Naipaul’s fifth, set in Stone | Columnist

I have made a habit of commemorating the August 11th anniversary of VS Naipaul’s death with a column that explores one aspect of his work. True to the saying, old habits do die hard because this year is no different.

It has been five years since Naipaul passed away at the age of 85.

The number five is, I have come to understand, an important number in Hinduism for its association with Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and learning. Although Naipaul himself had conflicting views on Hinduism, I want to preserve the significance of the number five and its association with knowledge and learning by focusing on his fifth work of fiction, Mr. Stone and the Horseman’s Companion.

Published in 1963, Mr Stone is unique for at least two reasons. First, although Mr Stone was Naipaul’s fifth work, it was actually the first and only one set in England and with only English characters.

Partly because of this, the novel has not received as much critical attention in the Caribbean, despite having a memorable main character in a style that only Naipaul could replicate.

Mr. Stone also had the tall order of following what has gone down in history as Naipaul’s most prominent character, Mr. Biswas. However, Mr. Stone shares with Mr. Biswas, and many of Naipaul’s characters, a search for meaning and purpose.

The second reason for the uniqueness of Mr. Stone is due to its appreciation by critics such as Bruce King as a more serious phase in Naipaul’s writing, different from the fun and satire seen in the previous four: The Mystic Masseur (1957) , Elvira’s Suffrage (1958), Miguel Street (1959) and the Nobel Prize winner A House for Mr Biswas (1961).

Although not set in Trinidad, as Naipaul’s earlier works are, Mr. Stone offers us a view of London from the perspective of a West Indian immigrant. The changing perception of life in London, described by Naipaul, makes the story an investigation of cultural change, aging and vanity.

Just as we could all identify in some way with the struggle of Mr. Biswas against all odds, Naipaul’s craft made Mr. Stone and his life in London reflect a West Indian’s perception of the struggle to adjust after migrating from a small island to a metropolitan city. In this way, the novel’s brilliance can be attributed as much to Naipaul’s ability to perceive cultural, racial, and national differences as to the actual events of the story.

Naipaul was part of the Windrush generation, a group of people who migrated from the West Indies to the United Kingdom via the Empire Windrush, the ship that brought one of the first groups of West Indian migrants to the UK in 1948. Other notable Trinidadian artists who belonging to the Windrush generation include Samuel Selvon, Michael Anthony, CLR James and, of course, Lord Kitchener. Although “Kitch” famously sang “London is the place for me”, the reality was that immigrants were met with racism, poor living conditions and extortionate rents. For Naipaul, migration forced him to come to terms with his unmoored, strange existence as well as his otherness as an outsider in London. In a way, Mr Stone exposes the false promise of the UK as an inclusive space.

Sixty-two-year-old Richard Stone lives alone in London and works as a librarian in a large corporation called Excal. Faced with the realization that he will soon have to retire, he desperately searches for a purpose. Almost out of the blue, he marries the widow Margaret Springer, who lives in Earl’s Court, an area of ​​London where hotels display a sign that says “Europeans only”.

In the novel, Naipaul describes the streets of England becoming “crowded with youth” along with “strangers of every color”. The changing nature of British society, along with the realization that he is getting old, prompts Mr. Stone to seek some form of renewal. This is where the Knights Companion project comes into play. Desperate for some form of self-renewal, Mr. Stone conceives the project to help Excal’s ex-employees, specifically to send visitors to ex-employees of the firm to make them feel like they still belong.

The project, after becoming initially successful, is given to a younger colleague named Whymper who turns it into a promotional gimmick. The novel ends with Mr. Stone retiring in a very familiar tone of despair that we have come to know as “typical” Naipaul. The message of Mr. Stone’s changing fortunes in old age is not hopeful, but eternal. We can all be Mr. Stone, if we aren’t already. The pursuit of purpose and meaning in our lives is something we all share with Mr. Stone. For this reason Naipaul’s fifth novel remains as important to us as it was to the Windrush emigrants.