Reviews

• ナイポールの最高傑作！

  『ビスワス氏の家』（1961年刊）は、ナイポールの最高傑作であると思う。面白いと言える著者の本は他にもたくさんあるが、卓抜なストーリーテーラーぶり、ユーモア、国家などまるであてにしていない人々の思考法、読後の余韻で他を圧倒していると思う。 物語はトリニダットのインド人社会を舞台に、父とおぼしき人をモデルとしたビスワス氏が6本の指をもった不吉な子として生まれ、牛飼いのアルバイトをしていてあらぬことで父親を溺死させてしまうところから始まる。大まかにいってその後の小説の展開は、妻の実家との軋轢、新聞記者時代のこと、ようやく手にした自分の家（住んでみたら実は欠陥住宅だった）、そして著者になぞらえる少年の成長と続く。最後は病気で新聞社を首になったＢ氏が死ぬところで小説は終わる。要約してこの本の魅力を伝えるのはとても難しそうなので、こんなエピソードを紹介させてもらう。・・・Ｂ氏は、窓からものを放り投げる。パンディットに弟子入りした時は、糞にまみれたハンカチを投げ捨て破門となる。ハヌマーンハウス（妻の家）では、「こんなもの食えるか」と言って女房のシェーマの作ったカレーを２階の窓から投げ捨て、それが元ココナッツ売りの義兄にかかり義兄から半殺しの目にあう。そして、さらに、自分の欠けた歯を窓から投げ捨てようとしている。何かがおこる前兆でもあるかのように。 著者は、クノップ社版の前書きでこの本を最初に出してからあまりにも内容が生々しいので、２０年間読み返すことができなかったと告白している。さもありなん、というべき読み物だけれども、理由を僕流に解釈すれば、著者は父のメッセージ（同朋の苦難と尊厳について記述する使命）に対して忠実な具現者、また大いなる成功者であるけれども、父の不幸、挫折、悲惨を償うことはどうしても自分にはできないと思うからではないか。

• インドを離れたインド人の話

  インドを離れトリニダードに移民してもても、インドのカースト、宗教、習俗を維持しつつける人々、そのなかに作者の父親がモデルとみられる主人公がいます。自分の家を建てることに意欲を燃やしつつ、なかなか叶わない主人公とその家庭、一族の生きざまを描いた長編小説です。インドになナイーブな内面と極端な行動が、客地でくりひろげる事件が、独特のおかしく余韻を残す口調で語られます。 登場するトリニダードの英語もちょっと変わっていて、異国情緒をもりあげます。

• le charme addictif des colonies et de l'empire britannique

  Nous sommes sous les tropiques, à Trinidad et Tobago, dans les années 30 ou 40, on ne sait pas bien. Mohun Biswas appartient à la diaspora indienne; il est pauvre, mais brahmane (de caste supérieure), chétif et de santé fragile, mais intelligent et indépendant d'esprit. Et surtout il veut être libre: il veut être un gentleman, il veut être respecté. Difficile d'être un homme libre quand on est sans argent, qu'on n'a pas fait d'études, qu'on est soumis aux préjugés de sa caste, qu'on est différent des autres, qu'on vient d'une culture collectiviste dans laquelle l'individu n'est pas reconnu. Ce sera le combat de toute sa vie, à un contre cent, contre la promiscuité d'une belle-famille dictatoriale avec laquelle il doit vivre faute d'avoir un toit qui lui appartienne, contre une belle-mère et des beaux-frères tyranniques, contre et avec une femme bornée et superstitieuse, contre la malchance. Patiemment, subtilement, avec un humour corrosif et parfois désespéré, le petit homme opiniâtre et endurant cultive son jardin secret (la lecture) en encaissant humiliations et coups du sort, trouve un métier d'homme de plume (après avoir sans succès été peintre en lettres, encaisseur de loyers, épicier,...), et enfin se bâtira une maison à lui, une petite maison où il aura la paix. Et puis meurt à quarante-six ans. Dans ce chef d'oeuvre, V.S. Naipaul a mis beaucoup de lui-même car il appartenait à ce milieu d'indiens installés à Trinidad et le personnage de Mr. Biswas doit sans doute beaucoup à son père. Ce livre plein d'humour, du fait du regard très détaché porté sur les choses de la vie, leur vanité, cette accumulation de catastrophes grandes et petites, possède un charme très attachant; on ne reste pas insensible, mais au contraire saisi de compassion devant Mr. Biswas qui est un peu chacun d'entre nous. Son combat pour être un homme libre et respecté n'est-il pas une quête fondamentale de l'être humain? Selon une inscription persane vielle de quinze bons siècles ornant une céramique détenue dans un des musées de Berlin: "L'homme libre est libre. Même dans l'adversité, c'est un grand bonheur".

• Loss of words !

  Well honestly I was intrigued by the length of the book for it is a weighty tome. But I just breezed through it. What do I say? I am blown away by the writing. It is so richly imaginative that I hardly felt bored picking it up. Coming to the writing - such humor, such ease and such is the language that takes you on a ride literally. Sir V S Naipaul, deserves every bit of credit for the writing is extra-ordinary and the vivid details, the drama, the clashes, the idiosyncrasies, the dialogues, everything is spot on. I highly recommend picking this book up.

