A Bend in the River

May 20, 2009 Sunil rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews, favorites

I always find it difficult to talk about the books I really like. Especially so if it is a Naipaul book. I read The Bend again this year and found it much more ensorcelling than first time around . I guess what is so appealing about the book is its sense of diligence, a discipline which attempts to faithfully reflect the emerging world in Africa, as it is. No more no less. Perhaps, this is why, even after half a century and million more theses written on Africa, it still reflects the essence of...more I always find it difficult to talk about the books I really like. Especially so if it is a Naipaul book. I read The Bend again this year and found it much more ensorcelling than first time around . I guess what is so appealing about the book is its sense of diligence, a discipline which attempts to faithfully reflect the emerging world in Africa, as it is. No more no less. Perhaps, this is why, even after half a century and million more theses written on Africa, it still reflects the essence of Africa as none of them do.

I suppose most paperback readers find it inane or even boring. But, bear in mind it's not a transit read. It's not a fiction of plot or story. It is a narrative of reality. And like all realities that are known to man, has no beginning or ending. It is a snapshot of a typical third world problem ie a recently independent state or culture desparately trying to hold onto something as its own in the wake of emerging post-modernism. But it never has or had anything of its own, anything that would give it an identity in the contemporary world apart from the history of having been a colony. Therefore it tries to manufacture a past – leaders, tribes, dances, cameraderie. Oh! the vanities, the denials, the insecurities, amidst all that is forming and unforming, changing choices, conflicting values. But it is what it is.

Then there is the beauty of Naipaul prose. God! How it flows. Delicate, sublime, perfect yet letting the reader to make his own mind without patronizing or simplifying the sentiment. What I found most incredible in the book is the style used to pastiche the complex reality, so unhurriedly, so gracefully; as the book moves forward, it feels like a wave slowly falling and receding on a shore – adding something to the before, yet taking away something after; letting all the voices to speak on their own terms, to express their own realities to ultimately add up a grand reality that none of them can access in toto.

Here is a wonderful instance – Indar is so ashamed of his third world identity that he desparately wants to trample his own past… ‘It isn’t easy to turn your back on the past. It isn’t something you can decide to do just like that. It is something you arm yourself for, or grief will ambush and destroy you.

And Raymond with his first world citizenship, so much yearns for the True Africa that his own past has no bearing on his personal life. This leads to his wife's discontent and her confusion. Here's Raymond musing on Africa.. I was sitting in my room and thinking with sadness about all the things that have gone unrecorded. Do you think we can ever get to know the truth about what has happened in Africa in the last hundred or even fifty years? All the wars, all the rebellions, all the leaders, all the defeats?

It doesn’t occur to you when you are reading it but as you move along, as the impressions of their characters are better formed , suddenly, somewhere in the next chapter perhaps, it occurs to you , that these two completely different men from completely different worlds are so unknowingly seeking each other’s past. They are only allowed to seek, ...Indar seducing Yvette or Raymond wanting to be Mommsen of Africa .., but never find. But they cant give up.

Hence the world is what it is, always in movement.

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Apr 14, 2008 Dave Russell rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: worst, novels

This is a lousy boring book. Naipaul seems very interested in telling us How The World Works, or at least how it works in Africa (he does know Africa is a continent and not a country, right?) The problem, though, is that this is ostensibly a novel and not a work of non-fiction, and Naipaul isn't a very good storyteller. He mostly narrates rather than dramatizes. There are long, long passages where there is no dialogue, which would be all right if something interesting actually happened in those...more

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Jun 17, 2010 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006 to 2010)

Shelves: 1001-core

My copy of this book is a POB (previously owned book). There are a lot of scribbles using different colors of highlighters (pink, yellow and green). In one of the pages is a name: Danielle Sidari. I googled her name yesterday and one of these days I will invite her to be my friend in Facebook. Who knows?

