3 Review(s)

Present book examine and conflates the themes of identity, exile, acculturation, cultural-clash and migration in V.S. Naipaul's six novels – The Mystic Masseurs, The Sufferage of Elvira, A House for Mr Biswas, The Mimic Men, Half a Life and Magic Seeds. The main emphasis of this book is preoccupation with the postcolonial condition of being ‘between two worlds’ in Naipaul’s novels. Most of the characters in Naipaul’s novels oscillate between these two worlds. His characters have an innate proclivity towards their pet country i.e. India. They feel enervated to live their half a life on a land where they are considered interlopers. In turn, these characters remonstrate against the system and in order to acculturate in their present culture; they denounce Indian culture, manners and rituals. They carry copious decrepit Hindu rituals with them. Many of his characters feel deracinated on a country where people take them only for the outsiders. This book examines diasporic sensibility in Naipaul's select novels through his his characters.