Word: willieã
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...half a life” of the title refers, most obviously, to the 40-odd years of Willie??s life described in the novel. On a more figurative level, it refers to the bisected personality of Willie as he goes from country to country, life to life. In India, in England and in Mozambique, he feels neurotic tugs on his sense of identity, and as a result nowhere do his friends and lovers see more than half of the person whom they know. In India, Willie yearns for Canada and an escape from his father?...
...narrative, broken into three thinly-connected chapters, begins with an explanation of Willie??s name. His Brahmin father narrates the twisted trajectory of his own adolescent rebellion in India. To spite his family and his caste, Willie??s father becomes a sadhu, or ascetic holy man. By chance, the English writer W. Somerset Maugham meets him while researching The Razor’s Edge. Maugham’s influence on Willie??s father is strong enough that, once a proper wife is found, the son gets Maugham’s first and middle names...
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