A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S Naipaul

This was my 5th book for the Orbis Terrarum challenge and I was glad I picked up yet another good book. A great book – no but yes a good book.

Set in Trinidad, the book traces the life of Mohun Biswas – a man of East Indian descent. The gist of the book is very simple – the life of Mohun and his dreams of owning a home. Mohun is a rather tragic figure. Everything in his life is marked with disaster right from his birth. He is considered unlucky in just about everything. He grows up poor and his education is by no means complete. A little bit of training to be a pundit, a few years in school, a conductor in a bus, a sign writer – he does it all. As a sign writer he gets married to Shama, a Tulsi. The Tulsis are a bunch of mismatched relatives living under a big roof, Hanuman House. Identity crisis, quarrels, politics found in any joint family are potrayed without many words.

Mr.Biswas tries to maintain his independence and his views. He rebels, he complains, he ridicules, he teases and his life grows more turbulent. He has no steady career – he moves from being a sign-writer to a grocery store owner, to a sub-seer all the while being almost peniless and having a strange tie to Hanuman house. His attempts to build a home are disasterous and finally he leaves for the city where he becomes a journalist. Life seems to be looking up and he makes another attempt to build a house. A fire destroys the house and he is forced back into the Tulsi household.

Finally, near the very end of his life Mr.Biswas owns a house and dies in his home.

The plot is simple, no major surprises just the expected. Mr.Biswas touches you in a strange way but it is Savi (Mr.Biswas first child) who impacts me the most. It is in a way tragic to live a life where there are no options but to fall into the gutter which Mr.Biswas does more than once. It is not a fun read but a rather serious read and it is kind of some of the mega-serials on Indian television. Actually, it will make an excellent mega serial – lots of characters, lots of drama and copious amounts of tears shed.

On another note, I have decided on what other books to read to complete the challenge. Also from the Time Magazine Top 100 novels list

– Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie – India

– A handful of dust -Evelyn Waugh – England

– The painted bird – Jerzy Kosinski – Poland