• A long read but entertaining, emotive and informative!

  Amazing read! V. S. Naipaul does a great job of depicting so vividly the lives of each one of the characters.

• a complex, thought-provoking book

  This book has just been and discussed at the book group of which I am a member. Everyone found something to like in it, but opinions overall differed a lot. It tells of Mr. Biswas, a Trinidadian Hindu (and from a brahmin family, so high-caste), from his birth to his death at the age of 46 (that is no spoiler - we are told of it in the first chapter). The character is based on Naipaul's father, and his son, Anand, on Naipaul himself. Mr. Biswas lives through extreme poverty and difficulty, constantly (as an adult) struggling to assert his individuality in the face of his wife's large and extended family, the Tulsis. His dream is to have his own house and he makes a number of attempts to do so, all more or less doomed until the end of the book, when he has a measure of (very qualified) success - again, we know about that right from the start. It is a complex book. The society on which it centres, that of Indians living in Trinidad, has its own rules and standards, and I found it fascinating to read about these and see how they worked themselves out. There are constant rows, but they are also supportive and dutiful in times of crisis. Husbands beat their wives and wives their children, but this is almost like an expected ritual, and there is even some pride taken in the effectiveness of these beatings, as if they are a necessary part of family life. Families respect the 'pundit', the wise man in their midst who performs quasi-religious rituals (for example, to bless Mr. Biswas's house at one point), even to the extent that when the pundit decrees that baby Biswas has an unlucky sneeze, everyone believes him. In the midst of all this is Mr. Biswas, usually sceptical and trying to be himself. And what is he? He can be foolish, impulsive, petulant, naive, sarcastic, rude, and negligent. About halfway through the book, he suffers what is clearly a nervous breakdown of some kind. Yet he has an enquiring mind, reads widely (Marcus Aurelius, Epictitus, Dickens and much more - he likes reading wiring diagrams and scientific manuals as well) and has a strange kind of resourceful courage that keeps him going. There is a lot in this book. It is often amusing. When Mr. Biswas gets a job as a reporter for the Port of Spain Sentinel, it becomes very funny indeed (he writes grotesque sensational stories for them). Naipaul has a considerable gift for description, and many scenes in the book, fully described, are vivid. Occasionally we get an insight into the extreme poverty endured by some of the characters. There is a wide range of interesting characters - Shama, Mr. Biswas's wife, Mrs. Tulsi, Tara his wealthy aunt, Seth, the character known as W.C. Tuttle because he has a large collection of book by that author (who wrote Westerns featuring Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens), Owad, the 'young god' who goes to England and comes back with medical training and an absurd degree of self-importance, and others. As the book moves on, and especially in the final 100 pages or so, the mood changes and it becomes reflective and almost elegaic. Mr. Biswas (movingly) remembers his mother's kindness to him - he has thought little about her as an adult ; his work obliges him to visit the destitute people of Port of Spain and the surrounding area ; the family has a happy holiday at the beach ; Anand faces the trials of the exhibition exam., which may give him opportunity for further study after school ; they get a new Ford Prefect and delight in it ; and Mr. Biswas becomes aware that he is a grown man, the head of a family of young people, no longer children, who will branch out in their own way. His relationship with his wife, always complex and ambivalent, becomes more clearly defined, and his death, when it comes, is beautifully and very movingly handled in an understated way. ... and I could go on. This is a 'big' book in its scope and range, and an unusual one. It has been much praised, as has its Nobel-prize-winning author. I took great pleasure in reading it and found it stimulating, thought-provoking and involving, and that seems good enough reason for giving it five stars.

• An Epic Comedic Masterpiece

  I have been a fan of the writing of V.S. Naipaul for some time, and I've been meaning to getting around to reading his career-making novel A House For Mr Biswas (1961). It is a rather long novel, so it has remained on the shelf (metaphorically speaking-since I read the ebook version). However, Naipaul's recent death and Barack Obama's recommendation as a summer read moved it up my book reading queue. And I'm glad I finally got around to reaing it. It is an epic comic novel with great dialogue and written in a grand style about the comic-tragic Mr Biswas. The scale and execution calls to mind another great darkly comedic novel-Cormac McCarthy's Suttree. Biswas is an Indian born on the tropical island of Trinidad who spends his life trying to live with dignity and achieve his life-long dream of becoming a home owner. It almost seems as if his life is merely a series of tragic-comedic events that follow one after another-humor and pathos can be found in every aspect of his life from his birth, too his life as a sign painter, to his marriage, and subsequent post-married family life spent mostly in the company of his wife's family and relations that gives that story much of its comic vitality as the petty squabbles and other interactions between the family relations and inhabitants of the shared housing community drive the story. Naipaul has created many unforgettable characters, Biswas and his manner of speaking is not the very least of these. I daresay I am tempted to add the job description of "crab catcher" to my arsenal of personal insults. I must say I unexpectedly enjoyed this novel much more than I anticipated and will probably steer me toward his earlier comedic novels as well. That being said, I am looking forward to getting around to the several other Naipaul penned books that I have designated for future reading.

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