Half A Life by V.S.Naipaul
امروز فرصتی کردم تا کتاب " Half A Life " از V. S. Naipaul را معرفی کنم که برنده جایزه نوبل ادبیات در سال 2001 شده است . خیلی ها معتقد هستند کتاب " A House for Mr Biswas " بهترین اثر Naipaul هست اما منتقدین ادبی کتاب " Half A Life " را بهترین اثر ایشان میدانند. خوشبختانه این کتاب و بسیاری از اثار این نویسنده در ایران ترجمه و نشر شده است.
رمان نیمی از زندگی V. S. Naipaul که داستان مردی است به نام ویلی سامرست چاندران که دو دهه از عمرش را صرف جستجوی معنای زندگی می کند تا از زندگی احساس رضایت کند و به آرامش برسد حال آنکه در۴۱ سالگی دوباره میخواهد زندگی دیگری را اغاز کند.
این کتاب بنوعی یک اتوبیوگرافی نویسی خود نویسنده است که اصالتی هندی دارد و در ترینیداد بدنیا امده ، در لندن زندگی کرده و سال ۲۰۱۸ در لندن از دنیا رفت است.
ویلی چاندران که پدرش بخاطر علاقه اش به کتاب لبه تیغ نویسنده شهیر بریتانیا William Somerset Maugham بخشی از نام این نویسنده را به اسم پسرش اضافه کرده است یک برهمن هندو از یک خانواده مرفه است که با یک دختر فقیر در جامعه طبقاتی هند ازدواج کرده و مورد سرزنش دایمی اطرافینش قرار گرفته است.
ویلی هم مثل بسیاری از اعضای فامیل پدری هیچ رضایتی از پدرش ندارد و به دنبال فرار از هند و خانواده اش برای رسیدن به آزادی از قید و بند های جامعه هندوستان است
هر چند که با گذشت زمان پدرش را محق می داند. در حالی که قبلا خانواده اش بالاخص پدرش را در سرخوردگی ها و سردرگمی خود مقصر می دانست.
در حالی که ویلی چاندران ضمن ادامه تحصیل در لندن بصورت پاره وقت در رادیو بی بی سی بعنوان نویسنده هم کار می کند حتی بعد از نوشتن اولین کتابش هنوز هم سرخورده و پا درهوا و تنهاست و در جامعه جدید هم پذیرفته نشده است. وقتی با آنا دختری با اصالتی پرتقالی - آفریقای بواسطه نامه نگاری ها یشان در رابطه با کتابش اشنا می شود به همراه آنا به آفریقا می رود با این تصور که بعد از چند روزی برخواهند گشت و خواننده کتاب بطورغافلگیرانه ایی در چند صفحه بعدی کتاب متوجه می شود هیجده سال از رفتن آنها به آفریقا گذشته است و گمان میرود ویلی بنوعی سرنوشت را می پذیرفته است.
Naipaul در این کتاب به موضوعاتی چون هویت، مهاجرت و یافتن معنا و هدف در زندگی تمرکز نموده است. برجسته ترین موضوع در رمان اشاره اش به مهاجرت ویلی از هندوستان به انگلستان و سپس به آفریقا بمنظور کشف خود و نقش اش به عنوان یک انسان در این جهانی چند فرهنگی است، جامعه، فرهنگ و جهانی که هر روز هم دچار تحول و دگرگونی است.
ویلی چاندران در حالی که بعد از مهاجرت بدنیال هویت جدیدی است مورد تبعض و تحقیر دیگران قرار می گیرد و تعلق خاطری نسبت به لندن هم ندارد. وقتی شخصیت رمان از سیر عزیمت خود به آفریقا با گذشتن از دریای سرخ ، جیبوتی مومباسا و سواحل آفریقا تا نهایتاً رسیدن به سرزمین مادری آنا که احتمالا ( موزابیک) هست حرف میزند داستان بیشتر روشن می شود قهرمان داستان هیچ احساس رضایتی از گذشته و پیشینه خانوادگی خود ندارد و ارزشی به تاریخ و فرهنگ اش قایل نیست تا جایی که آنها را کتمان می کند.
ما در صفحه 130 کتاب می خوانیم." من از خودم پنهان شده ام. من هیچ خطری نکرده ام و اکنون بهترین بخش زندگی من به پایان رسیده است."
و یا در صفحه آخر کتاب می خوانیم " اکنون بهترین بخش زندگی من گذشته است و من هیچ کاری انجام نداده ام ."
