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Before the days when the Oprah seal of approval guaranteed an increased audience, and
before Jonathan Franzen discovered he could increase his notoriety --- if not his sales
--- by making dismissive comments about Ms. Winfrey until she retracted her invitation for
him to appear on her show, there were other coveted seals that improved an author's
reputation and sales: the National Book Award, the Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and
at the top of the heap, the Nobel Prize for Literature.
What sets the Nobel Prize apart from all the other honors, including Oprah's nod, is that
it is awarded not for a single book but for a distinguished body of work, meaning an
author's backlist may benefit from the recognition as much as his or her current novel. Be
that as it may, V. S. Naipaul, this year's recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature,
has managed to combine the power of the honor with the power of great timing, as his first
novel in seven years, HALF A LIFE, hit bookstore shelves just days after the announcement
that he had won the award.
The release of HALF A LIFE at this time is good news for Naipaul, because much of the
press coverage of his selection as the Nobel Prize winner focused on his outspoken
political views concerning Islam and its adherents. In light of the events of September 11
and the subsequent "War on Terrorism," many have suggested that the decision to
give the award to Naipaul was as much political as it was literary. However, HALF A LIFE
serves to remind the reader that, politics aside, Naipaul is a master craftsman, worthy of
this high honor.
HALF A LIFE is the story of Willie Chandran, an individual desperately seeking to define
himself qua himself. Fathered by a man of high caste in India who married far beneath
himself, Willie feels conflicted about his identity at an early age. Leaving India to
study in London, he embarks on a literary career --- and a series of sexual misadventures
--- in which he is little more than a borrower, borrowing story ideas from movies and
borrowing sexual partners from his friends. A woman from Africa, in love with his writing
as much as with him, offers him escape from London, and he spends 18 years in a Portuguese
colony in Africa, struggling to define himself but instead losing what little sense of
himself he might have had.
The novel is brief but dense, as Naipaul sets a contemplative pace with a narrative that
doubles back upon itself and changes perspective several times. The book is not one of
action so much as one of reflection, with Willie constantly examining how his actions and
the actions of those around him serve to sharpen or obscure his view of himself. Naipaul's
characters are well–drawn and memorable, while the relentless unraveling of nearly
all of their lives infuses the novel with a melancholy resonance that Willie seems
unlikely to ever escape despite his best efforts.
While it might be possible to argue that HALF A LIFE is an example of the triumph of style
over substance in literature, Naipaul's quiet tale of a life lived on terms other than
those of one's own choosing is moving and memorable, providing a window into one life that
might serve as a mirror for our own.
--- Reviewed by Rob Cline
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