In a Free State

Nov 18, 2012 Fahad rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

في بلاد حرة

المرة الأولى التي اقرأ فيها لنايبول الحاصل على نوبل الآداب سنة 2001 م، ورغم أن كتابه هذا حصل على البوكر سنة 1971 م، إلا أنه لم يستهوني كثيراً، والكتاب ليس رواية، بقدر ما هو قصة طويلة وأربع قصص قصيرة، تنتظمها كلها مجموعة من الموضوعات، تتراوح ما بين الغربة والهوية والعنف.

ففي إحدى القصص نتابع حياة مستخدم هندي، يذهب مع سيده إلى أمريكا، حيث نرصد تعامله مع الحياة هناك، وهروبه للعمل في مطعم، وفي أخرى قصة أخ هندي وكفاحه لتعليم أخيه الأصغر، وفي ثالثة نتابع رحلة يقوم به رجل وامرأة بريطانيان ف...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Ben Batchelder rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a bleak book from a very good author. I first started reading Naipaul while hitching around the world in the 1980's, especially when in the Middle East and India. “In a Free State” covers slightly less exotic territory. A low-caste Indian skips his mat-in-the-closet existence with his master in a DC apartment, gets a cooking job, marries for a green card, and finds little contentment. A West Indian brother falls into criminal insanity in plush England. An English odd-couple on a long dri...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Alex Rendall rated it 2 of 5 stars

V.S. Naipaul has a reputation for courting controversy. Born in Trinidad in 1932, he is the first of the authors on this list who is still living; he has been involved in bitter disputes with authorial rivals and has attracted criticism for his recent comments regarding female writers. He has been described as being the “greatest living writer of English prose”, yet it is difficult to grasp an understanding of the authorial motivations that lie beneath the regular critical swipes against members...more V.S. Naipaul has a reputation for courting controversy. Born in Trinidad in 1932, he is the first of the authors on this list who is still living; he has been involved in bitter disputes with authorial rivals and has attracted criticism for his recent comments regarding female writers. He has been described as being the “greatest living writer of English prose”, yet it is difficult to grasp an understanding of the authorial motivations that lie beneath the regular critical swipes against members of the established literary canon (Henry James, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens are all recent recipients of Naipaul’s contempt) and his forays into more controversial territory (he had to pull out of a literary event in India last year to inflammatory comments he made concerning Islam in 2001).

Contempt seems to be an emotion that runs through In A Free State. Bobby, one of the principal protagonists, is contemptuous towards his driving companion, the model colonial wife Linda. The soldiers in the unnamed East African country where the novel is set show contempt towards civil servants like Bobby, and the colonial institutions that they represent. Even the run-down state of the roads and buildings, formerly colonial outposts and now crumbling wrecks, arguably demonstrates a contempt on the part of the new country towards the institutions and policies of the old rulers. In A Free State is unusual however in that it is not just one story; the central tale is preceded by two shorter stories which focus on people who have emigrated; the first on an Indian servant who moves to New York, the other on two West Indian cousins who move to the UK. In both we see contempt from the émigrés for the new culture into which they arrive, and a yearning for that which they have elected to leave behind. There are also two fragments, one at the beginning of the novel and the other at the end, where the narrator describes travelling to Egypt on a ferry and then describes what he sees whilst touring Giza and Luxor. In both fragments he describes Egypt post-independence in the 1950s, where again, contempt for the previous regime is shown. This fragmentary narrative leaves the reader uncertain of what In A Free State is meant to represent; the abrupt end of the core narrative and sudden move to the final fragment leaves the reader feeling that this is more of a collection of short stories than a longer narrative, demonstrating similar themes of post-colonialism and a yearning for the past but having little else to unite them coherently.

The central tale describes Bobby and Linda’s drive from the capital city to the blandly-named Southern Protectorate, in the area of the country that its King comes from. The King is on the run from the country’s President, who has taken power and is looking to purge the supporters of the man who was formerly propped up by the colonial powers that ruled the country before independence. This is redolent of real-world political situations, where Britain, France and the USA among others all helped to keep dictators in charge of various ‘protectorates’ for the sake of political expediency. Bobby and Linda witness the escalating violence first-hand, as they see people fleeing their homes, army vans on the roads, prisoners in chains and, ultimately, the site of the apprehension and murder of the old King. Naipaul leaves the reader questioning whether the “free state” of the title is really an improvement on the previous colonial regime, as Bobby and Linda’s journey becomes increasingly dangerous. They are attempting to return to the civil servants’ compound where they live, and consider themselves neutral in this civil conflict. Neither character is particularly likeable; Bobby is frequently taciturn and contradictory and on two occasions he attempts to seduce young African boys, while Linda anticipates the opportunity for extra-marital activities on the journey and is portrayed by Naipaul as being frivolous and naive. Neither is able to see that they are part of a colonial machine that is despised by the indigenous peoples of the country, and there is a sense of looming menace and building pressure throughout the novel which suggests that the whole edifice will be swept away on a tide of anti-colonial violence.

