Sign in with Facebook
Jafar's Reviews > Half a Life
Half a Life
by
by
Quite unremarkable. I haven鈥檛 read anything else by Naipaul, and I probably won鈥檛. I know I shouldn鈥檛 generalize from reading one book, but I do anyway. Methinks Naipaul is another mediocre Nobel laureate. (Jelinek and Mahfouz are the other examples that come immediately to my mind.) The protagonist is insufferably unlikable, boring, and passive. (At least Jelinek has a sick imagination and manages to make you hate her monstrous characters.) As for the writing 鈥� honestly, I think you鈥檒l find better examples of writing in any creative writing class.
Sign into 欧宝娱乐 to see if any of your friends have read
Half a Life.
Sign In 禄
Reading Progress
Finished Reading
August 19, 2008
– Shelved
Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Rustam
(new)
Aug 19, 2008 02:00PM
Think again. Clearly, you've never had the displeasure of attending any of my college creative writing classes.
reply
|
flag
You're right- you shouldn't generalize from reading one book. The Nobel is awarded for a body of work, and, surely, this is not his best.
You should try A House for Mr Biswas, its the only Naipaul book I have read to date but I loved it, I do get the impression his work is a bit hit and miss though.
A friend said she loved his other books and found this one more difficult, but ended up liking it. Perhaps worth trying others.
