<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[author results for V. S. Naipaul]]></title><description><![CDATA[author results for V. S. Naipaul]]></description><link>https://gateway.bibliocommons.com/v2/libraries/christchurch/rss/search?query=V.%20S.%20Naipaul&amp;searchType=author&amp;view=grouped</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2026 02:43:52 GMT</lastBuildDate><item><title><![CDATA[The Enigma of Arrival]]></title><description><![CDATA[Taking its title from the strangely frozen picture by the surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico, this novel tells the story of a young Indian from the Caribbean arriving in post-imperial England and consciously, over many years, finding himself as a writer. It is the story of a journey, from one place to another, from the British colony of Trinidad to the ancient countryside of England, and from one state of mind to another, and is perhaps Naipaul's most autobiographical work. Yet alongside this he weaves a rich and complex web of invention and observation.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1758002</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1758002</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1758002037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle>A Novel in Five Sections</subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Letters Between A Father and Son]]></title><description><![CDATA[In 1950, V. S. Naipaul travelled from Trinidad to England to take up a place at Oxford University. Over the next few years, letters passed back and forth between Naipaul and his family - particularly his beloved father Seepersad, but also his mother and siblings. The result is a fascinating chronicle of Naipaul's time at university; the love of writing that he shared with his father and their mutual nurturing of literary ambition; the triumphs and depressions of Oxford life; and the travails of his family back at home. This engrossing collection continues into the early years of V. S. Naipaul's literary career, touching time and again on the craft of writing, and revealing the relationships and experiences that formed and influenced one of the greatest and most enigmatic literary figures of our age]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1643023</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1643023</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 31 Jan 1999 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1643023037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[A House for Mr. Biswas]]></title><description><![CDATA[In his forty-six short years, Mr. Mohun Biswas has been fighting against destiny to achieve some semblance of independence, only to face a lifetime of calamity. Shuttled from one residence to another after the drowning death of his father, for which he is inadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas yearns for a place he can call home. But when he marries into the domineering Tulsi family on whom he indignantly becomes dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on an arduous and endless struggle to weaken their hold over him and purchase a house of his own. A heartrending, dark comedy of manners, A House for Mr. Biswas masterfully evokes a man's quest for autonomy against an emblematic post-colonial canvas.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1729013</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1729013</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 1961 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1729013037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[A House for Mr Biswas]]></title><description><![CDATA[A House for Mr Biswas is V.S. Naipaul's unforgettable third novel. Born the "wrong way" and thrust into a world that greeted him with little more than a bad omen, Mohun Biswas has spent his 46 years of life striving for independence. But his determined efforts have met only with calamity. Shuttled from one residence to another after the drowning of his father, Mr Biswas yearns for a place he can call home. He marries into the domineering Tulsi family, on whom he becomes indignantly dependent, but rebels and takes on a succession of occupations in an arduous struggle to weaken their hold over him and purchase a house of his own. Heartrending and darkly comic, A House for Mr Biswas masterfully evokes a man's quest for autonomy against the backdrop of post-colonial Trinidad.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1268242</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1268242</guid><category><![CDATA[EBOOK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1268242037</comments><format>EBOOK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[India]]></title><description><![CDATA[V.S. Naipaul first visited India in 1962 at twenty-nine. His most recent visit was in 2015 at eighty-two. The intervening years and visits sparked by an inquisitiveness about a country he had never seen but had been a dream of his since childhood have resulted in three books: India: An Area of Darkness, A Wounded Civilization and A Million Mutinies Now. India is the collection of all three, introduced by fellow traveller and writer Paul Theroux. An Area of Darkness is V. S. Naipaul's semi-autobiographical account at once painful and hilarious, but always thoughtful and considered of his first visit to India, the land of his forebears. From the moment of his inauspicious arrival he experienced a cultural estrangement from the subcontinent. India was land of myths, an area of darkness closing up behind him as he travelled. What emerged was a masterful work of literature that provides a revelation both of India and of himself: a displaced person who paradoxically possesses a stronger sense of place than almost anyone. India: A Wounded Civilization casts a more analytical eye than before over Indian attitudes, while recapitulating and further probing the feelings aroused in him by this vast, mysterious, and agonized country. A work of fierce candour and precision, it is also a generous description of one man's complicated relationship with the country of his ancestors. India: A Million Mutinies Now is the fascinating account of Naipaul's return journey to India and offers a kaleidoscopic, layered travelogue, encompassing a wide collage of religions, castes, and classes at a time when the percolating ideas of freedom threatened to shake loose the old ways. The brilliance of the book lies in Naipaul's approach to a shifting, changing land from a variety of perspectives. India: A Million Mutinies Now is a truly perceptive work whose insights continue to inform travellers of all generations to India.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C977791</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C977791</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/977791037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Guerrillas]]></title><description><![CDATA[A former hero of the South African resistance and his English mistress arrive on a troubled Caribbean island, where their involvement with a young mulatto revolutionary leader leads to violence.