Naipaul, V. S

New York. 1959. Vanguard. 1st American Edition. Very Good. No Dustjacket. 215 pages. hardcover. keywords: Literature Caribbean Trinidad England India. FROM THE PUBLISHER - Here is the astringent wit of an Aubrey Mennen turned loose in the rich landscape of a Caribbean isle. V. S. Naipaul is an extraordinary storyteller - a voice from Trinidad of today, as contemporary and exciting as Calypso - and in THE MYSTIC MASSEUR he has created one of the most amusing and fascinating characters in contemporary fiction, Ganesh Rasumair. If Ganesh had not been so unappreciated as a schoolteacher, he would never have become a masseur. If he had not lacked talent as an ordinary masseur, he would never have blossomed into a mystic one; and, of course, if he had not lived in Trinidad, at first an obscure member and finally an ornament of the Hindu community there, none of the things that happened to him would have happened in quite that way, for Trinidad, seen with the eye of humor, is a most surprising place. This is a story of success: a success that resulted, or so it seems, from inspired detachment. Achievement was not something at which Ganesh aimed but something that overtook him in oblique and unexpected ways, often appearing at first sight to be a setback but always advancing his career. Mr. Naipaul, who himself comes of an Indian family settled in Trinidad, writes with delicate precision and keeps a poker face. He occasionally permits himself a raised eyebrow and a look of wonder at the charming absurdity of human beings, but it is his reader, not he, who laughs aloud. inventory #22009