Point of View

The author of Miguel Street is V.S. Naipaul, a Trinidad writer who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature along with many other prestigious awards for his writing. Most of his books focus on the lives of peoples who are often forgotten in richer and more fortunate parts of the world. Miguel Street is no exception save that it is semi-autobiographical. Naipaul places himself in the story within a context that is partially true to his own youth in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Naipaul never names himself. Instead, while the book is written in the first-person, the author remains anonymous. He is not omniscient. Instead, everything he knows about the characters comes from his direct observation or stories and descriptions he remembers hearing from others.

The author is a character within the story, though, and he does reveal features of his personality and...