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1656579</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1656579</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jan 1975 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1656579037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Magic Seeds]]></title><description><![CDATA[Willy Chandra - whom we first meet in 'Half a Life' - succumbs to the demanding encouragement of his sister and joins an underground movement in India ostensibly devoted to unfettering the lower castes. After several years in prison, he returns to England where he comes to see himself as a man.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1664459</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1664459</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 2004 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1664459037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle>A Novel</subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Mystic Masseur]]></title><description><![CDATA[V.S. Naipaul's first novel traces the unlikely career of Ganesh Ramsumair, a failed schoolteacher and impecunious village masseur who in time becomes a revered mystic, a thriving entrepreneur, and the most beloved politician in Trinidad. To understand a little better, one has to realize that in the 1940s masseurs were the island's medical practitioners of choice. As one character observes, "I know the sort of doctors they have in Trinidad. They think nothing of killing two, three people before breakfast." Ganesh's ascent is variously aided and impeded by a Dickensian cast of rogues and eccentrics. There's his skeptical wife, Leela, whose schooling has made her excessively, fond. of; punctuation: marks!; and Leela's father, Ramlogan, a man of startling mood changes and an ever-ready cutlass. There's the aunt known as The Great Belcher. There are patients pursued by malign clouds or afflicted with an amorous fascination with bicycles. Witty, tender, filled with the sights, sounds, and smells of Trinidad's dusty Indian villages, The Mystic Masseur is Naipaul at his most expansive and evocative.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1595782</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1595782</guid><category><![CDATA[EBOOK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1595782037</comments><format>EBOOK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Masque of Africa]]></title><description><![CDATA[Nobel Prize-winning author Naipaul spirals outward from the central African country of Uganda, to Nigeria, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Gabon, and concluding in South Africa, to unearth in six chapters a sense of African ancestral belief and practice.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C693711</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C693711</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/693711037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle>Glimpses of African Belief</subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Writer's People]]></title><description><![CDATA['My purpose is not literary criticism or biography. I wish only to set out the writing and ways of seeing to which I was exposed.' For the 'serious traveller', one who is fully engaged with the world, there can be no single view. So here is colonial Trinidad (the early Derek Walcott and Naipaul's own father), to which is added the culture of school (Flaubert and the classical world). There is England, where with the help of friends the writer seeks to make his way, and inevitably for a colonial Indian there is India, to be approached through the residue of Indian culture and the scattered memories of nineteenth-century immigrants, leading to a special understanding of Mahatma Gandhi. Part meditation, part remembrance, "A Writer's People" is a privileged insight, full of gentleness, humour and feeling, into the mind of one of our greatest writers. 'The greatest writer now living in Britain. His courage in seeing and telling the truth represents a level of high seriousness that has all but vanished' - "Sunday Times". 'Essential reading ...it offers the insights and observations - on literature, history and cultural sensibility - of an honest and truly global thinker' - "Evening Standard".]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1702864</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1702864</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1702864037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle>Ways of Looking and Feeling</subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Literary Occasions]]></title><description><![CDATA[Offers eleven essays on reading, writing, and identity, discussing such topics as early forays into the world of books, the relationship between different literary forms and their cultures, and the author's reflections on his career.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1659875</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1659875</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jan 2003 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1659875037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle>Essays</subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Half A Life]]></title><description><![CDATA[The son of a man who, inspired by Gandhi, married below his caste, travels to New York where he struggles to find his identity and forge a career as a writer.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C288815</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C288815</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 31 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/288815037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle>A Novel</subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Beyond Belief]]></title><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1636259</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1636259</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 1998 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1636259037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle>Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples</subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Way in the World]]></title><description><![CDATA[A collection of narratives on the subject of history and the people who make it. One follows the last expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh before he was sent to the Tower, another chronicles Francisco de Miranda's disastrous invasion of South America, a third is about a Panamanian communist in the 1930s.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1614971</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1614971</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 1994 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1614971037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle>A Sequence</subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[India]]></title><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1602832</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1602832</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 31 Jan 1990 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1602832037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle>A Million Mutinies Now</subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Turn in the South]]></title><description><![CDATA[A thoughtful and beautifully crafted epilogue to the history of slavery - essential reading for anyone interested in American history. A Turn in the South is a reflective journey by V. S. Naipaul in the late 1980s through the American South. Naipaul writes of his encounters with politicians, rednecks, farmers, writers and ordinary men and women, both black and white, with the insight and originality we expect from one of our best travel writers. Fascinating and poetic, this is a remarkable book on race, culture and country.