Reviews

Cartas entre un padre y un hijo by V.S. Naipaul

misspalah's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.0

Do you know? I got some Trinidad papers, read them, and found them hilariously absurd. I never realised before that the Guardian was so badly written, that our Trinidad worthies were so absurd, that Trinidad is the most amusing island that ever dotted a sea. The English are a queer people. Take it from me. The longer you live in England, the more queer they appear. There is something so orderly, and yet so adventurous about them, so ruttish, so courageous. Take the chaps in the college. The world is crashing about their heads, about all our heads. Is their reaction as emotional as mine? Not a bit. They ignore it for the most part, drink, smoke, and imbibe shocking quantities of tea and coffee, read the newspapers and seem to forget what they have read.

• Letters between A Father and Son by VS Naipul

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The book compiled all letters between VS Naipul and his father. Sometimes, there are exchanges responses made between him with his sister, Kamla and mother. I think this is first book i have read that exclusively featured past letters. Since this was supposed to be personal with unfiltered / uncensored content, I can’t help but felt both V.S Naipul and his father is such a snob. Oftentimes, some of these letters has so many misogynistic remarks about women in general or just how women behaviour is unacceptable or lacked class. I actually felt sorry for Kamla because i can see how she placed both her father and brother on pedestal and idolised them. Sure, the letter is supposed to be personal exchange and just like how sometimes men justified their locker room talk as it was supposed to be a secret, i can’t help but assumed people would say the same thing about these letters - that they are supposed to be kept between father and son. There are some genuine feelings and interactions in these letters - when they both encouraged each other to purse writings, motivating each other to keep persevering and even advising each other on how to resolve some issues - specifically about V.S Naipul’s siblings. I was surprised to see that they did chide Kamla’s bad behaviour in the letters but overlooked how V.S Naipul overspent and keep on mingling with foreign girls but i guess, what son did don’t really count does it? These letters also demonstrated how V.S Naipul always? looked down on others (especially if he find them lacking in intellect and couldn’t keep up with him) - its either something wrong with them or some statements just affirming his opinions specifically when he talked about West Indian. The fact his father can simply expressed his disdain towards Negroes and Muslims as few of their relatives were dating outside their community and religion was not surprising at all as we can see how it shaped VS Naipul thinking. I tried really hard to find redeemable qualities of this book. Aside from how well it was written, the close bond he has with his sister, Kamla and father - i honestly cant say much. Is it sad? absolutely. After all, this is how parents used to keep in touch with their kids abroad. Imagine that your son lives across the world as he further his study in Oxford, UK and the only communication you can have with him is via letters. These letters got delayed and sometimes months to be delivered to the right person. That’s when the date in the book were mentioned to show the timeline of it. Overall, if you minus some of the misogynistic and racist remarks, you might find this book incredibly moving and insightful. After all, some of the prose in the book can be touching and heartfelt especially when they discussed about literature and writers. Sure both of them are the product of their time - if we want to be fair 😒 but if you cannot tolerate these 2 things, you may skip this book. 

angeliqueazul's review against another edition

4.0

I read this book when I didn't even know the word 'postcolonial' had anything to do with English Literature. Up to today I have not managed - and I am very sad about it - to read any fictional work by V.S.Naipaul. Judging from this book though, I am convinced his work is great. This book showed me a becoming writer who was already capable of such great writing and narration that I was drawn into this book from the very beginning. It is not just a volume of letters between father and son, but it is a book that gives us as readers many things - an impression of greatness, literature, home, family and how to find one's way.
I rarely read non-fiction but this book assured me that I should do it more often. V.S.Naipaul's letters show a writing flow that I have seen only in essays by Virginia Woolf so far.

richa087's review against another edition

4.0

It's a really good book. I loved the rawness in it. It's not written by a famous​ author or his equally famous father, it's written by a father and son who knows what writing is all about, they live for writing and they put their heart and soul into it. That's what all their discussions are all about. They pull each other up and keep reminding themselves that they have what it takes to be an intriguing and sensible storyteller. Yes they do lament about their financial conditions but they take it in their stride (especially his father). The letters keep painting a picture of Trinidad and Oxford and London, at times Paris and a bit of Benares too. So you keep shuttling between all these cities and across continents. Naipaul wasn't a very obedient son but he sure as hell loved his family especially his father and you can feel that through the letters, his father ofcourse loved all his kids but then Vido had a special place because in a way Vido's life, his accomplishments, his journey to Oxford, his experiences were a continuation of what his own life could be like, had he had the resources. I loved the exchange. Also such brilliant titles have been mentioned in the book by both of them, that it was hard not to make a list of those and harbour hopes of reading them myself one day.