در نهایت , این رمان "Half A Life " درسی است برای همه خوانندگاه که کلید یافتن معنای زندگی در ذهن و اندون خود انسان ها است نه در هند ، نه در لندن و نه در آفریقا.
گزیده هایی از کتاب:
Half A Life by V.S.Naipaul
Hafe A Life by V.S.Naipaul
The opinion of some critics about the book Half A Life
" A masterpiece ... and a potent distillation of the author's work to date."
That was how I became famous. Not in India, where there is a lot of jealousy, but abroad. And the jealousy turned to rage when the writer's famous novel came out during the war, and foreign critics began to see in me the spiritual source of The Razor's Edge. Page 5
I had wished, after all, only to follow the great men of our country. Fate, tossing me about, had made me a hero to people who, fighting their own petty caste war, wished to pull them down. page 29
Within my silence I feel quite free. That is happiness. page 30
It was a broken-down and dusty shack in a suburb far from the maharaja's palace and all his good intentions. Broken- down through it was, the teachers and the school servants didn't want Willie Chandran's mother there. the school servants were ever more fierce than the teachers. they said they would starve rather than serve in school which took in backwards. page 37
When Ana came to the hospital courage came to me, and I told her I wanted to divorce with her.
But I have done him nothing. He is not me. He is his mother's son. All this Mom-and-Pop business comes from her. She can't help it. It's her background. She has these mission-school ambitions. Perhaps after a few hundred rebirths, she will be more evolved. But she can't wait like other decent folk. Like so many backwards nowadays, she wants to jump the gun." Page 39
Willie thought in his head, in English, "he is not only a fraud, but a coward." Page 40
If you are resolute enough you will find a way."Do you accept?" And the Brahman says," I accept." The spirit says," Sleep, rich man. When you awaken you will be in your old temple and the world will be at your feet. But never forget your pledge." Page 44
"Eating my salt and abusing me."
He remembered one of the things his mother's Uncle used to say: that the backwards had been shut out for so long from society that they knew nothing of India, nothing of the other religions, nothing even of the religion of the people of caste, whose serfs they were. And he thought, " This blankness is one of the things I have got from my mother's side." page 53
He made his father's father a "courtier. " So playing with words, he began to re-make himself. It excited him and began to give him a feeling of power.
His tutors said, "You seem to be settling in." page 58
Life doesn't have a neat beginning and a tidy end. life is always going on. you should begin in the middle and end in the middle, and it should all be there. This story about the brahmin and the treasure and the child sacrifice - it could have begun with the tribal Chief coming to see the brahmin in his hermitage. He begins by threatening and ends by grovelling, but when he leaves we should know he is planning a terrible murder. Page 79
"And then there'll be something else to wait for, and then there'll be something after that. This is your father's life." Page 110
Kama Sutra: page 111
"A guide to the art of living well, the nature of love, finding a life partner, maintaining one's love life, and other aspects pertaining to pleasure-oriented faculties of human life ..."
When Willy goes to Africa with Anna, he thinks that they will return after a few days, and the reader of the book realizes that 18 years have passed since he was in Africa.
After studying in India and writing his first book, Wille is disillusioned and up in the air, and when he meets Anna, he goes to Africa with Anna, thinking that they will return after a few days, and the readers of this book realizes that he has remain in Africa for 18 years.
They have declared that they are, and they risk everything for it. I am hiding from myself. I have taken no risks and now the best part of my life is over. Page 130
They have proclaimed who they are and they are risking everything for it. I have been hiding from myself. I have risked nothing. And now the best part of my life is over. page 130
"I can't live anywhere else," said overseer page 138
And when I next saw the mildewed white staff bungalows I looked at them with a new respect. So bit by bit I learned. Not only about cotton and sisal and cashew, but also about the people. page 138
He said," That's the trouble. To do business you have to be in business. You have to start thinking in a different way. You can't write to people like boots and think they'll want to do business with you just for a year and a day." page 160
When she came back later I said to her "I am forty-one I am tired of living your life."
"You wanted it, Willie . you asked. I had to think about it."
"I know you did everything for me you made it easy for me here. I couldn't have lived here without you. When I asked you in London I was frightened. I had nowhere to go. They were going to throw me out of the college at the end of the term and I didn't know what I could do to keep afloat. But now the best part of my life has gone, and I've done nothing.”
"You are frightened of the new war."
"And even if we go to Portugal, even if they let me in there, it would still be your life. I have been hiding for too long."
"Ana said, perhaps it wasn't really my life either." Page 211
Half a Life by V.S. Naipaul, summary
"Half a Life" By VS Naipaul
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