Miguel Street

Miguel Street, a collection of portraits of the characters that enliven a lower-class neighborhood in Port of Spain during WWII, has an endearing charm that perfectly encapsulates that era in Trinidadian history. Somewhat autobiographical (the narrator leaves Trinidad to study abroad on a government scholarship, like Naipaul himself), these tales weave together the culturally (and racially) diverse world of the urban proletariat and poor in Miguel Street. Hindus and Christians, Indians and blacks, seem to get along fine in this area where poverty was widespread, but nobody starved. Naipaul's brilliant and characteristic prose is interspersed with dialogue in Trinidadian vernacular English, the sounds of calypso are alluded to (as well as providing a useful look at popular culture, real calypso songs add a touch of authenticity to the world crafted by Naipaul), and the dynamics of class, race, gender, colonialism, Trinidadian identity, and a specifically 'urban' (and mostly masculine) identity shape the narrative. 

Gender dynamics surely follow a more stereotypical pattern of male dominance, men beating their wives, and male control of urban space, but women appear as leading figures and heads of households, such as the narrator's single mother, Laura, and women engaged in business. Racial relations and colonial identity appear as strong themes, too, since a Trinidadian inferiority complex in relation to Britain and the US emerges as a theme in more than one chapter. In addition, one can see how Naipaul himself expresses disappointment and disdain for late colonial Trinidad, which is seen as lacking the opportunities and sufficient educational infrastructure. Nonetheless, this portrait of a Trinidadian urban community, often compared to Catfish Row in US literature, is endearing and possesses rustic charm, since its tolerant, multiracial, subsisting, and tied to a much broader world of the Caribbean, Venezuela, and the US. Even when poking fun at Trinidad, Naipaul seems to express a certain type of pride and passion for representing life there, even if it was lacking in the higher intellectual and urban infrastructure Naipaul (and the narrator) sought as young adults. And, of course, like A House for Mr. Biswas,a jovial sense of humor permeates the spirit of the text. From humorous lines of exchange between the mostly homosocial space in the street occupied by men such as Hat and the boys, to the narrator's tough mother beating him, there is more than enough material to provide laughs and tears at this world.