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At the heart of the book lies Naipaul's undergraduate life at Oxford and his father's deeply moving support for his son, as he strives to maintain his own writing career whilst he watches his son's own literary talent flower. The minutiae of Naipaul's college life offers a fascinating account of the genesis of the querulous, fussy and patrician Naipaul. Letters are full of stories of Naipaul's endless rounds of tea parties, writing for the Oxford journal Isis, flirting with European women and endless requests for cigarettes from home. But the most revealing and moving dimension of the collection is the love and friendship between father and son. Seepersad both vents his own literary frustrations upon his son, whilst at the same time assuring Naipaul of his own unconditional support: "I feel so darned cocksure that I can produce a novel within six months--if only I had nothing else to do. This is impossible. But I want to give you this chance." Seepersad's sudden death is very affecting, as is Naipaul's telegraphed response home: "Everything I owe to him." This is a deeply revealing collection of one of the most enigmatic writers of the post-war period, which offers an absorbing insight into Naipaul's early fiction, particularly The Mystic Masseur and Miguel Street. --JerryBrotton
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks51386
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # DCBAF--0099