Naipaul has written much about colonialism and Africa and was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2001, thirty years after winning the Booker. In A Free State is not so much a study of colonialism or Africa but can be said to be a study of how those who were part of the colonising forces absolve themselves of the collective guilt they feel for the brutal treatment of those they ruled over. Bobby and Linda pretend to be neutral but at points they show that they do not really believe this to be the case and Naipaul’s ultimate contempt for his protagonists demonstrates that, ultimately, we must all choose sides, either the safety of the compound or the violence of the streets, if we are to be authentic to our beliefs.(less)

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Jul 18, 2012 Alejandro Teruel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ficción, usb

I must confess that I do not not enjoy reading V.S. Naipaul. I find his fiction overly pessimistic and bitter, his characters unappealing, passive victims whose lives seem exercises in futility. In a sense, like Joseph Conrad, he explores the backwaters of colonialism (or post-colonialism in Naipual´s case), but whereas most of Conrad´s main characters have a spark of courage, or decency or some positive human value, Naipaul´s alienated and displaced characters find it difficult to even sustain...more I must confess that I do not not enjoy reading V.S. Naipaul. I find his fiction overly pessimistic and bitter, his characters unappealing, passive victims whose lives seem exercises in futility. In a sense, like Joseph Conrad, he explores the backwaters of colonialism (or post-colonialism in Naipual´s case), but whereas most of Conrad´s main characters have a spark of courage, or decency or some positive human value, Naipaul´s alienated and displaced characters find it difficult to even sustain petty or mediocre aspirations.

In spite of my personal dislikes, V.S. Naipaul must be considered an important writer because of his deftness in portraying the loneliness, the unsatisfied, and perhaps unsatisfiable, yearning for belonging of the expatriate, the emigrant, the deraciné, whose roots never quite take hold again, who cannot even romanticize his loss of place in the world and who never shakes off his prejudices.

In these writings, freedom is thrust upon characters and countries, it is unwelcome, a burden and, ultimately, a charade. Freedom is a state of temporary suspension at the tip of a wave about to come crashing down to leave only flotsam and debris in its wake.

In hindsight it can be argued that the novel which gives the book its title is a study for Naipaul´s more accomplished 1989 novel, A Bend in the River, even though the point of view shifts from one work to another.

Tell me who to kill featuring two West Indian inmigrants in the UK, explores pent-up, smouldering rage and resentment as well as the frustration of well-intentioned but ultimately unreal expectations pinned on a son or a brother to escape the trap of poverty and exploitation. It is about what it feels like to be driven to scrabble to overcome an unsurmountable wall. As the narrator puts it: “We all come out of the same pot, but some people move ahead and some people get left behind. Some people get left behind so far they don´t know and they stop caring.” The tragedy for the narrator is that “I know I miss out. I know how much I lose when I have to stop school [...] I feel I see things so much better than the rest of my family; they always tell me I am very touchy. But I feel I become like the head of a family. I get the ambition and the shame for all of them. The ambition is like shame, andthe shame is like a secret, and it is always hurting. Even now, when it is all over, it can start hurting again.”

One out of many is perhaps the best piece of writing in the book and has been deservedly anthologized many times. On a surface level it is about the culture shock that befalls an Indian servant who accompanies his master to Washington, runs away, becomes an illegal alien, discovers an unwelcome and very lonely freedom he doesn´t know what to do with. In this case, the sense of freedom as illusion, is prefigured by a startling intuition about the nature of luck: “I saw then that the victory I had had was not something I had worked for, but luck; and that luck was only fate´s cheating, giving an illusion of power.” On a deeper level it is about what freedom and choice means for those who have freedom thrust upon them, who did not work for it or even attempt to understand their own prejudices and thus for those whom it catches unprepared to exercise it. Naipaul´s pessimistic conclusion is that, in this case, freedom is an illusion, and that the only freedom that can be exercised is the freedom to pick the wave in whose wake to drift along.

The first journal entry simply sets the stage and the pointless, cruel game at its heart reads like something out of Beckett. The only Englishman is an old tramp, bereft of all imperial trappings, incomprehensible in his pretenses to the rest of the motley set of middle eastern, mediterranean and american passengers and uncomprehending of the lives of others, he simply becomes the butt of a joke to fill in time.

