Half a Life
by V. S. Naipaul
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At a glance:
- Author: V. S. Naipaul
- First Published: 2001
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: Approximately 1945-1970
- Setting: India, England, and East Africa
- Characters: Willie Chandran, Percy Cato, Sarojini, Roger, Ana
- Genres: Long fiction, Postcolonial literature
- Subjects: Africa or Africans, Colonialism, Europe or Europeans, Alienation, Brothers and sisters, Asia or Asians, England or English people, India or East Indian people, Hindus or Hinduism, Caste systems
- Locales: Africa, England, India
V. S. Naipaul received the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories,” according to the announcement of the award by the Swedish Academy. That assessment describes Half a Life well. Like some other of Naipaul’s novels, it draws directly from personal experience to create a character who has no real native culture and because of it no means to govern or express his desires. He has no single history to call his own.
That character is Willie...
(The entire page is 1887 words.)
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