Anyway, it is my first time to read a book with a lot of scribbles. Danielle is not a bad reader. Rather her comments and the phrases she underlined seem to indicate that she is smart. There is j...more

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May 14, 2007 Raghu rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is my most favorite novel from V.S.Naipaul. In fact, the novel's setting and progress is such that when one reads it many years it was written, which is what I did, one can realize how prophetic and perceptive it is about Africa and its future after colonialism ends there. Naipaul is analytical and thoroghly unsentimental and consequently, he is rather pessimistic about Africa's resurgence with the end of colonialism, contrary to what many liberals believed. The story is absorbing, tracing...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Kate Z rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was going to read Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. I really really was. But even though I have really liked most of the recent books I've read I feel like I've become this read-bot just reading all these indie bookstore picks by American authors. I just had to jump out of my rut and read something ELSE. I read Half A Life a few years ago and enjoyed it in that "I like anti-colonialism literature" kind of way and I've had A Bend In the River sitting on my shelf since then. It promises to be nega...more I was going to read Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. I really really was. But even though I have really liked most of the recent books I've read I feel like I've become this read-bot just reading all these indie bookstore picks by American authors. I just had to jump out of my rut and read something ELSE. I read Half A Life a few years ago and enjoyed it in that "I like anti-colonialism literature" kind of way and I've had A Bend In the River sitting on my shelf since then. It promises to be negative and misogynistic and anti-colonial ... and decidedly not an "Indie pick" and right now that's what I'm going for.

I recently read the interview with V.S. Naipaul where much was made of his statement that no female writer can hold a candle to him and that he can tell if something is written by a female just by reading the first paragraph. I took the subsequent survey to see if I could identify female writers by one paragraph - presumably by their simpering, overly emotional tone or diction (I scored 4/10 and the quiz told me I needed to read more). That was a big factor in my motivation to read this book.

I vividly remember a discussion about "character novels" where nothing really happens but a character is layed out, flayed, and dissected from tip to toe. I said I liked novels like that. A Bend in the River fits into this category - with one major qualification - and it's made me change my stance on those so-called character novels.

To back up a bit, when I taught high school English I used to admonish students that whenever you see a river as a major piece of setting in a novel you should immediately think "life". River = life. It's one of the main metaphors. Add to that a certain amount of eye rolling. River = life. Okay, move on. This novel is titled "A Bend In The River". If you bear the above metaphor in mind, that tells you just about everything you need to understand about the novel, save one thing.

Salim, the main character, an Indian who has moved from the coast of Africa to the interior (the "heart" of Africa) at "A Bend In The River". The tension of this novel on it's most basic level is between being a "new man of Africa" or a "man of new Africa". This is a post-colonial Africa struggling to (re)define itself.

There's more to it in the details but that's the gist. I'm glad I read it but I'm also glad to be moving on. I would recommend this book to very few people. The writing didn't "wow" me and the rest, from the imagery, the tone, the characterization was just just what I expected.(less)

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Apr 14, 2008 Joe Dyer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Life and times of a shopkeeper in a rural outpost in tumultuous post-colonial central Africa. Naipul provides insights and wisdom about the complexity of race, ethnicity, and nationality in Africa and spins a damn good yarn at the same time.

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May 31, 2008 Ami rated it 3 of 5 stars

Naipaul, despite being so highly revered, is quite possibly more of an ass than Ernest Hemingway. Character flaws aside, this book was a bit slow and I didn't see the significance it promised.

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Mar 30, 2012 David Lentz rated it 5 of 5 stars

I suppose it's inevitable that readers will compare Naipaul's view of the bush to Joseph Conrad's. Naipaul portrays an ancient African civilization coming to grips with the intrusion of modern society thrust by economic boom into its midst. So the merchants and business traders take the steamer up the river to a bend where the New Africa is emerging. However, deep and primitive aggressions always seem to surface perhaps because they are so imbedded into man's warrior instincts. And the New Afric...more

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Jul 11, 2008 Blair rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book in Central Africa, during my Peace Corps service. I maintain that it is the best, most accurate depiction of Central African society - a broad term, believe me, I know, but still - that I have read.

I found this novel engrossing and moving, and it inspired me to begin collecting Naipaul's other works; all of which are good, albeit not as good as this one.

Naipaul has been criticized for denigrating third world countries and societies. Strange, since he comes from one - he was born...more

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Aug 14, 2008 Daniel rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read an article somewhere about a man in Africa who made his living as a river guide. He was bemoaning the loss of the colonial days where as brutal as the ruling regimes could be, at least there were factories, schools, roads and hospitals set up by the oppressing foreigners. As his country since has descended into anarchy, war and poverty, it seems that the loss of freedoms was a small price to pay.