The final journal entry provides is a fine story in itself, with its sense of the the impermanence and empty vanities of different, and ultimately meaningless, empires set amongst the tourist-riddled ruins of Luxor: “So many empires had come here. Not far from where we were was the colossus on whose shin the Emperor Hadrian had caused to be carved verses in praise of himself, to conmemorate his visit. On the other bank, not far from the Winter Palace, was a stone with a rougher Roman inscription marking the southern limit of the Empire, defining an area of retreat. Now another, more remote empire [China] was announcing itself. A medal, a postcard; and all that was asked in return was anger and a sense of injustice.” The narrator harks back to the arts of Ancient Egypt and wonders: “Perhaps that vision of the land, in which the Nile was only water, a blue-green chevron, had always been a fabrication, a cause for yearning, something for the tomb” and the story ends in a fit of gloom as the narrator looks forwards to Egypt´s defeat in the Sinai: “Seventeen months later these men, or men like them, were to know total defeat in the desert; and news photographs taken from helicopters flying down low were to show them lost, trying to walk back home, casting long shadows on the sand.”(less)

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Feb 02, 2012 Courtney H. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookers

In A Free State is a collection of two short stories and a novella, with two even shorter stories bookending them. Though each story takes place on a different continent (North America, Europe, and Africa) and have vastly different facts, they are tied together by themes of displacement and dependency; each tells the stories of the relationships that are formed and which sustain and ruin the characters in their immigrated-to homes, during eras that were as filled with upheavals as were the indiv...more In A Free State is a collection of two short stories and a novella, with two even shorter stories bookending them. Though each story takes place on a different continent (North America, Europe, and Africa) and have vastly different facts, they are tied together by themes of displacement and dependency; each tells the stories of the relationships that are formed and which sustain and ruin the characters in their immigrated-to homes, during eras that were as filled with upheavals as were the individual lives of the characters. Of the three main stories, the second was the hardest to read but in the end was the one that stuck with me the most. Looking back (my memory is fading, which is too bad, because the stories are subtle and carefully detailed, which is how he accomplishes so much with such subdued narrative voices), all three stories are remarkably devoid of drive on the part of the main characters. They do not quest after happiness, though they can remember times of happiness (maybe particularly true of the first two stories), and it is interesting to go on journeys with all three main characters, and realizing that these journeys have such detached, disinterested drivers; the destination is merely a destination, not a goal.

The first main story is about a servant who emigrants to the United States with his boss, a wealthy diplomat. It is neither a story of roads-are-paved-with-gold triumph nor of I-was-sold-a-bill-of-goods despair; it is far too subtle for either, and ascribes too obvious a drive to the narrator.

The second main story is powerful, scattered, and it takes the whole of the story to piece together the chronology and how the past triggered the present telling. This is vague, but I don't want to give away too much more than that. Briefly, it tells of two brothers going to England, one -- the younger and purportedly the family's rising star -- to study, and the elder who followed to take care of his sibling. Again, I'll keep it brief because the unraveling of the story is what is most powerful.

The third main story, the novella, was expertly written but in the end, the least interesting. This was the most obviously a journey story (though the second story was told while the narrator journeyed), literally and figuratively. It is about two foreigners who do not particularly like one another, driving inward from the capital of a post-independence African country on the brink of coup and civil war. After two stories of sympathetic characters, you are in the habit, by the time you reach this story, of sympathizing with the characters; which makes it all the more jarring to align your thoughts with how unsympathetic they are. They are clearly fully aware of the disastrous wave about to roll over the country and they attempt to ride ahead of it; yet their thoughts are largely turned inward onto themselves as if they sought purposeful ignorance of everything else. I guess the same can be said for the protagonists of the earlier stories, but as their plights were more sympathetic their self-absorption (if it can be called that) is more understandable. Here it becomes absurd -- purposefully by Naipaul -- given the violence that surrounds them.

The bookend stories are really just snippets, of what I thought must be a single narrator, traveling. You cannot help but wonder if these stories are reflections of some scenes that Naipaul himself watched with distaste on his own ferry journeys. The writing is sharp, but they really are scenes rather than stories.

I've done a lot of describing and not a lot of reviewing, possibly because even upon further reflection I still don't know how I feel about this book. It is an unforgiving book (apparently the Booker judges like those), one that does not seem to make much of an impact to begin with, but which resurfaces for further reflection over time. In some ways, the topics seemed a little stereotypical, not for Naipaul, but for the kind of book that the Bookers might favor at the time. But then, perhaps it is the kind of theme that needed attention; and given how much I still think of that second story, still does.

