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A House for Mr Biswas

A House for Mr Biswas

By&
DramaLiterary Fiction
Pages
640
Published
1961
Language
English

Synopsis

A sprawling, first-person bildungsroman following Mohun Biswas's search for identity and belonging in postcolonial Trinidad — his struggle against an overbearing family, a domineering wife, and the anonymity of immigrant life is classic literary fiction with strong realist texture. The novel's elegiac tone about lost heritage and the passage of time earns melancholic; its unflinching depiction of Mohun's failures and compromises adds dark humor in moments that undercut his self-importance.

Prose complexity
5/10

Vibe

MelancholicReflective

Genres

Drama Literary Fiction

About the author

V
V. S. Naipaul

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (17 August 1932 – 11 August 2018) was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienation in the wider world, and his vigilant chronicles of life and travels. He published more than thirty books over fifty years. Naipaul's breakthrough novel A House for Mr Biswas was published in 1961. He won the Booker Prize in 1971 for his novel In a *Free State,...

Characters

Mohun BiswasProtagonist

A Hindu Indo-Trinidadian man whose lifelong quest for identity and a sense of belonging is framed by his struggle to claim independence from the Tulsi family he marries into.

ShamaSupporting

Mohun's wife, a member of the influential Tulsi family; her domineering presence and refusal to let Mohun assert himself drive much of his internal conflict.

All characters in A House for Mr Biswas
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