Customer Reviews

Miguel Street

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This novel crackles with laughter and detail, using local language to great effect. While there are some issues of sadness in the background, Naipaul puts the liveliness to the fore, in this, his first novel. He wrote it while freelancing at the BBC, just out of Oxford and a fearfully anxious young man. It is so different from the utter darkness of his later work that it is hard to believe it is from the same pen. But that is a measure of the talent of this man and the breadth of his vision.

Warmly recommended.

A beautiful portrait of the inhabitants of Miguel Street located in a derelict corner of Trinidad's Capital Port of Spain. Set during World War II, the story is narrated by a precociously observant neighbourhood boy. The mood shifts from sweet melancholy to anarchical fun as we discover the lives of Popo the carpenter, Man-man staging his own crucifixion, Big Foot the bully or the lovely Mrs Hereira in thrall to her monstrous husband. An amusing and poignant book.

Naipaul's novel about daily life on Miguel Street is a masterful piece of literature. The characters are colorful and believable, the writing style is fluid and very readable, and the issues raised about (post)colonialism and neocolonialism are oh so real. Entertaining at times; thought-provoking at others--Naipaul's MIGUEL STREET is a must read for any fan of literary genius.

There's no two ways about it... this book is funny. Witty. Endlessly sarcastic. There I am, reading it in the park, and laughing out loud in certain parts, like a bit of a loonie!
At one point, the author calls what he's doing here "sketches". That's exactly what it is... connected vignettes. Observations of the lives that make up Miguel Street, a street in Port of Spain, Trinidad. It is all set down and seen through the eyes of a young, fatherless boy.
It is written with such a clear eye that it seems autobiographical, and here on Miguel Street we see the germ or the kernel of many of the characters that Naipaul would develop further in his excellent book "A House For Mr. Biswas" which he published two years after this one.
As others have mentioned, the language, the idioms, the vernacular here are priceless... 1940's Trinidad bursts into view.
I give it 4.5 stars. Refreshing. A little book with big laughs!

This book was a standard for Literature when I was going to high school. Ten years later, the characters are still as colourful, the prose just as lyrical, and Naipaul still weaves a wonderful story.

i agree with alejandro's review: what you bring to this collection of short stories greatly affects how you perceive it. as someone who has (temporarily) left a post-colonial country, i can understand the yearning of the characters to escape, to find a better life, even though most of them aren't quite sure of how to escape and what exactly a better life entails. does the narrator really escape, though? the last paragraph describes him (or at least his shadow) as a dwarf on the tarmac, as though he were deformed (no offense meant to small people) or permanently marked by his efforts to leave somehow. i read "a way in the world" before "miguel street" and it's almost frightening to see how much "miguel street" is a portent of the despair, isolation, and desire in "a way in the world."

I first read this book in 1978. Twenty years later, it is still serious, funny and most importantly is a pungent reminder of times past.

Highly recommended.

This is a collection of inter-connected stories and character sketches set in the island of Trinidad, the author's birthplace, years ago when he was a boy. The tales are charming, some funny, some sad, some both, and all are told in Naipaul's short, mostly (if not completely) perfect sentences. Anyone interested in the life and culture of the Caribbean would do well to read and re-read this little gem of a book.

The first novel of Naipaul, `The Mystic Masseur', was published in 1957. But the first written work of fiction by him was, `Miguel Street'. He had completed it even before `The Mystic Masseur', but had published it only in 1959.

It feels like his first novel. Every chapter is based on a character and his own simple story. All of them are nearly tramps and have tried their life in various ways, but in the end almost all of them return to Miguel Street. If `The Mystic Masseur' is set in the rural Trinidad, then `Miguel Street' is set in the urban Trinidad, its capital Port of Spain. Some of the characters even seem to be of fairy tales.

But the smallness of Trinidad is also felt here. We can feel it at many places like

`There is no stupid pride among Trinidad craftsmen. No one is a specialist.'

The sense of being isolated and unimportant is also eternally present. One can feel oneself to be on the periphery of civilization, eager to know what happens at the centre. One can feel oneself to be bored and neglected. There is no spiritual consolation also. The civilization which they had, was long gone. The new one had never come.

Titus Hoyt says in the novel,

`This fort was built at a time, when the French and them was planning to invade Trinidad.'

We gasped.

We had never realized that anyone considered us so important'

The World War II brought some actions to them as the people from the centre of the world, i.e., Americans came there.

`Then the war came. Hitler invaded France and Americans invaded Trinidad. For the first time in Trinidad, there was work for everybody, and the Americans paid well.'

`Miguel Street' doesn't mean much for an outsider. It doesn't mean much for a general reader of Naipaul. I think it's a book for a Naipaul completist, the one who is eager to know the formative years of Naipaul. Its main theme as all of other Naipaul's Trinidadian novels is of smallness.

I fully agree that this is Naipaul's best work before he went over to the dark side.His work in the recent years have been full of dark humour.Miguel Street is the begining of Naipaul's love of dark humour.It's about a young man and all the people that are a part of his child hood.It shows you that even the lest likely person in your neighbourhood can have an impact on your life.From each new charater he introduces us to our protangonist gets something.From lessons in biology to lessons in literature.......he acquires his knowledge from the people around him.In the end it makes him a man.

I read this book while attending school in Trinidad and since then it has always stuck in my mind.Whenever i feel home sick(since I live in Japan now)I pick up Miguel Street and have a good laugh.No matter where in Trinidad you live you can always find a Miguel Street.This book is a wonderful master piece and I encourage all to read.Even if you don't know where Trinidad is you will want to visit there by the time you read the last page.Enjoy!