A Flag on the Island

by V.S. Naipaul

A Flag on the Island is a collection of short stories written by V.S. Naipaul, and first published by André Deutsch in 1967. It includes the title novella, "A Flag on the Island," outtakes from previous books such as "The Enemy", from Miguel Street, and pieces published in periodicals in Britain or the United States.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Indian Literature, British Literature

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

V. S. Naipaul was a British writer of Indo-Trinidadian descent known for his sharp, often controversial explorations of postcolonial societies, identity, and displacement. His works, which include both fiction and nonfiction, often depict themes of exile, cultural alienation, and the lingering effects of colonialism.
He gained early recognition with A House for Mr Biswas, a novel inspired by his father’s struggles in Trinidad. His later works, such as The Mimic Men, In a Free State, and A Bend in the River, cemented his reputation as a masterful and incisive writer. Beyond fiction, his travelogues and essays, including Among the Believers and India: A Million Mutinies Now, reflected his critical perspective on societies in transition.
Naipaul received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded for his ability to blend deep observation with literary artistry. While praised for his prose, his often unsparing portrayals of postcolonial nations and controversial statements sparked both admiration and criticism.

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 11 stories range from comical to poignant. Starting with ‘My Aunt Gold Teeth’, where the authors aunt gets all her healthy teeth removed and replaced with gold ones to show the world her husband was a man of substance. The aunt was a religious woman and Hindu who was unable to have children. So she decides to also pray to the Christian god hoping she will conceive. Her husband gets sick and they try various cures but he has diabetes and mumbo jumbo ultimately fails.

The Raffle is about a dodgy teacher who makes his pupils buy raffle tickets for a goat. Naipaul wins the goat but it does not produce milk. He sells it back to the teacher and then wins it again. Amusing story except for the fate of the goat.

A Christmas Story is about a Hindu converting to Christianity and celebrating it! Naipaul has changed his name to Randolph and the story follows how he becomes a successful teacher and then a school inspector. However, the corruption behind building a new school catches up with him on Xmas Eve. Happily his son Winston is a bit of an arsonist so the audit committee has nothing to audit.

The Mourners is about a visit to a woman mourning her son and is a poignant story about people’s grief and their way of dealing with it.

The Night Watchman’s Occurrence Book is hilarious. It tells the tale of a night watchman keeping an account of the guests mostly bad behavior. Very funny.

The Enemy is about a dying father and a boys memories of him. His father was an overseer on s plantation and at night the workers plagued them with voices. His father becomes increasingly paranoid. His mother becomes the enemy to the boy after his father dies. Over the years she beats him and cares for him as he appears to be an epileptic who suffers fits.

Greenie and Yellow is set in 1950s England in a house with lodgers. The story of the landlady and landlords budgies who reflect the tenants lives quarreling and squabbling over nothing.

The Perfect Tenants is set in the same house about what appears are the perfect tenants. Of course they are not and a psychological battle between the tenants and landlords ensues. Amusing.

The Heart is a sad story about an only child with a bad heart. He fears dogs and his parents get him a puppy but he is a spoilt child and does not set the dog boundaries or train it. So gets frustrated and abuses the dog.

The Bakers Story tells the tale of how an Indian Baker becomes so successful. Probably the funniest story with his perception of peoples prejudices.

The longest story is A Flag on the Island. The story of a GI returning to Trinidad as a tourist during the prelude to a potential hurricane and catching up with old friends. It tells how the island was and how it changed. Echoes of colonialism, prejudice and people blinkered by their own beliefs. Hilarious in parts especially poor old Blackwhite and hen pecked Henry.

[Apphia Barton · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I love about Naipaul's writing is the way he uses simple yet entertaining stories to present his observations on bigger issues or themes such as race-relations in Trinidad and Tobago.

