .. who leads a so-called half-life...meaning a life as a legacy handed by many people ..never his own..
The culture portrayal is very good...Willie travels from India to UK to South Africa (im not so sure)..some colonial country...these shades are interestingly depicted..
but in the end showing Willie sexual conquests puts everything else in background...
Maybe the western people like it because of the variation in culture..thoughts so nicely shown ..but for an indian where the variation is part of life the book ends in disappointment...
Nobel site writes abt Mr Naipaul ''for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories''
