Miguel Street

I have difficulty coming to terms with my enjoyment of Naipaul's fiction and his odious character. He is a self-professed physical abuser, a misogynist, a colonial apologist, and if not a full-blown racist, very close to a racist.I first read Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas after seeing it on Barack Obama's list of summer reads. It was an excellent book about a man modeled on Naipaul's own father. In Miguel Street, Naipaul describes with fictitious invention the characters on the street where he grew up.Naipaul ran with a mostly innocent gang of older boys. I believe most of them are of Indian descent but a few may be of Black Caribbean descent. He is a gifted student, but the people on his street are not. There is a push-cart worker, an amateur mechanic, a pimp, a carpenter, a poet, and several housewives who suffer under the fists of their husbands, though in Naipaul's telling the beatings are a rite of passage for women.The character sketches are light-hearted, despite describing a world of poverty. The characters are constantly dirty and fighting. Each chapter focuses on one of them, going through a quick story about one part of their life, such as how working with the American military changed one of them, how the purchase of a car made a man obsessive, and how another man tried to move away from the street.Despite his awful personal beliefs, Naipaul is a talented writer with a keen eye for male characters.

I have been looking for a quality hardcopy of this book which I love. The first edition boasts elegant cover design, tasteful layout, and reader-friendly font size and spacing. No excessive "introduction" or "xxx's interpretation". They just don't do it like this any more. [Sigh]My copy, although slightly used and has a minor chip at the corner, is in great condition. Extremely happy to have obtained this copy at a reasonable price.

The setting is Miguel Street in Port of Spain, Trinidad, roughly the 1940's. The narrator is an East Indian who arrives on Miguel Street as a youngster when his mother retrieves him from his negligent father. When he's not in school, he spends a lot of time hanging out with residents on the street where you can see trouble coming. Each chapter tells the story of a resident of Miguel Street who left a big impression on the boy. They are all beset by poverty, mostly uneducated, and tangling with demons that take over when hope is lost. The personalities vary from amusing, friendly, frightening, self-destructive, violent, but usually a combination of several. Beatings are a given behavior, the source of establishing who's boss, at home, on the street, or in the neighborhood. Fortunately, his mother and several others give the boy some positive attention when they aren't in the middle of their own chaos.These stories evolved into Naipaul's first novel, and they preview his genius as a writer. A few of the stories could use some editing, others don't give enough. They are told in dialect, which is colorful, but at length tiresome. One thing the stories are, though, is unforgettable.

"Miguel Street" is an absolute joy that provides a unique take on joie de vivre. Written in 1959, it is an early book by V.S. Naipaul, and it helped set the stage for an outstanding writing career. (In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature).The book's characters are indeed characters, a wide range of lovable borderline lunatics who are denizens of "Miguel Street", an impoverished stretch in Port of Spain, Trinidad. (Naipaul was born and raised in Trinidad, and then moved to England).Adding spice to the book's dialogues, the characters speak in a local dialect that has its own pleasing Caribbean flavor.Though "Miguel Street" contains a number of sad settings, most of the text is satirically amusing, and some of the scenes are outrageously funny. The book's 17 chapters are distinct stories, and principal characters appear in some or all of them.In these wonderful vignettes, you'll meet a host of earthy folks including Bolo the barber, Boyee, Bogart, Hat, Man-Man, Popo, the Morgans, Uncle Bhakcu and his feisty wife, and other unique souls. (My favorite character is Mrs Bhakcu, who is described as being "four feet high, three feet wide, and three feet deep" and whose quarrelling voice sounds like "a gramophone record turning fast backwards").By all means, read "Miguel Street", you'll be glad you did. Then, Naipaul's "A House for Mr Biswas" would be a fine follow-up.Eric LanderPhiladelphia________________________________

Great book!! It really captures life in the Caribbean and even though I am from Belize, Central America, we consider ourselves as part of the Caribbean. We share the same history of Colonialism, slavery, exploitation and we continue to be displaced, disenfranchised and unable to achieve our true potential in our home countries. For this reason we leave home, and like V.S. Naipaul; we often become disenchanted with our own home, self-identity and internal peace and can never truly find our way back. We continue to live abroad but yearn for that past where we were once totally naïve, and satisfied with our meager, humble existence and we had that sense of belonging and love within our own people. V.S. Naipaul skillful weaves a web of entrapment, enchantment and familiarity for those who have been there and understand the social and economic dynamics of the time. For others, he uses all literary tools to truly describe and bring alive, culture, life chances and opportunities in truly artistic design.

- came on time, was packaged properly- the story was well written loved it, would highly recommend

Libro de segunda mano que deseaba tener en mi colección de libros en inglés ya leídos hace un tiempo. Naipaul fue galardonado con el Premio Nobel de Literatura. Los personajes son habitantes de "Miguel Street", un tramo empobrecido en Puerto España, Trinidad, lugar donde Naipaul nació y se crió aunque, más tarde, se mudó a Inglaterra. Hablan en un dialecto local con tono caribeño. A pesar de su vena y toque amargo y triste, "Miguel Street" es tremendamente divertido con un ápice de condimento satírico. Los 17 capítulos del libro son historias distintas, y los personajes principales se pueden ver en la mayoría. Bolo el barbero, Boyee, Bogart, Hat, Man-Man, los Morgan... Llegó antes de tiempo y en perfecto estado. Un clásico de tapa blanda que los amantes de la literatura deberíamos tener. Recomendable.

simple writing and colorful atmospheres, very very interesting, a lot to learn about local ways of living but may not be everybody's cup of tea since the "plot" is not that captivating

Miguel Street was supposed to be his debut book.The book is essentially character sketches of people living on the derelict Miguel Street in Port of Spain in Trinidad. The sketches are from the point of view of an unnamed boy who lives on the street. The final sketch is about the boy himself - all through the book I felt the boy was Naipaul.The observations are keen and all the sketches are highly entertaining, yet memorable. As a reader I found the language frighteningly simple; I couldn't believe someone could write so well without 'flowery words' which needs the dictionary. (The reason I say this is because people misunderstand Naipaul as a difficult writer. He may be a difficult person, but his writing is elegantly simple)I never felt I'm reading Trinidad's microcosm. Everyone can relate with the characters because Naipaul deals with the human conditions of love, hope, despair, anger, friendship, fear, ridicule, etc.This is story-telling at its magical best. I have been so enchanted that I have read it thrice already I'm sure I'll keep re-visiting it again and again.

I had to read this book for my MA in Creative Writing - it's not something I would have picked up otherwise. This is an amazing book, deceptively clever and beautifully written. One of the discussions on the MA was whether this is truly a novel or a collection of short stories. I came down on the side of the novel. There is a cohesive thread running through the various 'sketches', and the partly autobiographical narrator is always engaging and provides a fascinating filter. More of Naipaul's books are now on my Christmas list, and this is one I will return to again and again.