A House for Mr Biswas (1961)
4 Stars out of 5
V.S. Naipaul
623 pages
V.S. Naipaul and his family could be poster children for the
positive role the immigrant can play in their new country. His Brahmin Indian
grandparents moved from India to Trinidad in the late 19th century
to work as indentured laborers in the local sugarcane fields. Naipaul’s father
became an English-language journalist for the Trinidad Guardian newspaper. V.S.
Naipaul continued this upward mobility by graduating from Oxford and becoming
the writer his father always extoled, winning both the Booker prize in 1971 and
the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. Naipaul’s novels also describe a kind of
arc, but one quite dissimilar to his family’s’ upward movement. In the
beginning, Naipaul created a series of travelogues and comic novels (such as the
book reviewed here, “A House for Mr Biswas”). He then made a transition over
the course of 15 novels to a modern version of Voltaire – or perhaps more
accurately, he represents Voltaire’s disillusioned Candide as Naipaul’s novels
begin to take a darker, more cynical view of the world with his Booker Prize winning
“In a Free State” or the subsequent “Guerillas” (1975).
“A House for Mr Biswas” was published in 1961, Naipaul’s
fourth novel. It comes from a time in his life when his writing was very
focused on his Caribbean memories, and in the case of this book, those memories
specific to his father and the diasporic Indian community he lived with in
Trinidad just prior to and during WWII. The novel is for the most part told in
a traditional linear manner (the prolog being the exception to this rule) and
describes the life of the central character, Mohun Biswas. This is a character
that is always referred to by the narrator as “Mr. Biswas”, even as a baby. The
constant use of referring to Mr. Biswas as “Mr. Biswas” helps foster a sense
that this character is either someone that has never been a youth in terms of
his self-image or one that takes his needs to be paramount. Naipaul goes to
great pains to demonstrate the latter. In the prolog, Naipaul describes the
passing of Mr. Biswas’ life as he is surrounded by his family in the titular
house. The prolog provides closure right at the beginning of the novel to the overall
story arc and does so by describing the (let’s say) less than perfect condition
of the house, Mr. Biswas’ failing health, and his largely dysfunctional family.
It is a clever way of clearly for-shadowing the frustrated life of Mr. Biswas
that the novel is dedicated to relating.
Mr. Biswas begins his life inauspiciously according to a
local pandit; a Hindu religious figure brought in to name him at his
birth. This introduction of rural Indian culture is also an introduction to
much of the cultural life of East Indians living in Trinidad during the early
20th century. And of course, it is only the beginning of Mr. Biswas’
travails. His father will die while Mr. Biswas is very young; this forces Mr.
Biswas and his now impoverished mother to share a single room on a back alley.
Young Mr. Biswas learns at this tender age of six or seven to feel passionate
about his privacy. This need remains un-met over the course of the novel up to
and including the time of his acquisition of his house near the end of the novel.
By the time he does finally acquire the house in question, by the time he
realizes the house is in very poor condition, and by the time he realizes he
has paid a price for the house far in excess of its true value, he finally
begins to take stock of what he has as opposed to what he does not have. This
has been a long journey for Mr. Biswas, but he did finally reach its conclusion,
and then in proper comic ironic form, he dies.
Mr. Biswas’ life after leaving the one room hovel he shared
with his mother early in his life is one of constant frustrations for him. His “careers”
include training as a pandit, sign painter, grocery store owner, and finally
journalist. Like the book’s overall arc, each of these steps were exercises in frustration, humiliation, and ultimately, some form of failure - though
in the sign painting era, Mr. Biswas will reach a major turning point in
the course of his life. While painting signs at the
Tulsi Family store, he eyes an attractive young woman, Shama. She is one of
several daughters within the Tulsi family. He writes her a note, she ignores
him, but the note falls into the hands of the Tulsi family matriarch, Mrs.
Tulsi. Referred to in the novel like Mr. Biswas solely by her married name, she
like Mr. Biswas expects her every need to be met, but unlike Mr. Biswas, hers
are met.
