A HOUSE FOR MR. BISWAS by Naipaul : difficult to read, autobiographical and political too

There were nineteen of us attending Montrose Great Books at Houston Freed Montrose Library last night (June 7, 2012) discussing A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS. After some initial biographical info about the Nobel prize winning author V.S. Naipaul, and info about the history of Trinidad especially pertaining to indentured slavery, Jim who moderated the discussion began with a question asking what we thought about changes that Mr. Biswas made during the course of the story - whether he DID change and was it for better or for worse?

It didn't take long for several attendees to voice very negative opinions about the main character and about the culture of family dysfunction described in the book.

Among the numerous topics covered included

• the likability of the character of Mr. Biswas - improved as story developed
• the constant search for identity and independence by Mr. Biswas
• the parenting by Mr. Biswas and the attitude toward his children - waivered
• the marriage of Mr. Biswas and Shama (a member of the Tulsi family) and the position of women in the story
• class and the caste system - how being Brahmin affected Mr. Biswas
• the immaturity of Mr. Biswas initially as demonstrated by his rebelliousness even when others in his wife's family tried to help him
• his attitude toward his children and how it changed
• the poverty of Mr. Biswas and his family as well as his wife's family
• how the roles of the children became more and more important as the story progressed
• the loneliness of Mr. Biswas and the lack of interpersonal relationships in the story
• the focus of Mr. Biswas on having his own house, whether he was buying a too expensive dolls house for his daughter or whether he was borrowing money for a house that was falling down and didn't even have a back door.
• the ending was enigmatic with very little drama and reconciliation of money issues was left for his children to deal with.

I didn't actually count "votes" but as we went around the room at the end of the discussion as we always do giving everyone a chance to voice their final conclusions along with anything else they didn't have a chance to bring up earlier, I would estimate that about half the group indicated that they didn't like the story. Some disliked it so much that they said they didn't plan to read anything else by Naipaul. One person mentioned that the only reason she came to the discussion was to have the chance to say how much she disliked the book.

On the other hand, there were numerous attendees who liked it including me. Though once I learned that a large part of the story was autobiographical, I realized that this was the part I didn't like. When authors are telling someone's life story, they end up eliminating many opportunities to use metaphors and symbols expressing ideas, in my opinion.

There were others who generally enjoyed the book too and all thought the writing was very good. One attendee from Trinidad explained that Trinidad culture had changed considerably since the book was written in 1961. We discussed the fact that Trinidad gained independence from the British Empire in 1962 indicating that it was not a sovereign country during the story of Mr Biswas.

It was at this point where one attendee brought up the possibility that the Tulsi family might be a metaphor for the ruler(s) of the British Empire. Since I had read THE MYSTIC MASSEUR by Naipaul, I was struck by a familiar thought about the struggle for identity by non-native citizens of the British Empire that was a theme in THE MYSTIC MASSEUR as well. So I knew I would be spending part of today in investigating this connection with THE HOUSE FOR MR. BISWAS.

Since we spend so much time talking about the book during the meeting, we use time after the meeting next door at the Black Lab Restaurant to do our socializing. And it was here that I learned that others also planned to do some investigating. If this investigation is done before the meeting, it takes some of the fun out of the learning experience in my opinion (and also to some extent detracts from the Great Books principle that we can figure out the book on our own and don't need the experts - for the most part). But NEXT DAY investigations are great and in this case, I found web pages written by those who made this same connection with the political world and Mr. Biswas. See below.

For example:

• from: http://sh.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:212635/FULLTEXT01
  "To Mr. Biswas, it is a typical joined family which functions on the same pattern as the British empire in West Indies. Hanuman House provides shelter to Mr. Biswas but wants total dilution of his identity in return."
• from: http://rsnitonde.webs.com/postcolonialism.htm
  "The novel, A house for Mr.Biswas is the West-Indian epic. The story of the West-Indies is also the story of Mr.Biswas and the Tulsi family. Historylessness, lack of definite cultural past, search for unity at cultural level, colonialism, multiculturalism, brokenness of land, fragmentation of minds are some of the dominant features which contribute to the West-Indian ethos."

Looking forward to our discussion next month on July 5th when we will discuss SENSE OF AN ENDING by Julian Barnes