The Quest of An Everyday Soccer Mom to Read the Modern Library's 100 Best Fiction Books of the 20th Century.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Surviving the Soccer Season...and Reading

Tonight is our final soccer game of the summer season....WOOOO HOOOO!

I wanted to give an update on the absolutely fantastic read I've been working through: the wonderful A House for Mr Biswas by VS Naipaul. This is a big, chunky read but it is so engrossing. It is about one man's quest to be self-sufficient and obtain (for him) the end-all, be-all of independence...a house he can call his own. Unfortunately, this quest is thwarted by his very controlling and communist in-laws, the Tulsis, who are a Trinidadian version of the Kennedys. Luckily Mr Biswas keeps his sense of humor and his wits about him, and finds small ways to rebel against their emotional terrorism. There are some very humorous parts, and the repartee between Mr Biswas and his wife Shama I find very humorous, as neither will back down from the other. I've also enjoyed reading about the Tulsi family and their very weird ways. They make my in-laws look tame, which (trust me) is a tough gig.

I'm a little over 2/3 of the way through it (the book weighs in at 564 pages) but it's gone very quickly. Should have a review for you soon.

3 comments:

  1. You did a great job setting up and laying out this blog! Looks fantastic, with lots of useful stuff. Are you on librarything.com as well--they've got good widgets too. Keep enjoying Biswas.

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  2. Naipaul is on my TBR list so now I am looking forward to reading him. Thanks!

    The cover of your book is really, really lovely. A house with a view like that is a worthy goal!

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  3. @Centathlete: Thanks for the praise, and yes, I am enjoying the hell out of the Naipaul book. About forty pages to go!

    @JG: As long as there aren't any guerilla snipers under the palm tree, I would have to agree with you. :)

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