This small, insignificant sign painting job at the Tulsi
store is Naipaul’s version of Alice falling down the rabbit hole. It is certain
that poor Mr. Biswas has done exactly that, at least in his mind. He has come
into the clutches of the Tulsi family. He will spend almost his entire adult life
trying to extract himself. He will take jobs, food, and places of residence
from the Tulsi’s, but he will only see himself trapped, never supported. He
views himself as a free agent, never as a pawn. Mrs. Tulsi has in the meanwhile
surrounded herself with pawns – all of them married to her daughters. There is
some value to Mr. Biswas' worldview on this topic, but there are considerable problems
with it as well. His sense of entitlement will grow as will his sense of
frustration as he struggles constantly to be his own man. His original desire
for more room that germinated in the one room shack he shared with his mother
will grow into a real and metaphorical desire for more “room” in the world of
the Tulsi’s. He and his new bride Shama will feel physically constrained in the
Tulsi manse that they share with her numerous sisters and their families; and
he will feel further constrained as the Tulsi’s coerce him into various jobs and living
choices he would not have otherwise made had he remained single. That his family
obligations play a significant role in the power of the Tulsi’s does not seem
to mitigate their decisions in any way to Mr. Biswas – he simply is not getting
his way. He will be free and live in his own large home.
This book is easily read and enjoyed by just about anyone
with some curiosity about other cultures, especially expatriate Indian
cultures. Naipaul takes great care in describing the social hierarchy and interactions of Trinidadian Indians. One aspect of special note is how Naipaul details the manner in which the women in the
Tulsi family vie for favor from their matriarch, Mrs. Tulsi and by extension how they try to exert control over
their sisters. Each of them employs what seems to me to be one of the most
extreme forms of passive-aggressive behavior I have been exposed to. For
example, should one sister have the temerity to purchase a new piece of
furniture for her portion of the Tulsi estate, at least one other sister will
begin audibly remonstrating to her own children to make way for the incoming
piece of furniture. She will further comment to the effect that “such finery”
must be cared for by all even those not able to afford such extravagances.
These kinds of comments will be made constantly no matter the achievements of
their in-laws: be they a new piece of furniture, a child that excels at school,
a new car or job, etc. It simply does not matter. It is a perfect example of a
zero-sum world. If my sister has received something good, then by definition, I
am diminished. Another way of looking at it is, anything that one member of the family (herd?) does that sets them apart is a kind of internal threat to the family as a whole. Standing apart is allowed only to those at the very top of the family pyramid of power; all others are expected to be equal in their low rank and powerlessness. This is a concept that is a complete anathema to Mr. Biswas; a character wedded to the idea of his uniqueness and special status, despite all evidence to the contrary.
From a negative point of view, you will at times be slogging your way through the novel. It is too long, repetitive and it
can be tedious – not a lot happens, and it never happens quickly. But then this
is Mr. Biswas’ life: slow, tedious and filled with multiple failures of a similar nature. Does Naipaul have a hidden meaning in
his characters beyond this message of frustration? Are the Tulsi’s a metaphor for Trinidad’s colonial masters, the
British? Or is Naipaul simply trying to sum up his father’s life in a comic
manner with no deeper context? Naipaul will certainly employ hidden levels of
meaning in his later novels, but in “A House for Mr Biswas” I feel that Naipaul
is refining his abilities to define his characters, even as he searches for meaning in his and his father's histories. There is no real growth in
any of the characters (with the possible exception of Mr. Biswas’ son, Anand; presumably V.S. Naipaul himself),
but they are clearly described to the reader. Mr. Biswas really seems stuck in
terms of his own growth. He may glimpse near the end some happiness as he
recognizes what he has in his family and his long-sought though modest house. In
truth though, he is a model of frustration and stasis. Even the world on sleepy
Trinidad has moved on following WWII, but not Mr. Biswas, not in any
significant manner. He is what he is, what he has always been.
It is worth reading Naipaul’s novels just to enjoy how he
manipulates his use of tone, rhythm and language as well as to learn from his
themes. “A House for Mr. Biswas” is a good way to start your way through his
works. He employs language in telling his tale that is at the highest level of achievement.
Like Joseph Conrad (someone the Nobel committee compared him to) or J.M. Coetzee,
V.S. Naipaul is an English language writer that comes from a social background
very far afield from most American literature. All of these men are brilliant
authors and if you are interested in expanding your own exploration of non-American
writers that are working at the very peak of their art, then do start or
continue your own journey with “A House for Mr. Biswas”. You will likely learn
some new things about life beyond America’s shores, but you will also be
entertained by a brilliant writer near the beginning of his career, and I am sure
you will be pleased with the effort you expend it reading this novel.
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