A House for Mr. Biswas (by V.S. Naipaul)
Augh, I hated this book. It's on the Time 100 list and one of the few (so far) complete misses for me. I spent half an hour ranting to Ian about post-colonial literature and how annoying it is. I mean, one of my favorite classes in college was History of the British Empire; I love the history part, I am not unsympathetic to the issues of colonization. But the fiction can blow me, because IT IS BORING OH MY GOD. (See: Passage to India, A, My Hatred For.)
But why, you might ask, did it annoy me so much? The main character, Mr. Biswas, I found completely unsympathetic. Towards the very end, I caught glimpses of a sympathetic character. He was actually not a complete asshole to his wife on like page 460. (Or at least she was nice to him. They had a Moment, finally.) I understand that the point of the book is that his life was mostly a waste and whatnot, and it's supposed to be... comedic, I guess? And an incisive commentary on post-colonial Trinidad? What it is, in fact, is an irritating book about an annoying asshole.
So, so, so, so glad to be done with this one. (The only good thing about it was that Ian kept calling it "Mr. Dishwash." Hee.)
But why, you might ask, did it annoy me so much? The main character, Mr. Biswas, I found completely unsympathetic. Towards the very end, I caught glimpses of a sympathetic character. He was actually not a complete asshole to his wife on like page 460. (Or at least she was nice to him. They had a Moment, finally.) I understand that the point of the book is that his life was mostly a waste and whatnot, and it's supposed to be... comedic, I guess? And an incisive commentary on post-colonial Trinidad? What it is, in fact, is an irritating book about an annoying asshole.
So, so, so, so glad to be done with this one. (The only good thing about it was that Ian kept calling it "Mr. Dishwash." Hee.)
Labels: time 100
posted by mo pie at 5:26 PM
4 Comments:
Right there with you. This book was loathsome. It got the coveted "one star" rating on The Bookcase, roughly the literary equivalent of a dog licking his balls.
Maybe that's a one-ball rating? I'm excited, I am going to go read about you hating it!
It does not look like you wrote about your hatred, BOO. But at least I got to add your blog to my Google Reader! (I just figured out how to use Google Reader.)
Big review coming up soon on five books. I've been saving the review because they're interconnected stories, so I'm going to do them all at once.
Post a Comment
<< Home