3,5'tan 4..

A profound musing on the postcolonial condition of the colonial man. Moving and well written. Granted, it's not a thriller, for those stuck in 'what-happened-nextism mode' (as Rushdie puts it). Those who bemoan its lack of plot should be reading someone like John Grisham or any generic hack. Those who think it has nothing to say about the human condition evidently haven't read it thoroughly. Those who think it's entirely maudlin and like it only for its maudlin expressions, are better off reading a hack like Lang Leav.

What is so interesting really, is Naipaul's exploration of post-colonial identity. Quite a number of interesting critical perspectives have been published. It's a seminal text of postcolonial studies, and deservedly.

I hope this is the next Naipaul book to get the Everyman's Library treatment; I haven't read anything else from his oeuvre (yet) but this is genuinely promising.

بعض الروايات توحي بالغثيان تماما ً كهذه الرواية التي رغم كمية السرد العالية فيها من الحميمية ما يسبب الغضب و القيء و الطمأنينة ، أجمل الكتب ما يجعل تقع في حيرة حوله ، لا تستطيع تحديد شعورك تجاهه ، يجعلك معلقا ً بين الحب و الكراهية ، كل مرحلة قراءة أو كل خطوة من القراءة في هذا الكتاب تهديك صفة ً جديدة ًعن العمل ؛ جميل ، روحاني ، ساذج ، بغيض إلخ إلخ .
بالرغم من هذا كله شعرية الرواية نادرة جدا ً و متعبة أيضا ، ربما على الإنسان أن يكتفي بقراءة صفحة واحدة أو 5 صفحات على الأكثر ، فهي مميتة في النهاية .

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الأسى الذي يصيب الغرباء ؛ تعيس ٌ جدا حد البكائية ، أكره أن يرى الإنسان ذاته ملطخة ً أو عديمة التوجه تجاه أي مآل أخلاقي أو تاريخي ، كل واحد ٍ منّا عليه أن يرتكز على تاريخه الذي يجب ألا ينكره ، و إلا أصبح الإنسان مجرد آلة اعتيادية للسخرية .



دايس

দ্য মিমিক মেন (১৯৬৭) উপন্যাসে রঞ্জিত কৃপাল সিং নামে এক ক্যারিবিয়ান রাজনীতিক লন্ডনে রাজনৈতিক নির্বাসনে থেকে তাঁর আত্মজীবনী লিখছেন। তিনি এমন এক অতীত নিয়ে লিখতে শুরু করেছেন যেখানে তাঁর নিজস্ব অস্তিত্ব গ্রন্থিত হওয়ার আগেই বলা হয়েছে, তুমি তোমার গৃহত্যাগ করো এবং আর কখনো ফিরে এসো না। এই অবস্থায় রঞ্জিত সিং কীভাবে লিখবেন তাঁর আত্মকথন? সিংয়ের বাবা-মা ভারত থেকে ব্রিটিশ ঔপনিবেশিক ক্যারিবীয় দ্বীপে আসে। এখানে তার জন্ম হয়। উপন্যাসে ইসাবেলা শহরে ভারতীয় যৌথ পরিবারে বেড়ে ওঠার দিনগুলোর কথা তুলে ধরে রঞ্জিত সিং। নাইপল এখানে ইসাবেলা এবং লন্ডনের মাঝে আটকে যাওয়া কৃপাল সিংয়ের মধ্য দিয়ে ঔপনিবেশিক ক্যারিবীয় অঞ্চলে ভারতীয় জনগোষ্ঠীর আত্মপরিচয়ের সংকট তুলে ধরেছেন। সিং তাঁর আত্মজীবনী লিখছেন লন্ডনে বসে, যেটি তাঁর নিজের দেশ নয়, যে-দেশটি তাঁর জন্মভূমি সেটি আবার তাঁর পিতামাতার দেশ নয়। ওয়েস্ট ইন্ডিজে প্রথম প্রজন্মের ভারতীয় হিসেবে তাঁকে সাংস্কৃতিক, অর্থনৈতিক, সামাজিক, পারিবারিক, রাজনৈতিক সবধরনের সংকটের ভেতর দিয়ে যেতে হয়েছে।

I think perhaps the style of the prose is a large factor towards my disliking this novel - it just wasn't for me.

However, I think the main reason I didn't like it was the protagonist, Ralph Singh. I just couldn't connect to the man, no matter how hard I tried.

Mostly, it felt like this was a novel that was floating by me, but that I could not grasp on to.

Among V.S. Naipaul’s lesser-known novels, “The Mimic Men” is a contemplative, semi-autobiographical scrutiny of the isolation and ambivalence of the postcolonial condition. It is structured as a three-part nonlinear memoir, through which the narrator Ralph Singh, a 40-year-old “picturesque Asiatic” from a fictional British colony in the Caribbean islands (based on Naipaul’s own Trinidad), seeks order and meaning in the formlessness of his experiences. He writes from a hotel in suburban London where, as a refugee-immigrant, he recounts the perpetual “drift and helplessness” of his life—a childhood of denial and shame about the inadequacies and smallness of his world; his flight to England, where he fashions himself as a dandy while pursuing a degree; his failed marriage to a white woman, despite a prosperous stint as a developer on his home island; and his sudden, dramatic role in a political uprising that collapses into futility and violence.

