The Mimic Men

The Mimic Men is a novel by British-Trinidadian author V.S. Naipaul, first published in 1967. Combining elements of both fiction and nonfiction and completed while Naipaul was writer-in-residence at Uganda’s Makerere University, it is considered one of Naipaul’s most serious and poetic novels. It centers on Ranjit “Ralph” Singh, an politician of both East and West Indian origin in exile living in London as he attempts to write his memoirs. The novel flashes back to his time in power, as he struggles to balance his personal life with his political ambitions and at times, seems to abandon his goals. Exploring themes of cultural differences between Europe and the Caribbean, colonialism, love, and the politics and economics of the Caribbean, The Mimic Men received overall positive reviews, although it was controversial for its depiction of West Indians as trying to mimic European behavior.

Ranjit Kripal Singh is a 40-year-old man of Indian heritage born on the fictional Caribbean island of Isabella in the 1920s. Isabella is a British colony, and Sigh is a British citizen, which allows him to immigrate to the UK after his fall from government power in Isabella and subsequent exile . He writes his memoirs in a suburban London hotel, beginning with his university years in London. While living in a boarding house, he met a young Maltese woman named Lieni, who introduced him to many friends, all from countries colonized by the British empire. At university, Singh meets a British woman and fellow student named Sandra. He soon falls in love with the younger woman, but after he graduates, she fails out of university and is left with no real job prospects. Singh agrees to marry her, and she decides to move with him to Isabella. Singh’s paternal grandparents own the island’s bottling factory, and Singh is willed a substantial amount of land and money. Renting his land out for development, he becomes one of the most successful men on the island. However, he feels little fulfillment with his success, and his marriage is largely loveless.

The memoirs then flash back to his childhood growing up on Isabella. His father is a schoolteacher, while his mother is set to inherit the island’s bottling factory. His uncle Cecil is only a few years older than Singh, and had a tense rivalry with Singh’s father. An arrogant, rich young man, Cecil has little respect for his elders. Singh attends the British school Isabella Imperial, and makes many friends there. He is close with his father, and recalls a time in his childhood when his father took the whole family for a drive around the island. There, he sees the poor neighborhoods largely filled with black residents. He recalls feeling contempt for them due to their poverty. His school friend Browne is deeply affected by the poverty around them, and began to advocate on behalf of the island’s poor. This leads to the end of his friendship with Singh. Singh’s father eventually quits his teaching job and becomes a spiritual leader and social activist, living in the forest with poor people. The government tries to break up this movement, but it eventually ends on its own. During World War II, Singh’s father is placed in an internment camp. Cecil inherits the bottling factory, but his youth and arrogance led him to run it into the ground. When his father is released, he and Singh are reunited before Singh goes abroad to study in London. There, he got word that his father had been shot and killed by Cecil.

The final section of the memoir takes the reader back to Singh’s life on Isabella as an adult. He is reunited with Browne, who is now a socialist activist and newspaper editor. He wants to work with Singh, and Singh signs on, helping to build up a strong following for the newspaper. Singh and Cecil (who has been cleared of all charges) use this momentum to run for office in Isabella, and Browne is eventually elected Chief Minister. Politics in Isabella turn out to be very messy, and Singh’s attempt to travel abroad to get support for Isabella’s independence fails. When he returns to Isabella, his marriage falls apart and he is ousted from Isabella’s government. Finding himself ostracized, he leaves the island and moves to London at the age of 40. There, he begins to compose his memoirs, using the writing process as a way of coming to terms with the complex events of his life.

V.S. Naipaul is a British author from Trinidad and Tobago, the winner of the Man Booker Prize in 1971 for In a Free State and the 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature. He wrote over thirty books in his life, both fiction and nonfiction, and based many of his works on his personal experiences growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as his later world travels.