This still isn't a review. I guess I'll just have to leave off with a recommendation to read it, and apologies. (less)

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Jan 05, 2012 Lady Jane rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is one of Naipaul’s most successful works. It is an eclectic compilation of narratives written in the minimalist style that is characteristic of Anglophone literature. The minimalism of its style, however, does not make it any less deep. The tales in this book are based on the lives of characters who are somehow pitifully depicted as slaves to their socioeconomic conditions, which is a sad and common reality to the human experience, and now it can be related to the many people who are alleg...more This is one of Naipaul’s most successful works. It is an eclectic compilation of narratives written in the minimalist style that is characteristic of Anglophone literature. The minimalism of its style, however, does not make it any less deep. The tales in this book are based on the lives of characters who are somehow pitifully depicted as slaves to their socioeconomic conditions, which is a sad and common reality to the human experience, and now it can be related to the many people who are alleged victims of globalization. There is a tone of irony throughout the narratives that seem to indicate that goodness does not come to the individual as a set of consequences for having worked hard enough, but rather that good and bad are haphazard and simply a consequence of their circumstances. For, despite these people’s struggles, it all seems to be in vain. This is a painful truth of the human condition, and this is true across all cultures, across all time periods, and by all ethnicities. For this reason, perhaps, the book is so compelling and transcendent that it was a deserving winner of the Booker Price Award in 1971.

The title "In A Free State" sounds sarcastic and hiding a tinge of irony, because based on the outcomes of the characters, they never attained the holy grail of freedom that they sought and on which they based their hard work. These are all stories of vanquished dreams and frustrated realities. This, and the fact that they are all foreign Anglophone people, is the dominating theme that connects all the short stories into one miniature anthology of stories.

In the first narrative, though the narrator attained his dream of moving to Washington, if was not exactly in the manner that he idealized; he was forced to marry somebody who is not his type just to obtain the citizenship he so desperately coveted. Verily, it would have been better for him to live in a third world country with the person he loves, than in the free United States with somebody he disdains. Such is the extent to which many lost souls are willing to go for money and freedom, and such “freedom” is simply not worth the trouble.

In the second narrative, the narrator overworks himself for his cousin’s sake, only to end up totally being taken advantage of in the end. Despite moralizing claims that selflessness gains divinity, in this case it was a foolish move that gained him only the keys to Hades… but sadly, not to his freedom from the prison cell. In the third and main narrative, the narrator resolves nothing and seems to experience nothing but violence around him. In A Free State is a most depressing set of stories with no deus ex machina to save any of the characters from their painfully unfair dénouement.

Elements of naturalism and realism reign throughout these stories, and as appropriate to the style, there is never a happy ending to make the initial troubles worth it. One of Naipaul’s most interesting features is that instead of hypocritically blaming the Third World’s problems on the First World while living luxuriously in the latter—as many complaining Anglophone writers tend to do—he gives a bona fide account of the true state of affairs in the financially disadvantaged countries. Naipaul is no slave to society’s expectations nor does he hide his culture’s flaws out of fraternal allegiance. It is this quality which makes him more credible as a writer; sadly, however, it is also this which makes many demonize him.
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Jan 21, 2012 randy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Facts are facts: Naipaul's prose is extraordinarily exquisite. I caught myself thinking a few times while reading this that reading this is better than being high.

That is some amazing power of prose right there.

Before I picked this up (on the merit of it being a big influence on Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss) I knew next to nothing about Naipaul aside that he was considered a great writer. Now, he is on my must read list & went out and got my second book from him today.

But this novel is...more Facts are facts: Naipaul's prose is extraordinarily exquisite. I caught myself thinking a few times while reading this that reading this is better than being high.

That is some amazing power of prose right there.

Before I picked this up (on the merit of it being a big influence on Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss) I knew next to nothing about Naipaul aside that he was considered a great writer. Now, he is on my must read list & went out and got my second book from him today.

But this novel is a set of three stories of three different immigrant experiences. And each is hard to read in their own ways. The first involves a domestic from India traveling to Washington DC and his hesitancy with freedom. It was by far my favorite of the three. His sense of displacement thundered off the page and at times it was hard to breathe as you read his words of self imposed isolation and servitude that he wore like the condemned would wear a noose. His emotions are palpable and echo off the page. This was a great damn story and some of the best writing that I have ever read.

The second story was lackluster in comparison to the first. But it was in no way bad. It was actually hard to read, with some words seeming more than a bit out of place, but with an unreliable narrator who has had the only the most rudimentary of educations, this is totally appropriate.

The third and major story was all sorts of horrifying. It deals with two British Expats in a nameless state in Africa. And neither are what you would call of redeeming characters. They both think of themselves as caring people that are worlds better than their colonizing forefathers.

On the course of their two day car ride back to their gated colony they prove just how awful they are. How they view the natives as savages or worse. They even seem to take joy in berating them, subjecting them to the most awful tasks. They never look upon the natives as equals, yet time after time reject any responsibility for the way things are.

This sounds awful. And it is. But Naipaul writes it so well that you are compelled to read it, cringing at the horror of their lives. This is nasty fiction at its best. And should be required reading for anyone who is thinking about visiting, let alone living in a foreign land. Just to help ensure that this disturbing behavior molts from our collective consciousnesses.

