The Mimic Men (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: V. S. Naipaul
- First Published: 1967
- Type of Work: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1960’s
- Setting: The Caribbean and London
- Principal Characters: Ralph Singh, Sandra, Cecil, Ethelbert Browne, The Deschampneufs
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: 1960’s, Factories, Caribbean, Politics, Blacks, Race, Exile or expatriates, 1940’s, 1930’s, Asia or Asians, England or English people, Islands, London, Property, Wealth
- Locales: Caribbean, London, England
The Novel
In The Mimic Men, V. S. Naipaul, employing the confessional narrative method, follows the career of Ralph Singh, a colonial official exiled from the small Caribbean island of Isabella.
The story is divided into three parts, the first of which begins with Singh, already disgraced in exile, sitting in his room at a London boardinghouse. At forty, he reflects upon the events of his career, contemplating “the shipwreck which all my life I had sought to avoid.” Chronologically, Singh’s remembrances are untidy, beginning as they do with his years as a...
[The entire page is 1200 words long]
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