What do you think?
Rate this book
Uncle Paul
To every man comes a moment of opportunity and recognition. At this point of indifference in his life he can either acknowledge his identity and thereby come to terms with himself as a complex and complete reality, or he can refuse to meet the issue and thereby abnegate his selfhood.
At thirty-six, Paul Mankay has reached this point. His conflicting feeling about his racial origins - part Jewish, part Aryan - are parallel by his ambiguous political allegiances, and his refusal to commit himself to a settled career. It is his perverse involvement with a neo-Fascist organisation, whose headquarters he wrecks, which precipitates the crisis. To escape his past momentarily and to find time to face his future, he seeks shelter with his sister Freya whom he has not seen for ten years. Burying himself in the peace of the Hampshire countryside Paul tries to resolve the violent dilemmas of his fate. He finds a new sense of responsibility in accepting the innocent love of the young Valerie and in his relationship with his mistress Delia. But the pastoral is threatened by the incursion of Paul's past in the shape of the pursuing Fascists: the indifference point is of its nature temporary. Now at last Paul must determine his crisis of loyalties.
At thirty-six, Paul Mankay has reached this point. His conflicting feeling about his racial origins - part Jewish, part Aryan - are parallel by his ambiguous political allegiances, and his refusal to commit himself to a settled career. It is his perverse involvement with a neo-Fascist organisation, whose headquarters he wrecks, which precipitates the crisis. To escape his past momentarily and to find time to face his future, he seeks shelter with his sister Freya whom he has not seen for ten years. Burying himself in the peace of the Hampshire countryside Paul tries to resolve the violent dilemmas of his fate. He finds a new sense of responsibility in accepting the innocent love of the young Valerie and in his relationship with his mistress Delia. But the pastoral is threatened by the incursion of Paul's past in the shape of the pursuing Fascists: the indifference point is of its nature temporary. Now at last Paul must determine his crisis of loyalties.
222 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1963
About the author
Edgar Mittelholzer
37 books41 followersEdgar Mittelholzer is considered the first West Indian novelist, i.e. even though there were writers who wrote about Caribbean themes before him, he was the first to make a successful professional life out of it. Born in Guyana (then British Guiana) of Afro-European heritage, he began writing in 1929 and self-published his first book, Creole Chips, in 1937.
Mittelholzer left Guyana for Trinidad in 1941, eventually migrating to England in 1948, living the rest of his life there except for three years in Barbados, and a shorter period in Canada. Between 1951 and 1965, he published twenty-one novels, and two works of non-fiction, including his autobiographical, A Swarthy Boy.
"Mittelholzer's novels include characters and situations from a variety of places within the Caribbean. They range in time from the earliest period of European settlement to the present day and deal with a cross section of ethnic groups and social classes, not to mention subjects of historical, political, psychological, and moral interest. In addition, eight of Mittelholzer's novels are non-Caribbean in subject and setting. For all these reasons he deserves the title of "father" of the novel in the English-speaking Caribbean" - Encyclopedia of World Biography.
Among Edgar Mittelholzer's many honours was to have been the first West Indian to be awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Writing (1952). He died by his own hand in 1965, a suicide by fire predicted in several of his novels.
He published The Mad MacMullochs, written in 1953 and first published in 1959, under the pseudonym H. Austin Woodsley.
Excerpts from:
Peepal Tree Press
http://www.peepaltreepress.com/
Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook by Daryl Cumber Dance.
Mittelholzer left Guyana for Trinidad in 1941, eventually migrating to England in 1948, living the rest of his life there except for three years in Barbados, and a shorter period in Canada. Between 1951 and 1965, he published twenty-one novels, and two works of non-fiction, including his autobiographical, A Swarthy Boy.
"Mittelholzer's novels include characters and situations from a variety of places within the Caribbean. They range in time from the earliest period of European settlement to the present day and deal with a cross section of ethnic groups and social classes, not to mention subjects of historical, political, psychological, and moral interest. In addition, eight of Mittelholzer's novels are non-Caribbean in subject and setting. For all these reasons he deserves the title of "father" of the novel in the English-speaking Caribbean" - Encyclopedia of World Biography.
Among Edgar Mittelholzer's many honours was to have been the first West Indian to be awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Writing (1952). He died by his own hand in 1965, a suicide by fire predicted in several of his novels.
He published The Mad MacMullochs, written in 1953 and first published in 1959, under the pseudonym H. Austin Woodsley.