It's a collection of cleverly written short stories that got my creative juices flowing. Some are humorous and others are serious. I preferred the humorous stories.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

So.... I finally gave up. I read all but the last two of the stories, and I thought they were okay. Honeslty, I didn't get the point of most of them. Maybe there was no "point" exactly, but I couldn't figure out, after the story was done, why I had read it. Some of the stories had a slight tinge of macabre or plain off-ness, sort of Flannery O'Conner but not nearly as creative or brilliant. It was during the story "The Heart" that I finally said, "No more!" as the story degenerated into a really disturbing story about a boy who beats and tortures his dog mercilessly. And, again, at the end of the story, what was the point? I have no idea. Blech -- I hated this book.

[Nallasivan V. · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Comic as Naipaul can get! The Baker's Story, A Christmas Story and The Night Watchman's Occurrence Book are the best among them. But there are few shorts like the The Enemy and The Mourners which are - strangely as it comes from Naipaul - are touching and tugging at the heart. The title story, A flag on the Island is a laughter riot with slapstick and subtle undertones of colonialism blended perfectly to give you one of those rare Naipaul-experiences comparable to The Suffrage of Elvira

[Himali Kothari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born and brought up in Trinidad and Tobago, before he moved on to Britain, Naipaul once said, “In England I am not English, in India I am not Indian. I am chained to the 1000 square miles that is Trinidad; but I will evade that fate yet.” In his short stories, which sometimes seem to blur into personal essays, the author brings to the reader intimate aspects of life on the islands. The confusion brought on by age and blending of cultures and religions is both heartwarming and comical. These stories were written a decade after he left the island but it is clear that he carried his birthplace in his mind and heart and as he travelled farther he added the stories of those new places to them.

[Giles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something of a mixed bag with the majority of the eleven short stories reading like fragmentary ideas or moments waiting for their part in larger, longer novels. Indeed the Mystic Masseur himself makes a cameo in My Aunt Gold Teeth.

Night Watchman’s Occurrence Book and The Baker's Story are the two standouts. Each is succinct and hilarious, the former particularly good as it is written as an epistolary using official notes made between the Hotel manager and his watchman.

[Christopher Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think you can either love or hate this collection of early Naipaul stories. For me - I loved them, although the novella in the second half of the book had me confused at first because there was such a strong change in the narrative thrust compared to in the stories... though this resolved itself after the second part of the story explained who the characters were.

I wish I could write one tenth as well as Naipaul does here... and these are just his early stories. The man's a genius.

[David Antoš · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't help not liking the author throughout the book. Kind of similar to Kundera in this regard but Kundera, in my opinion, tries to provoke the reader by his cynicism secretly hoping he is wrong and the world is not so pointless. Naipaul's intentions I don't understand and I also don't understand most of his stories. I won't read more.

[John Fetzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short-story collection all set in Trinidad or other islands in the then British West Indies. Stories of the poor struggling to being rich, to growing up poor, to being an administrator in an inept government trying to get by, to a cruel young boy trying to control a growing puppy, and other tales. Set in the 1950s or earlier, these now read as historical fiction.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven collection. Some are excellent; others not so much.

[Rajat Narula · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories. As usual, some good, some not as much. A really good glimpse into the composite culture of the Caribbean.

[Bob Peru · Rating 3 out of 5]

the stories are good, some borderline great. the title novella sucks.

[2qt · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot worse than Miguel Street, but some of the stories in here are still pretty good.

[David Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag of stories, most very short, but the title story (A flag on the island) almost a novella. The stories range over an 11 year period of Naipaul's career, and I think some of the early ones may have been sitting on his "to publish" shelf for a long time and the publisher needed some fillers for this edition. The early stories are rough but some show a glimpse of the writers full ability. The stories improved during the book as the writer obviously honed his skills, and the final one, A flag on the island, is quite cerebreal,almost metaphysical. Three stars is the average, individual stories ranging from one star to four.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

*My Aunt Gold Teeth
*The raffle
*A Christmas story
The mourners
The night watchman's occurrence book--2
The enemy
Greenie and Yellow
*The perfect tenants
The heart
*The baker's story
A flag on the island
***
B. Wordsworth
Man-man
The mechanical genius

[Salvatore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. A very uneven and sometimes disturbing short story collection. There are a couple of interesting lines. But I'm glad the Naipaul film treatment never made it to the silver screen.

[Alex Yang · Rating 4 out of 5]

看不太懂的短篇