Having been living in foreign lands now for the last year, I am afraid the lessons within are not taking.

This is confronting fiction. This is great fiction. This is why we read.(less)

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Jun 06, 2012 Thirteenth Peer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own, e-books, fiction, short-stories

Recommended by my mom who thought it was great. The 3 stars is really provisional here. I feel I need to think about the stories more. I started reading the book a second time right after finishing it so I could maybe get a better grasp. I also read the reviews here and some other places on the web.

The prologue: I really liked this part. I felt Naipaul did a great job giving the feel of the place and the dynamics among the people. I felt I could relate to the tramp, as well as to the viewpoint o...more Recommended by my mom who thought it was great. The 3 stars is really provisional here. I feel I need to think about the stories more. I started reading the book a second time right after finishing it so I could maybe get a better grasp. I also read the reviews here and some other places on the web.

The prologue: I really liked this part. I felt Naipaul did a great job giving the feel of the place and the dynamics among the people. I felt I could relate to the tramp, as well as to the viewpoint of the narrator. The boat is full of a very international mix of people and it's interesting how easily people establish a sort of society. The tramp is just very disconnected from everybody, but is also probably borderline mentally ill. It's unclear specifically what he did during the night to disturb the rest of his cabin mates. The Yugoslav is an instance of a loner (for whatever reason) that doesn't stick out the way the tramp does. I thought it was interesting that everybody has a very sharp national identity except for the tramp who might be English and the narrator who is undefined. Also why is the tramp English? The English who till recently have been so powerful in the world and as a major colonial power a bully. It's also interesting that when the tramp lists where he's been, the places except for Egypt are English speaking. It's obviously a story about the cruelty of people to someone who disturbs them. There's a general lack of sympathy, many people just coming to watch them mess with him. The narrator himself says that he's afraid to get involved with the tramp. Maybe it's about a loss of privelige. The tramp is old and maybe used to a certain kind of world order that is passing. These people don't respect his Englishness. I don't know, probably worth some more thought.

One Out of Many: I think in some ways this was the easiest story to read, but I really didn't respect it much. I felt the whole character of Santos was overdone in his absurd naïveté. I felt it was just an exaggerated characture of an Indian immigrant. One point that really stuck out was when Priya shows him a room and there's this really dumb misunderstanding about whether he was being offered the cupboard or the room. I just felt that "joke" is so old I really felt strange that Naipaul actually used it. The same thing with the "weed". I felt that was another very cliched joke. The story wasn't all bad and there were some interesting things about the emotions Santos goes through after he leaves his first employer. I also thought the ending was interesting but on the whole I didn't really find Santos' character to be very believable. I think that despite the fact that the ending isn't a feel good ending, still wasn't really convincing and I don't really feel I understand what Santos is saying there as part of an evolving character.

Tell me who to kill: this one is tough. It is hard to read because it is so negative. I think it's well written just because of how effectively it communicates those feelings. It's hard to say who to blame. Obviously he has a rough life, but he also seems to take everything so hard. He seems trapped by the bleakness of his choices but also by his own mind. In some ways there doesn't seem to be much to take out of it except the desperation of some lives. One major point I don't get is just what the thread about visiting the college friend who get's a knife stuck in him is. Is it a dream, a vision, or real? It doesn't make much sense to me as real, but not sure how to understand it beyond that. I feel that more could be said about all the stuff that goes on with the narrator but somehow not quite sure how to do it myself.

In a Free State: this one is also difficult to read due to the unpleasantness of feelings aroused. In terms of writing I thought this was the best of the pieces. The description of the landscapes that they pass through was great. The dialogue was very interesting but also difficult. I felt that the dialogue was disjointed. I don't mean that as a criticism because I think it was intentional and effectively communicated the feeling that these two were talking to each other with somewhat cross purposes. There is an interesting sense on the one hand that they are both part of a fairly small world and so some of that disjointed feeling comes from the fact that they share this context and so that common experience fills in some of the gaps. On the other hand that disjointedness also expresses that they are somewhat in conflict in terms of their views. So when one person says something, the other will reply in a way that goes off in another direction. At one point Linda talks about a conversation as a chess game and in some ways that seems to fit how the two are relating to each other. They are both playing this game of being provocative within the constraints of their etiquette. I think another level of complexity in the dialogue was the psychological dimension. That is, as the reader we are learning more about the character or psychology of the two as the story unfolds. So there's the sense in which the dialogue and the responses they have to what is said is revealing their self deceptions as well as their more conscious commitments.
Obviously, there is also a big social dimension to what takes place. The two main characters are finding a place, Bobby feels quite committed to Africa, while Linda seems to see herself as more of a visitor, Africa as more incidental as setting for her adventures. On the other hand there is the actual political situation. The post colonial scene. Two tribes fighting for control of a country that only really exists as a colonial structure. I think I had more trouble understanding this dimension of the story. I felt I was able to key into Bobby and Linda's psychology to a decent degree particularly after the second reading, but still feel vague about the social commentary. I'm not sure what the significance of the journey itself is, nor many of the incidents along the way.

