Between Father and Son: Family Letters (Vintage International) - Softcover

Naipaul, V S

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375707263 ISBN 13: 9780375707261

Publisher: Vintage, 2001

Synopsis

At seventeen, V.S. Naipaul wanted to "follow no other profession" but writing. Awarded a scholarship by the Trinidadian government, he set out to attend Oxford, where he was encountered a vastly different world from the one he yearned to leave behind. Separated from his family by continents, and grappling with depression, financial strain, loneliness, and dislocation, "Vido" bridged the distance with a faithful correspondence that began shortly before the young man's two-week journey to England and ended soon after his father's death four years later.
Here, for the first time, we have the opportunity to read this profoundly moving correspondence, which illuminates with unalloyed candor the relationship between a sacrificing father and his determined son as the encourage each other to persevere with their writing. For though his father's literary aspirations would go unrealized, Naipaul's triumphant career would ultimately vindicate his beloved mentor's legacy.

About this title

Review:

"An extraordinary rich correspondence." -The New York Times Book Review

"A telling portrait of the artist as a young man [and] a fascinating map to the autobiographical underpinnings of what is arguably Mr. Naipaul's finest novel, A House for Mr. Biswas."- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"A narrative that never palls: We are enthralled as by a compelling epistolary novel."- The Washington Post Book World

"Shocking...Captivating...The Naipaul family letters speak eloquently of loneliness and deracination, but at the heart of the book is a very moving story about becoming a writer."- The Boston Globe

About the Author:

V.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession.

His novels include A House for Mr Biswas, The Mimic Men, Guerrillas, A Bend in the River, and The Enigma of Arrival. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for In a Free State. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include Among the Believers, Beyond Belief, The Masque of Africa, and a trio of books about India: An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilization and India: A Million Mutinies Now.

In 1990, V.S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He lived with his wife Nadira and cat Augustus in Wiltshire, and died in 2018.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0375707263
• ISBN 13: 9780375707261
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320