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1677280</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1677280</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 1989 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1677280037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Among the Believers]]></title><description><![CDATA[Among the Believers is V.S. Naipaul's classic account of his journeys through Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia; `the believers' are the Muslims he met on those journeys, young men and women battling to regain the original purity of their faith in the hope of restoring order to a chaotic world. It is a uniquely valuable insight into modern Islam and the comforting simplifications of religious fanaticism.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1643261</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1643261</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 31 Jan 1981 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1643261037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle>An Islamic Journey</subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Return of Eva Perón ; With The Killings in Trinidad]]></title><description><![CDATA[A collection of pieces of reportage and reflections on societies which are still suffering from the profound deprivations of colonialism. Amongst the topics covered are Michael X in Trinidad, Peronism in Argentina, and the cult of Kingship in Mobuto's Zaire.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1670932</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1670932</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 1980 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1670932037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Bend in the River]]></title><description><![CDATA[Chronicles the experience of Salim, a Muslim Indian merchant, in post-colonial Africa. A new resident in the small, isolated African town at a bend in the Congo river, Salim owns a supply shop for fellow town and surrounding jungle inhabitants. However, as commercialized corruption seeps into the town, the tenacious jungle collides with modernity and civilization, igniting chaos and consequence.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1690953</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1690953</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 31 Jan 1979 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1690953037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[In A Free State]]></title><description><![CDATA[In a Free State is set in Africa, in a place like Uganda or Rwanda, and its two main characters are English. They had once found liberation in Africa. But now Africa is going sour on them. The land is no longer safe, and at a time of tribal conflict they have to make a long drive to the safety of their compound. At the end of this drive - the narrative tight, wonderfully constructed, the formal and precise language always instilled with violence and rage - we know everything about the English characters, the African country, and the Idi Amin-like future awaiting it.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1647796</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1647796</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 31 Jan 1971 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1647796037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Flag on the Island]]></title><description><![CDATA[A collection of stories with settings in England, India and Trinidad, and ranging from humor to horror.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1729012</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1729012</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 31 Jan 1967 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1729012037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[Mr Stone and the Knights Companion]]></title><description><![CDATA[Mr Stone likes to be known as Head Librarian with Excal, and dislikes the prospect of retirement. After a brief acquaintanceship with Mrs Springer, he marries her to defend himself against idleness and solitude. Then a foolproof plan strikes him, to introduce the order of the Knights Companion.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1729014</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1729014</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 1963 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1729014037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Suffrage of Elvira]]></title><description><![CDATA[The novel describes the slapstick circumstances surrounding a local election in one of the districts of Trinidad, and is a satire of the democratic process and the consequences of political change. It also delves into the multiculturalism of Trinidad, showing the effects of the election on various ethnic groups, including Muslims, Hindus, and Europeans.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1729016</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1729016</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jan 1958 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1729016037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Mystic Masseur]]></title><description><![CDATA[V. S. Naipaul traces the unlikely career of Ganesh Ramsumair, a failed schoolteacher and impecunious village masseur who in time becomes a revered mystic, a thriving entrepreneur, and the most beloved politician in Trinidad. To understand a little better, one has to realize that in the 1940s masseurs were the island's medical practitioners of choice. As one character observes, "I know the sort of doctors they have in Trinidad. They think nothing of killing two, three people before breakfast." Ganesh's ascent is variously aided and impeded by a Dickensian cast of rogues and eccentrics. There's his skeptical wife, Leela, whose schooling has made her excessively, fond. of; punctuation: marks!; and Leela's father, Ramlogan, a man of startling mood changes and an ever-ready cutlass. There's the aunt known as The Great Belcher. There are patients pursued by malign clouds or afflicted with an amorous fascination with bicycles. Witty, tender, filled with the sights, sounds, and smells of Trinidad's dusty Indian villages, The Mystic Masseur is Naipaul at his most expansive and evocative.]]></description><link>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1729015</link><guid isPermaLink="true">https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S37C1729015</guid><category><![CDATA[BK]]></category><category><![CDATA[eng]]></category><dc:creator><![CDATA[Naipaul, V. S. 1932-2018]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 31 Jan 1957 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate><comments>https://christchurch.bibliocommons.com/item/comment/1729015037</comments><format>BK</format><subtitle></subtitle><language>eng</language><image_url/></item></channel></rss>