The narrative conveys the colonial subject’s yearning to flee the “shipwreck” of an existence circumscribed by place, and an impostor syndrome produced by racial subjugation. It portrays how an English education can engender disdain for the oppressed, besides resentment for one’s own land and people, often sought to be overcome by imitating one’s own coloniser. The protagonist grows up with the fantasy of escaping the island to claim his Indo-Aryan heritage—his “element” in the snow and light of a great city. But not only does he encounter feelings of disassociation and forlorn emptiness in London, he also struggles to forge a sense of belonging back home, only to be compelled again to withdraw into exile.

The gloominess of the identity crisis and prolonged company of unsympathetic characters, most of whom are reduced to ethnic stereotypes or sex objects in Singh’s eyes, is redeemed only by rare bursts of humour and Naipaul’s acute, masterful prose. Even if sometimes dense in its penchant for neurotic analysis over storytelling, there is much to savour in his meticulous sentences and ability to illustrate social truths beyond anodyne political correctness. This one is for serious readers who enjoy hard-earned pleasures.

elibrary

Naipaul relates the tale of a Indian man born and raised in a British colony in the Caribbean and two - no three - things come to mind when thinking about what I have read. First, the writing is beautiful. I almost wrote exquisite, because of its technical beauty. But unlike other exquisite writing - Proust and Camus both come to mind - he crafts his sentences densely without making them dense to the reader. While the depth of craftsmanship in Proust and Camus can slow the reader, much like one absorbing all of details in a high resolution photograph, Naipaul writes like Seurat paints: precise brush strokes that can be examined individually for meaning but also convey the story brilliantly at a glance.

My second observation is that this is the first novel in some time where I dislike the main character completely. Ralph Singh has no redeemable qualities, or at least he tells us nothing of his life as a child, husband, or politician - the three distinct acts in his life - that drove me to like of even feel any sympathy toward him. It’s a rare feat to read a tale that stays engaging with such an unsympathetic lead. In fact, even the supporting characters leave the reader with a distaste in their mouth. Perhaps that distaste comes from the fact that we meet and see them all through the eyes of Ralph.

Despite the fact that he’s unsympathetic, Ralph also doesn’t provide any sort of catharsis. He is not diabolical or otherwise villainous. He is just another man living his life like so many at that time, caught up in various events that shape his life. Granted, he makes a decision here or there to slightly alter his position in the current that sweeps him along, but generally, one feels his life is like so many. Unremarkable. Unsympathetic. A mimic of other men in all walks of life, with all sorts of different circumstances. And that is what makes the book so remarkable.

Caribbean leaders pull levers of power left for them by departing colonialists, wrecking the country while getting rich.

Life Escapes Me.....I Escape Life

Perhaps colonial rule in much of the world did produce mimic men. They were those who modeled themselves or at least were modeled on patterns produced for others in the "mother country". They grew up divorced from their origins and could look forward to being put down forever as "not quite the real thing" if they tried to assimilate to metropolitan society. The sweep of literature written by V.S. Naipaul, his brother Shiva, and a host of other writers from the West Indies, Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America testifies to the truth of this. But wait, can we not find anything joyful in life? Is there no hope whatsoever, despite what hand Fate deals us? What about a sense of humor? In this tale of a colonial boyhood in an island country very like the author's native Trinidad, the strongest note is always distress and failure. A boy attends school, gets good marks and is able to go to England on scholarship. There he crumbles into permanent unease, drifts helplessly, has hopeless affairs, and marries an English woman who also reeks of dissatisfaction. He takes no joy or pleasure in anything, wallowing in disappointment and a feeling of unreality (which is no doubt part of being a "mimic man"). All his relationships are fraught with either pretension or despair. He cannot accept himself or others, fears warmth and friendship, and constantly looks for the plastic trash on the beach of life. Returning to his island, Ralph Singh becomes a real estate magnate, goes into politics, wins a national election, becomes a political force, and then is pushed out, exiled at last to England. There is no spoiler alert here. This is very, very far from a thriller or a novel with an exciting plot. It is a psychological tour de force, both in terms of the main character and of the author. There is a great riff on the feelings of a politician, the "movement" and the crowd. The basis of politics in former colonial societies is writ large. Many of Naipaul's observations capture the behavior of charlatan politicians everywhere. But the mental intricacies of such people form the main thrust of this novel along with their inevitable trajectories. Death is coming, people are continually false, everyone is acting all the time, life is spectral and futile. Hey! If you are looking for a glum, joyless look at human nature, this is definitely your book.
But I've given it five stars because despite his gloom, Naipaul is a top writer.

এ বইয়ের কাছে আমাকে নিয়ে আসে নইপলের মৃত্যু। আর বইটির নায়ক রঞ্জিত কৃপাল সিং এর জীবন থেকে আমি আবিষ্কার করি শেকড়হীন পৃথিবীর এক মহান লেখককে। উপন্যাসটির গল্প বর্ণহীন, যেমন রঙ নেই জীবনের উদ্দেশ্যহীনতায় ডুবতে থাকা এর পাত্র-পাত্রীদের জীবনেও। কিন্তু ঐ অন্ধকারের আকর্ষণ এবং আধুনিক পৃথিবীতে এইসব মানুষের বেঁচে থাকার গল্প কত শক্তিশালী গদ্য আর সততার সঙ্গেই না করেছেন নইপল। তাকে প্রণাম।

good work but sounds very stereotype, a young second generation immigrant Indian in the Caribbeans being toyed by the world powers..