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Review
“One of the few contemporary writers of whom we can speak in terms of greatness.” -- Mel Gussow, Newsday
“Miguel Street is the Bowery, the Tenderloin, and the Catfish Row of Trinidad’s Port of Spain -- its citizens a loony multitude whose knavery often rises from real kinship with pathos and tragedy. . . . Naipaul is at his best in these swift caricatures of human depravity.” -- San Francisco Chronicle
“Amusing and poignant. . . . Excellent reading.” -- Chicago Tribune
“Naipaul does not tell stories. By some miraculous sleight-of-hand he takes you to Port of Spain and shows you the rich, bawdy, consequential lives of the Trinidadians, as though there were no intervening veil of words. . . . I rather suspect the mantle of Chekhov has fallen on Mr. Naipaul’s shoulders.” -- Robert Payne, Saturday Review
“Miguel Street is the Bowery, the Tenderloin, and the Catfish Row of Trinidad’s Port of Spain -- its citizens a loony multitude whose knavery often rises from real kinship with pathos and tragedy. . . . Naipaul is at his best in these swift caricatures of human depravity.” -- San Francisco Chronicle
“Amusing and poignant. . . . Excellent reading.” -- Chicago Tribune
“Naipaul does not tell stories. By some miraculous sleight-of-hand he takes you to Port of Spain and shows you the rich, bawdy, consequential lives of the Trinidadians, as though there were no intervening veil of words. . . . I rather suspect the mantle of Chekhov has fallen on Mr. Naipaul’s shoulders.” -- Robert Payne, Saturday Review
Book Description
To the residents of Miguel Street, a derelict corner of Trinidad’s capital, their neighbourhood is a complete world, where everybody is quite different from everybody else. There’s Popo the carpenter, who neglects his livelihood to build “the thing without a name;” Man-man, who goes from running for public office to staging his own crucifixion; Big Foot, the dreaded bully with glass tear ducts; and the lovely Mrs. Hereira, in thrall to her monstrous husband. Their lives (and the legends their neighbours construct around them) are rendered by V. S. Naipaul with Dickensian verve and Chekhovian compassion in this tender, funny novel.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Makes me laugh just to think about it again!,
By Cipriano "www.bookpuddle.blogspot.com" (Planet Claire) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Miguel Street (Caribbean Writers) (Paperback)
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!
4.0 out of 5 stars
NOT MY STYLE,
By
This review is from: Miguel Street (Caribbean Writers) (Paperback)
Colorful, lyrical ... yes, yes, all that. Funny? Well, in a forced kind of way. I recognize in Naipaul a writer of great talent, whose quasi-folk style is just not to my taste. But then, this is a youthful work. Chacun a son gout.
4.0 out of 5 stars
hilarious early voice,
By
This review is from: Miguel Street (Caribbean Writers) (Paperback)
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.
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