Half a Life (novel) Half a Life (novel) Half a Life is a 2001 novel by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul published by Alfred A. Knopf. The novel is set in India, Africa and Europe (London, Berlin and Portugal). "Half a Life" was long listed for the Man Booker prize (2001). Willie Somerset Chandran is the son of a Brahmin father and a Dalit mother. His father gave him his middle name as a homage to the English writer Somerset Maugham who had visited the father in the temple where the father was living under a vow of silence. Having come to despise his
About a Quarter to Nine About a Quarter to Nine "About a Quarter to Nine" is a popular song written by Al Dubin and Harry Warren and published in 1935 by M. Witmark & Son, New York. The songwriting partnership of Dubin and Warren wrote "About a Quarter to Nine" for the 1935 musical film "Go into Your Dance", directed by Archie L. Mayo and starring Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler. In the film the song is introduced by Jolson. This song and the satirical song "She's a Latin from Manhattan" were the most successful songs from the movie. The song was used again in