Half a Life : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Yuck
Review: Since some of the reviewers here covered the book better than I could, these are just some of my thoughts on the first book by VS Naipaul that I've read.
"Half a Life" follows the life and travels of Willie, born and raised in India by a family of mixed caste background. Throughout his years as a young man Willie often refers to his mother as "unclean" and the marriage of his parents as both a negative violation of tradition and at the same time, a rebellious symbol of shrugging off that tradition. This paradox remains throughout the book, the theme of in a society with set ways and then the abrupt change in Willie's life, the societies' lives or both. The story ranges all over, from India (a colony on the verge of independence) to London (the heart of empire) to a Portuguese colony in Africa which is in the process of becoming independent as Willie remains there.
Willie changes location, friendships and lovers with little emotional investment, coming off as selfish and a bit cruel, leaving places and people behind when he no longer feels its worth the effort of maintaining the relationship. While this is a good metaphor for colonialism, all of this also leaves the reader with the urge to stay clear of this kind of "rootless" and rather soulless living by the final pages.
The most interesting part of this book is that, like a good record, at first it feels like nothing special. But after you've finished it, you'll find that you can't stop thinking about it. To me, this is the sign of a good novel.

Rating:
Summary: get a life and pass on half a life.
Review: This book knocked me out. Many people seem to have a problem with what they regard as an emotional distance or cold tone. I think Naipal's point was to dissect, with peerless analytical style, the consequences we all must face in coming to deal with our "inheritence". Naipal's narrator, Willie (and Willie's father, also), sadly illustrate the unfulfillment of not coming to terms with the basic facts of one's birth: social, economic, familial. For example, Willie's father, born into a comfortable caste from which he sees no possiblity of transcendence, pridefully chooses to make of his life "a sacrifice." Is resignation a form of transcendence? Doubtful, as Naipal mercilessly shows the man's essential folly and basic weakness. Similarly, Naipal masterly shows how Willie's "inheritance" of his Indian ethnicity (something obviously unearned) plays a part in permitting him, for a while, to become a relatively successful writer. When his talent is tapped he embarks on a marriage and a lazy, listless life on a colonial plantation in Africa. Perhaps this decision doensn't appear so curious when one considers Willie has never experienced such wealth. We understand how our own cultural inheritance infulueces the decisions we make, oftentimes without our awareness. Or perhaps we willingly turn a blind eye to our own motivations. Naipal chooses a detached, analytical style to show us the folly of such ignorance. This book is so economical, the prose so clean, conveying such powerful ideas with such awesome clarity in so few pages. Like I said, it's brilliant- read it and think.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: V.S. Naipaul is a literary craftsman. His sensitive depiction of Willie's HONEST perspective in this sordid world WE live in is brilliant. He spares no detail, and is as brutally honest with his reader as he always is.

Fantastic!