Miguel Street

Rating:
Summary: Amusing and poignant
Review: A beautiful portrait of the inhabitants of Miguel Street located in a derelict corner of Trinidad's Capital Port of Spain. Set during World War II, the story is narrated by a precociously observant neighbourhood boy. The mood shifts from sweet melancholy to anarchical fun as we discover the lives of Popo the carpenter, Man-man staging his own crucifixion, Big Foot the bully or the lovely Mrs Hereira in thrall to her monstrous husband. An amusing and poignant book.

Rating:
Summary: NOT MY STYLE
Review: Colorful, lyrical ... yes, yes, all that. Funny? Well, in a forced kind of way. I recognize in Naipaul a writer of great talent, whose quasi-folk style is just not to my taste. But then, this is a youthful work. Chacun a son gout.

Rating:
Summary: "Miguel Street"
Review: Here is 1940s Port of Spain, Trinidad. Miguel Street is a melting pot at the ends of the British Empire, which, during WWII, is already on the ebb. Naipaul's first written and third published book tells the stories of Miguel Street's characters from the point of view of a young boy. Each of the stories are illuminating portraits of the limitations of colonial life. If you're looking for parables about poverty or racism, you won't find them here. Instead, you will find Naipaul's genius penchant for telling sad stories with great humor; and, rather than lessening the sense of the tragedy, Naipaul's humor makes it that much more impactful. Those who are also fans of Paul Theroux will recognize than the later writer used "Miguel Street" as the DNA for his "Hotel Honolulu."

Rating:
Summary: Light and funny, but thought-provoking
Review: I picked this book up because of writer Paul Theroux's praise of Naipaul's writing, though the impression I had of Naipaul, as a person, was dry and stuffy and rude. But this book has none of that flavor, and instead has a lot of humor. It's written in a clean and crisp style, and the dialogue is perfectly placed and sometimes hilarious. It's a collection of stories, but they all take place in the same area, sometimes with the same characters wandering in and out. So it's not really a normal collection of "short stories." But still, I can't heap praise on everything Naipaul has written. His "A Bend in the River" is highly regarded, but I couldn't tolerate the boring and stiff writing in that book.

Rating:
Summary: Funny?!?!
Review: The book was more sad and pathetic than funny. The narrator first mentions that the street is more to him than a slum (what it looks like on the outside) as if by the end of reading we would learn to love it too. But by the end of reading Miguel Street, the street seemed more like a slum than before and it seemed like the only thing to do was to get out of it and move to the West instead of try to make it better and everyone in it that tried to make it a better place to live ended up a lot worse than they had been in the first place. Where's the humor in that?

Rating:
Summary: Makes me laugh just to think about it again!
Review: There's no two ways about it... this book is funny. Witty. Endlessly sarcastic. There I am, reading it in the park, and laughing out loud in certain parts, like a bit of a loonie!
At one point, the author calls what he's doing here "sketches". That's exactly what it is... connected vignettes. Observations of the lives that make up Miguel Street, a street in Port of Spain, Trinidad. It is all set down and seen through the eyes of a young, fatherless boy.
It is written with such a clear eye that it seems autobiographical, and here on Miguel Street we see the germ or the kernel of many of the characters that Naipaul would develop further in his excellent book "A House For Mr. Biswas" which he published two years after this one.
As others have mentioned, the language, the idioms, the vernacular here are priceless... 1940's Trinidad bursts into view.
I give it 4.5 stars. Refreshing. A little book with big laughs!

Rating:
Summary: Funny and Thought provoking
Review: This is the 1st book that I have read by Naipaul. A native of the west indies, but raised in America, the book made me understand the cultural significance of colonialism in the region. The characters are complex and at most times unlikeable. Despite their faults, I came to care for each of them. There are many moments of self realization and heartbreak. What's amazing about this book is that everyone has a Bogart, a George, a Man-Man, a Hat, ect, in their life.

Rating:
Summary: hilarious early voice
Review: This novel crackles with laughter and detail, using local language to great effect. While there are some issues of sadness in the background, Naipaul puts the liveliness to the fore, in this, his first novel. He wrote it while freelancing at the BBC, just out of Oxford and a fearfully anxious young man. It is so different from the utter darkness of his later work that it is hard to believe it is from the same pen. But that is a measure of the talent of this man and the breadth of his vision.

Warmly recommended.