So I guess my 3 star rating is due to a mix of factors. The writing particularly in the title piece is great, but the subjective experience wasn't really pleasant due to the unpleasant feelings roused by much of the book, and the sense that I don't understand the book particularly the title piece as well as could be hoped.(less)

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Apr 14, 2013 Anuvab Banerjee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book is three fold, consisting of two independent narratives as well as the main novella, along with a prologue and an epilogue. While both the prologue and the epilogue have the author as the narrator, the two narratives are through the eyes of displaced colonials, an Indian servant in Washington and a West Indian living in London. Santosh, the Indian servant in Washington, grapples with his new found freedom as he flees from his master and gets a job as a cook in an Indian restaurant, only...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Sahasranaman M S rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The story, set in an African country that has just attained independence from colonial rule, is about two British expats driving down from the capital, which is in the north of the country, to the collectorate compound in the south.

The two people have come and found their freedom in Africa. Although they would like to think that they are more advanced than their ancestors and are against racism and discrimination, there are several instances during the two-day drive to the collectorate, where t...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are three novellas with a very short piece at the beginning and end. The focus is on being in a foreign/strange land. The longest novella deals with Africa at the end of empire; two white colonials travelling across an African state (possibly Uganda) at a time of change. It highlights their fears, prejudices and feelings about the future. There is a strong sense of threat (real or imagined; you decide) as they travel and a sense of something ending. The story about an Indian in Wshington D...more

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Apr 23, 2011 Avital rated it 3 of 5 stars

Somewhat numbing. I liked two stories, one about an Indian servant who leaves India with his employer. The other about an Indian who wants to give his brother better opportunities, and leaves India after him. Everybody fails miserably or feels he does.
I wished both stories went on-I could read a whole novel about each. They are about foreignness, loneliness, prejudice, as are the other two lesser stories (well, more of testimonies of brutality) and as is the novella.

The novella is disturbing in...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Natascia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews

A great novel even if a bit harsh, dry and cynical. It's about individuals feeling free but out of place, in unfamiliar lands and confronted by alien cultures. It's a road trip set in Africa and the two main English characters travel from the capital towards their governmental Compound. Bobby and Linda show two different perceptions of Africa and their opposing view sustains the conversation throughout their journey. They both felt 'free' in Africa yet their freedom appears to be just a state of...more

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May 30, 2011 Eric Bruen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: waiting-patiently-on-the-shelf-for

5 stars for each of the first 2 stories - wonderful, touching and tragic.
The third and main story - very slow and very unsympathetic characters. It took way too long for anything to happen. A false promising start, I thought it was going to be gritty, sexy, heart-breaking, but no, it turned into an eternal road trip of 2 miserable expats bitching at each other. Plenty of foreboding moments that got me all too excited that this pair were about to get the hidings they deserved. But nothing happen...more

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Dec 03, 2011 Geraldine rated it 1 of 5 stars

The first 2 stories were quite readable, but the third one entitled "In a Free State" was a real chore to read. The 2 characters Bobby and Linda were obscure, unlikeable and boring. It all seemed very disjointed. Maybe a metaphor for the country and the nature of being in a" free state " of mind and body,when ruled by colonialists, but it did not work for me.
Preferred " Troubles" as a book about a colonial power. Both Booker prize winners, in 1970 and 1971, so colonialism must have been importa...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Mimi rated it 4 of 5 stars

I hadn't read Naipaul in a long time so picked up this one I had never read. The main novella, the title of the book is a brooding, suspenseful trip through a central African nation in a time of conflict. We see the beautiful countryside and the unfortunate people through the eyes of the two main characters, deeply-flawed and European who usually live safely in a compound they are headed for. Two other long short stories are tales of displacement and emigration, and then there are two short shor...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Micky rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had to read this book for a book report for my Literature class and to be quite honest, I only really appreciated it as I was presenting it. While I was reading the book, I did not enjoy it mostly because it was not my preference but it was very slow paced. However, as I was writing my report, I grew to love the characters and picture the descriptions of their lives from a different understanding. Finally, while presenting my view on the book to my fellow classmates, I truly surprised myself w...more

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May 31, 2012 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I think this is one that will stay with me for a long time.
I tried to write an actual review, but I'm struggling to put how I feel afterwards into words.
I would, however, recommend this to absolutely anybody. There is wisdom and compassion and rage and a sense of lucid detachment that make the book very difficult reading, but make you think very deeply and clearly.
I think great literature should transport you to a time and place and you should come away having lived an experience, and in this y...more

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Jan 12, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 08, 2012 Katy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: booker-prize-winners

I enjoyed the short stories much better than the longer "In A Free State." I never really understood Bobby and Linda... there were moments that were hilarious, moments that were scary, and a lot of things that I really just didn't get. I think i need to think of this one more. Booker Prize winner #4 is finished!