Excerpts from:
Peepal Tree Press
http://www.peepaltreepress.com/
Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook by Daryl Cumber Dance.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 22, 2017
If I were to rename this novel, it would be: "The Idyll and the Warrior" by Uncle Edgar.
Paul Mankay, the main character, has conflicting feelings about his racial origins and a continual war in his blood. He is half Jewish and half Germanic. He joins a Fascist group because he wants to experience the hatred they feel towards the Jewish. This is motivated by the hatred he perceives in himself, because, according to Uncle Paul, the Jewish showed weakness by not fighting back the Germans when these latter ones subdued them during the holocaust. He hates having this weak streak in himself because his Germanic side has always demonstrated strength, and he considers strength of character vital to succeed as a human being. However, he eventually wrecks the office in which he has worked for the group and hides in the country with his sister, fearing retaliation. In the countryside, he meets Valerie. Valerie is a friend of his niece and nephew's – that is why he is called Uncle Paul. Valerie is a teenager who has become sexually infatuated with him. He, being 20 years older than her, understands this infatuation is due to her young age and keeps her in place. However, because he is also flattered by her loyalty to her feelings, he spends time with her in order to comfort her through this unrequited love she is experiencing. In the meantime, Paul has a relationship with Delia, a woman whom he doesn't love but with whom he lives in London, because she provides him with the all fun a man needs, even though she desperately wishes to marry him and have a child. Did I mention that when he was young he was in love and sexually attracted to his sister?
Uncle Paul is a difficult character to like. I have no trouble liking unusual characters, but, unfortunately, I hated Paul from beginning to end. This is mostly because he is also very condescending to everybody around him. To be honest, the only character I really liked in the novel was his nephew, because he couldn't stand his uncle either.
Jacqueline Mittelholzer, his widow, states that Uncle Paul is almost a self-portrait of Edgar Mittelholzer himself. This is one of his last novels, which he wrote when his career was in decline. Upon reading Uncle Paul, I can understand why he was having trouble finding publishing houses willing to issue his books, for this novel can be considered wrong in so many levels due to its plot. However, Edgar Mittelholzer was a man who suffered and lived struggling throughout all of his life with opposing dilemmas. This helped me appreciate the novel as a proof to his suffering the same way you regard a relative of yours who is having a hard time in life. However, I think this book is far from being classified as one of hist best ones, especially because of its abrupt and unresolved ending.
Paul Mankay, the main character, has conflicting feelings about his racial origins and a continual war in his blood. He is half Jewish and half Germanic. He joins a Fascist group because he wants to experience the hatred they feel towards the Jewish. This is motivated by the hatred he perceives in himself, because, according to Uncle Paul, the Jewish showed weakness by not fighting back the Germans when these latter ones subdued them during the holocaust. He hates having this weak streak in himself because his Germanic side has always demonstrated strength, and he considers strength of character vital to succeed as a human being. However, he eventually wrecks the office in which he has worked for the group and hides in the country with his sister, fearing retaliation. In the countryside, he meets Valerie. Valerie is a friend of his niece and nephew's – that is why he is called Uncle Paul. Valerie is a teenager who has become sexually infatuated with him. He, being 20 years older than her, understands this infatuation is due to her young age and keeps her in place. However, because he is also flattered by her loyalty to her feelings, he spends time with her in order to comfort her through this unrequited love she is experiencing. In the meantime, Paul has a relationship with Delia, a woman whom he doesn't love but with whom he lives in London, because she provides him with the all fun a man needs, even though she desperately wishes to marry him and have a child. Did I mention that when he was young he was in love and sexually attracted to his sister?
Uncle Paul is a difficult character to like. I have no trouble liking unusual characters, but, unfortunately, I hated Paul from beginning to end. This is mostly because he is also very condescending to everybody around him. To be honest, the only character I really liked in the novel was his nephew, because he couldn't stand his uncle either.
Jacqueline Mittelholzer, his widow, states that Uncle Paul is almost a self-portrait of Edgar Mittelholzer himself. This is one of his last novels, which he wrote when his career was in decline. Upon reading Uncle Paul, I can understand why he was having trouble finding publishing houses willing to issue his books, for this novel can be considered wrong in so many levels due to its plot. However, Edgar Mittelholzer was a man who suffered and lived struggling throughout all of his life with opposing dilemmas. This helped me appreciate the novel as a proof to his suffering the same way you regard a relative of yours who is having a hard time in life. However, I think this book is far from being classified as one of hist best ones, especially because of its abrupt and unresolved ending.
Displaying 1 of 1 review