to be read.... comments later!

While visiting my mother (mmeclinton), I manged to steal one of her books. Wait, I mean borrow! ;) I've never read a V.S. Naipaul and have been trying to read more award winning authors, especially if they won the Nobel since I rarely come across those books.

I can't say this really piqued my interest. I do like his writing style which encourages me to at least try one more by him, perhaps a more known work. I found myself very intrigued by the beginning, and loved the tales of Willie's father much more than the tale of Willie himself...and found the ending a bit abrupt although I did learn after the fact that there is indeed a sequel.

I just could not care about Willie at all. He's not made to be likable, but I still usually find myself intrigued my characters whom I wouldn't actually want to associate with in real life. With him, I felt no such desire. Nor could I find much to admire in anyone around him. It was not a hard read, however, and I loved many of the descriptions especially in India. Naipaul has a sharp, if despairing, eye for the world. Mostly I just felt distant and removed from the activity, which is probably a nod to the fact that Naipaul could make me feel much like Willie - a stranger and removed no matter where I go. But I spent the whole book waiting to see a little spark of life in someone, anyone, and was disappointed not to have found it.

My lovely daughter Neuilly has read and returned this book to me, so back it goes on the enormous TBR piles (yes, that it plural). I absolutely plan on reading it one of these days.....

When I am not constrained by the two book clubs I belong to as to "what to read next?", then my choices are huge.... and I just go with whatever seizes me at the moment. I chose Half a Life by Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul. His prose is dense but lovely to read, so although I couldn't race through this book, it was a really good read. Largely it is the life of Willie Chandran, born in India of mixed caste. His middle name is Somerset, and that opens the tale as his father tries to tell his son of his own strange life, born into high caste, responding in his way to the mahatma and deliberately marrying a woman of lowest caste, whom he had absolutely no affection for, and his son is eventually repulsed by him even as he comes to understand elements of himself clearly from each of his parents. There is also a daughter who comes into the story at later intervals. We follow Willie, albeit somewhat erratically with so many offshoots into emotional territory, as he leaves India on scholarship to London, later to an unnamed African country, as he tries to comes to terms with his life which he only half understands at any given moment. So of course he is much like most of us, never really understanding what makes us tick or make the choices we do or even if we actually make choices but just follow the moment's momentum. He knows real love, but he also clearly knows it too is an ephemeral thing as far as physical endurance. Willie in London learns to invent himself.... but is his invention all invention, or is he simply integrating his experiences in ways which satisfy his yearnings? Realizing his ignorance of the world does open him to much growth, but he never is fully there, wherever "there" is. An interesting book!

putting in a book ring box of Authors with the Letter N.... and sending along with another to booklady331 in Florida!!

This arrived with the N author book rain. I’m going to keep this one and I will replace it with another book.

I just can’t get into this book. I’ve tried it twice so it is time to release it and they find a new reader.

Enjoy!