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[Patguy]

This is the first book I've read by the famous Nobel Prize-winning author, but definitely won't be the last. It's a character-based drama, or comedy, about the lifelong failures, tribulations and humiliations of Mr. Mohun Biswas, as he tries desperately to free himself from dependence on his wife's family and escape to a house, and life, of his own.

"But bigger than them all was the house, his house.

"How terrible it would have been, at this time, to be without it: to have died among the Tulsis, amid the squalor of that large, disintegrating and indifferent family; to have left Shama and the children among them, in one room; worse, to have lived without even attempting to lay claim to one's portion of the earth; to have lived and died as one had been born, unnecessary and unaccommodated."

This is a great, great book, and I look forward to Dr. Shaw's reactions when he finally gets around to it. Life in early 20th century Trinidad, at least as depicted here, is fascinating, And depressing. But mostly fascinating. Mr. Biswas himself is a great comic character, one of the most interesting I know of in modern fiction, and Naipaul somehow accomplishes this by making him entirely sympathetic without being really all that likeable. Maybe it's just that his in-laws are so much worse…

Anyway, this gets my highest recommendation. It's completely absorbing, very funny, ultimately very moving, and a masterpiece of English prose. Thank you, Nobel committee!