Book Club Discussion (posted 1/8/12):

The Goodreads description of this book of course focuses on the major narrative of this novel, In A Free State. Honestly, this was not my favorite nar...more I enjoyed the short stories much better than the longer "In A Free State." I never really understood Bobby and Linda... there were moments that were hilarious, moments that were scary, and a lot of things that I really just didn't get. I think i need to think of this one more. Booker Prize winner #4 is finished!

Book Club Discussion (posted 1/8/12):

The Goodreads description of this book of course focuses on the major narrative of this novel, In A Free State. Honestly, this was not my favorite narrative in the collection. It took me a long time to figure out Bobby and Linda, their relationships and motivations, and whether or not I was even enjoying them as people. Naipaul does a great job expressing tone throughout this collection, the underlying unease of each character is always clear.

The book highlights issues of freedom, ownership, racism and to a lesser extent, self-education. A New York Times review of the story claims that Naipaul's attitude is one that is "affectionate without being overly kind." This is an apt description for the stories in this book, I feel. At different moments, characters are AWARE of injustices, perhaps even incensed about them, but no one ever outwardly does anything about it. Their free state is in fact an unchanging state.

I am not sure which was my favorite of the shorter narratives. I really liked the dialogue/writing style of "Tell Me Who To Kill," about the man who sent his brother to England to study. It is at times funny, sad and infuriating. However, I also really liked (and found a good deal of melancholic humor in) "One Out of Many". The culture shock of the Bombay servant, from his first flight to his first interaction with African Americans in Washington D.C. was equally amusing and depressing.

Discussion Questions:

Did you have a favorite story?

What about it did you enjoy?

What themes did you pick up on through these narratives?

Were you more sympathetic to the characters in the shorter novellas, than to Linda and Bobby? (less)

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Jan 15, 2009 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: booker-prize, fiction, lincoln-park-group

Nominally a novel, but actually more like a collection of short stories, In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul is in this way different than other works of Naipaul that I have read. But in other ways it is similar and as a result it is as good as the others I have read. This is because all the five stories are linked thematically and they share Naipaul's beautiful prose style.
In a Free State includes stories that are all about people who find themselves in places where they feel, or are made to feel,...more Nominally a novel, but actually more like a collection of short stories, In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul is in this way different than other works of Naipaul that I have read. But in other ways it is similar and as a result it is as good as the others I have read. This is because all the five stories are linked thematically and they share Naipaul's beautiful prose style.
In a Free State includes stories that are all about people who find themselves in places where they feel, or are made to feel, that they don’t belong; the stories are about boundaries, purity, pollution, incommensurability and just plain strangeness. In the opening prologue, the presence of an English tramp on a Greek ferry causes uproar. The second story, my favorite, tells of an Indian servant who tries to adjust to a new life in Washington D.C. Next, in a story that demonstrated a striking voice with a melancholy that I found disturbing, a South Asian West Indian immigrant in London reflects on the ruins of his life. His relationship with boy he is helping deteriorates as he slowly realizes the failure of the boy to live up to his naive ideal.
The titular novella narrates the experience of two white Britons in Uganda drive from the capital to their compound in the south as post-independence upheaval around them throws their presence in the country into relief. In the epilogue an Asian businessman travelling through Milan and Cairo reflects on cruelty and empire.
While I found interesting aspects to all the shorter stories, the main story, In a Free State, clearly stands out among the lot. While neither of the two main characters are appealing, the contrast between the self-deluding Bobby, who claims to have some sort of authentic connection with “Africa,” and the cynical, weary Linda is very effective. They wear their prejudices on their sleeves, so to speak, and only differ in tone and personality. More effective for me was the setting and the use of description to maintain a tension that suggested (not unlike a Hitchcock thriller) the presence of horror just around the bend. Whether you agree with the view represented in these stories about the difficulty of adjusting your being to a new place and a different culture you can, through the graceful prose style of V. S. Naipaul, enjoy the book.(less)

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Feb 14, 2008 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

