A friend of mine got married to a Trinidadian woman (who has become a friend of mine), and I realized I knew nothing of Trinidad and/or Tobago. As I do, I reached for the greatest literary artists of that country to learn something, and Nobel prize winning V.S. Naipaul seemed like the obvious choice.

Magic Seeds might not have been the best book to read, especially as a first introduction to both Trinidadian writers and to Naipaul himself. Mostly, I am sure, because Magic Seeds was the second part of a previous book, Half a Life. In short, I was picking up the second half of a story without having read the first half. That said, I have always felt that you should be able to pick up any book in a series and find some enjoyment from it regardless of where you start.

There was certainly enjoyment to be had. It was clear from the prose why Naipaul won the Nobel Prize. His lean, clear prose style often strikes at the heart of things. He is keen in his observations, and the last line of Magic Seeds will resonate with me for quite a while.

The book as a whole, though, left me flat. The book jumped, often without resolving any of the issues raised earlier. The scope of the book, which is not very long, is massive, covering several countries, continents and years of Willie's life. Any book this sprawling is going to leave some unanswered questions, but this book seemed to purposefully leave things in the air.

That, though, might have been the point of the book (and here, I won't go into too much detail, so as not to spoil any interested readers). The themes raised by the book - those of authenticity, of a life well-lived, of ideals and anticipation - certainly lend themselves to a sprawling book, and Naipaul's eventual conclusions demonstrate why there was little holding these moments together.

Still, though, I wonder if the point is well-made. I've recently been watching Aaron Sorkin's News Room and in it, the Executive Produce MacKenzie is constantly looking for the best form of the argument being made. That is, rather than the most extreme or the loudest version, her newscast looks to have knowledgeable guests that can inform the electorate as to the best form of the argument to be made. In Magic Seed, I don't feel his approach to the narrative is the best way to make the point he wants to make.

Can't say i like this book, in fact i did not.
Perhaps because this is a sequel of another book about Willie Chandran, the protagonist and having no prior knowledge about the character may have affected my opinion of this story.
It is about Willie, a writer who doesn't seem to have a back bone. On the other end of the spectrum, he has a domineering sister, Sarojini who stays in Berlin who eventually convinced him to to join the revolutionary in India. By the twist of fate, he ended up joining the wrong group living in the jungle for ten years before surrendering and was jailed by the authorities.
His sister with the help of Roger, eventually got him out by proving that he was not a 'guerrilla' and he subsequently was transported back to England where he spent many a days living off the man who freed him and more.
Willie contemplates the difference of his life prior to the guerrilla adventure, when he was married and staying in Africa, his life in the jungle, his life in prison and the lives of middle income England, life at council houses and at 50 odd years old was studying to be a qualified architect.

My first book by Naipaul--it was a real bargain on a Barbara's sale table. Definitely past time to become acquainted with the work of this Nobel Prize winner.

The story--or part of it--was originally written in the first person. How do I know? Because there is an orphan "I" on p. 120 where it should say "Willie," the name of the protagonist. :-)

Willie lives a rather dreary life, whether he is plotting to join a band of Marxist guerrillas in rural India in an effort to give his life meaning or making his way out to eventual exile in London. Every illusion is swiftly & systematically demolished--& it's not as if Willie ever cherished very lofty illusions to begin with.

One piece of the structure I don't really understand: the large amount of space taken up toward the end by the story of Willie's British friend Roger's affair.

The story seems to point us toward compassion, but it's a rather gray, dysthymic compassion.

This exercise in mediocrity and tedium lacks any of the depth and profundity of Naipaul's best works. Naipaul really is a hit or miss author with the majority of his ouvre really not worth wasting your time on. I reached the last 50 pages of this novel at which point it became a right wing rant at those in poverty, mainly women with children without the same father, single mums, those in social housing and on welfare. He went so far as to call them parasites and sources of criminality, by which point I placed the book in the dustbin.

Never really figured out what the book was about?

elibrary

Challenging! Kept changing my mind how I felt about the main character...

I read this for my book club and it was agonizing to read. An utter disappointment. I expected more from a Nobel Prize winning author. Totally boring. I hated this book. The main character was a nothing sort of man.....aimless, with no ideas of his own, no ambition, no motivation. He spent his whole life waiting for someone to tell him what to do. He did not seem to support himself, but lived off others. If there had been some background to his earlier life and the political situation where he had lived, that perhaps had shaped him, it might have been not quite so painful. I kept waiting for some ah-ha moment or astounding message to appear, but NOTHING. I rarely give up on a book, but with my club meeting coming up, I could not make the effort to finish it. I actually quit with only 40 pages to go. The book club members assured me that I had not missed anything.

I hadn't thought I will read this sequel, after reading 'Half a Life.' It's because I don't usually pick this genre but I did. Very clever writing style. Characters full of life and it feels more like Willie is a real person. The observations are splendid. But bit boring due to it's Subtleness.

comments made in first book of series: Half a Life

After so many attempts, this is yet another book I haven't been able to happily read till the end. Just doesn't make a connect!

Magic Seeds raises more questions than it answers, but these are questions worth considering. In a sense, this book is ambiguous enough that every reader could draw a wildly different lesson from it.

Conversely, you could argue that the whole lesson of the book is contained in its final paragraph. Yet, the point would ring hollow without the scattered meaninglessness of the preceding pages.