For very nearly one-third of the book I feared that I just was not going to find it funny any more, though I did enjoy the masterful way in which Naipaul was able to blend the creolese used by his characters when talking to each other with a Standard English narrative so that the joins don't show.
One quote however did jar at first:
“If it ain’t Suraj Papa, is the children. Look at my hands, Ganesh. You see how smooth they is. They can’t even leave fingerprints now.”
Fingerprints? That doesn’t sound like something anyone would really say.
Then it came back to me; even in the 1960s you could see people, most likely elderly, rural, female & of Indian ethnic origin, transacting their business in the bank with thumbprint for signature - the ink pad was standard at each desk.
And, for the record, once Ganesh finally discovered his mystic powers, I rediscovered the humour in the tale.
