Magic Seeds

I just love the man's prose. Doesn't seem to matter whether I care for the story opr not - I simply love reading his words. ( )

I like reading his books, I always feel like I have learned something, not always sure what exactly. That's how I feel about this book, not one of his best, which is why I give it a 7 (though a VSN 7 is higher than most's 7s).

Willie is one of those people that life seems to happen to. From India, he goes to London and drifts into to 20 years of married life in Portuguese Africa, hiding behind walls away from the struggles for independence. He goes to Berlin, where his sister is living with Wolf, she convinces him to join a rebel group in India.

An interesting thing about the book is hearing Willie's thoughts - questioning his motives, being more honest, thinking what he's unable to say. We also get to see why others have joined. Emancipation of a group of people who don't seem to want, what are the rebels fighting for? A lad who went to the city for his education, ending up being caught between two worlds, too country for the city, but not enough for the country.

In the final section of the book, the author deals with British class issues, the one-up-manship. The upper class man, greeting guests in a dressing gown, making sure they remember where they are on the scale. A book about people trying to fit in, trying to find where they fit in.

The one character I hated was the sister, she suggests that Willie goes (something he doesn't hold against her), but she is safe. People she has been involved with are picked up, but she skates on. ( )

An enjoyable book - the narrative always pulled me on. But now that I've finished it, it seems as if it were two or three chapters from the middle of someone's autobiography, lacking the chapters preceding and following. ( )

This is one strange book. There are little pockets, glimpses of really interesting writing and ideas, but it's all dressed up in such a strange package. Too weighted down in reality to be a fable, yet too unrealistic to be taken seriously, the main character just flips through life echoing everything around him in his banal thoughts and despite all the horrible things he ends up involved in, I could never feel sorry for him or many of the people around him.

Now I think about it, it almost feels like this book is trying to be too much of everything without committing itself to one path. Is it lush or is it minimalist? Is it a book about this man Willie's incredible/incredulous journey across the globe from controlling influence to controlling influence, or is it a discussion on humanity, class, power and culture? Although competent at all of these things, somehow, it just doesn't seem to satisfy. ( )

If I find myself in the unfortunate situation of struggling with a book, I typically reassess my willingness to pursue its completion around page 50 or so. Since Magic Seeds was my first novel by Naipaul, it was an assigned book in the Go Review that Book! group, and also because I own it, I felt more of an obligation to finish it. Alas, I closed it at page 149 of 288. I was simply too bored with it and found myself procrastinating with the book as other things were "more important". For reading, that was a new experience...

*****POSSIBLE SPOILERS*****
Magic Seeds is the story of Willie, a middle-aged (late-30s, early 40s) man who is discovering himself in his native India as the newly confirmed member of a rebel sect. While this may sound exciting, Naipaul is intentionally vague (I suppose because that's the nature of a rebel sect - to be unidentified) and as a result you don't get enough details about Willie, his mates, their mission, the surroundings, or anything else, to grip onto.

Willie goes back and forth trying to decide if he's doing the right thing, with the right group, or wants to remain. He's indecisive and the group continues to weaken further lessening the appeal of the book. If Willie can't commit to the group, how can we as readers?

More disappointingly, I found the writing pedestrian. I've heard many things about Naipaul's prose and that was why I bought the book (when it was first released). I also own A Turn in the South since I live in the south. I had high hopes but was not impressed.

No worries. I can now tick Naipaul off the list (and leave him there). It's happened before and will no doubt happen again. I'll dust off a different book and dive right in. ( )