The central novella, reads as a Cold War Heart of Darkness. It's the sexiest book I've ever read. The "free state" itself is a fictional artifact, but is clearly inspired by Idi Amin's Uganda. The protagonist is a mentally unstable, homosexual foreign-services worker who has to drive from the capital to the center of the country where he and an ambassador's wife will be able to find shelter on the grounds of the British embassy.
Naipaul presents central Africa as an unfathomable conflation of p...more The central novella, reads as a Cold War Heart of Darkness. It's the sexiest book I've ever read. The "free state" itself is a fictional artifact, but is clearly inspired by Idi Amin's Uganda. The protagonist is a mentally unstable, homosexual foreign-services worker who has to drive from the capital to the center of the country where he and an ambassador's wife will be able to find shelter on the grounds of the British embassy.
Naipaul presents central Africa as an unfathomable conflation of past and present, man and nature, victims and victimizes, where borrowed western political models can never be more than fodder for abuse, and the Europeans, who with a single (quite minor) exception are the story's only characters, are fuck ups or psychological refugees from their native countries. There is nothing new in any of that. The beauty of In a Free State is encounter between the protagonist's car, and the temporal spatial paradigm that accompanies the automobile, and the implacable, savage-haunted African landscape. The car gives Bobby and his passenger mastery over an environment, where life for the vast majority of people is still contingent on nature in a way that no modern person can possibly appreciate. As the the details of the shifting landscape accumulate, the reader experiences, along side the the characters an excess of vision, which is symptomatic of the spiritual and physical vulnerability of the travelers, or any small group of intruders. The depth depth and efficiency with which "In a Free State" becomes infused with dread, is an aesthetic miracle.
"Tell Me Who to Kill" and "One out of Many" are smaller novella's:each first-person narratives of Indian immigrants. Tell Me Who Kill has a palpable sense of melancholle and failure. It is absolutely unchathartic. The phrase "my life spoil" is used as a recitative.
"One of Many" is warmer. The writing style is drastically simple-almost pidgin. And the narrator's new life allows for relieve as well as alienations.
All three stories detail deep wounds (woundedness is a preoccupation for Naipaul), and reflect the author's developing awareness of his own (now publicly acknowledged) bisexuality, with their rich evocations of fraternal, professional, homosexual love.

The three novella's are bracketed by anecdotes of dull violence across national and cultural boundaries, and suggest the inability of globalized society to conceive and enforce constructive social norms. 5 stars!
(less)

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Jul 12, 2009 Deb rated it 3 of 5 stars

very readable, great characters, a bit dated but a truly thought-provoking book apart from the very short part referring to egypt at the vey end (which was the reason i was initially attracted to the book!)-it depicts egyptians as small-minded and cruel! life here is hard and certainly was 39 years ago when Naipaul was here but it is a very harsh view of egypt that he shows-he made no effort to get to understand the mentality of the people here or the motivation for their behaviour...shame!! oth...more

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Feb 07, 2013 cessie rated it 4 of 5 stars

***review just about One out of many, one of the short stories in this book***

Very impressive story and kind of familiar. Migration into a totally foreign and new-to-you country and culture is scary, integration is hard... especially if you don't know what is to be expected. As a reader I got a glimpse of this immigrants' journey into his new life. more

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Mar 26, 2013 Uttam added it

v.s Naipaul's novel "in a free state" won the booker prize when it was not as celebrated a prize as it is today.the free state could have been any state in Africa;bobby and linda,the displaced English, are moving across a newly independent country struggling with internal conflict as much as external.the chilling descriptions almost tactile make the narrative tense and liquid.filled with exquisite natural richness,and human ignorance and cruelty,pitiful makes the novel at once moving with beauty...more

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Nov 23, 2010 Adam Sprague rated it 2 of 5 stars

V.S. Naipaul pulled off something truly amazing...winning an award for this book.

It's essentially the same story told 5 times in a row with a writing style that is without metaphor or class.

Everything is to the point, dull and discussed as though this is the first time the reader has read about someone being prejudiced against.

It's also disappointing that the longest piece is easily the worst.

Avoid this book unless its required by your professor.

The only silver lining is one story has a particul...more

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Dec 31, 2010 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century, caribbean, 1001-books-read, booker, nobels-read

I finished this one in just a couple of days. It's a most intriguing book, from the very early days of the Booker. Here's the link to the post on my ANZ LitLovers blog.

http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/200...

I finished reading this book and journalled it on 29.12.08.

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May 30, 2011 Maggie added it

He's a gifted writer. I liked reading all the other stories/vignettes better than Bobby's and Linda's, though maybe that was the point considering how violent/disturbing/worrisome Bobby's part of the story was. He handled diverse viewpoints as though he came from all of them I thought.

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Mar 31, 2012 Preema Priyambada rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was a decent read.The lucidity was sparkling.I finished reading it once and then again I started from some page in between and I read it again. It's like throughout the book a silence follows you in the background...not much of dialogue, or a specific plot. But the words were at times provocative, at other times contemplative.
It was beautiful and the cliched phrase 'eloquent silence' fits perfectly.

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Feb 20, 2012 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars

As usual, Naipaul is able to place opposing people, ideals and struggles side by side for a fuller understanding or chance to sort out the differences.

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