When I read A Bend in the River, I got the feeling that there was some of the same kind of fe...more

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May 31, 2012 Geek Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

this was quite an enjoyable read. i believe the author meant to write an unbaised fictional account of a post colonial african country and succeeds. most of the time. still, the occassional empirialist thought was not enough to keep me from liking this book. its is a slow read but doesn't really lag. the author uses language wonderfully and is quite a colorful character himself. i look forward to reading some of his other works.

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Mar 24, 2008 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookgrove, mla100best

Very well written, but a little slow to start. I didn't really get into it until "The New Domain." Up to that point, the book focuses mainly on the town and the events that have (and are) shaping it. I really bogged down in this part because I didn't particularly feel a motivation to keep reading. The narrator seems detached; he describes everything, but he doesn't really seem too concerned about anything. However, once you get to "The New Domain," the focus shifts more towards the characters. S...more

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Apr 02, 2007 Jenny Zhang rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: self-loathing colored person, a benignly racist white person, those who appreciate beautiful writing

I'm so so glad that I'm crystal clear on Naipaul's unwavering, eternal hatred for all colored peoples, all marginalized people around the world. His hatred and disgust for himself and the communities he is loosely tied to truly never ever withers. Yes, Africa's doomed, Asia is doomed, let's bleach our skin and drink tea with the blue eyed Europeans, and thank you Naipaul for writing paragraph long sentences and describing the rivers and trees of Africa with simultaneous greater love, respect, wo...more

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Apr 03, 2008 Hashi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books

Just as reading "A Fine Balance" made me glad I wasn't born in India, this novel made me grateful that I don't live in Africa. The rise and fall of various power groups -- Presidents, armies, tribal groups -- makes it impossible to have a life one can hold onto. The insecurity, while described calmly and precisely, is palpable in the pages. How can one move forward when it could all be taken away at any time? Millions upon millions of people in the world live this way; it is good to have my eyes...more

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May 12, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

'Brilliant and terrifying' Observer Set in an unnamed African country, the book is narrated by Salim, a young man from an Indian family of traders long resident on the coast. He believes The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it. So he has taken the initiative; left the coast; acquired his own shop in a small, growing city in the continent's remote interior and is selling sundries -- little more than this and that, really -- to the

...more

'Brilliant and terrifying' Observer Set in an unnamed African country, the book is narrated by Salim, a young man from an Indian family of traders long resident on the coast. He believes The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it. So he has taken the initiative; left the coast; acquired his own shop in a small, growing city in the continent's remote interior and is selling sundries -- little more than this and that, really -- to the natives. This spot, this 'bend in the river', is a microcosm of post-colonial Africa at the time of Independence: a scene of chaos, violent change, warring tribes, ignorance, isolation and poverty. And from this rich landscape emerges one of the author's most potent works -- a truly moving story of historical upheaval and social breakdown. 'Naipaul has fashioned a work of intense imaginative force. It is a haunting creation, rich with incident and human bafflement, played out in an immense detail of landscape rendered with a poignant brilliance.' Elizabeth Hardwick 'Always a master of fictional landscape, Naipaul here shows, in his variety of human examples and in his search for underlying social causes, a Tolstoyan spirit' John Updike

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'Brilliant and terrifying' Observer

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First published in 1979, A Bend in the River is a profound and richly observed novel of the politics and society of postcolonial Africa. Salim, a young Indian man, moves to a town on a bend in the river of a recently independent nation. As Salim strives to establish his business, he comes to be closely involved with the fluid and dangerous politics of the newly created state, the remnants of the old regime clashing inevitably with the new. "Naipaul's novels are about the struggle for existence in a world still colonial despite the breakup of the old Western empires," wrote Alfred Kazin.
A Bend in the River is demonstration of V. S. Naipaul's status as one of the world's best novelists. The New York Times Book Review noted: "For sheer abundance of talent there can hardly be a writer alive who surpasses V. S. Naipaul." Elizabeth Hardwick, who has provided a
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see the inside of the jacketnew Introduction for this Modern Library edition, has said, "The sweep of Naipaul's imagination, the brilliant fictional frame that expresses it, are in my view without equal today."

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Apr 20, 2013 Robert Wechsler rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: african-lit

I read this soon after Naipaul won the Nobel Prize (2001). It didn't make me think, Wow, that's why he got the prize; in fact, it surprised me, because the novel is not a political allegory about Africa, or at least it's a lot more than that. What made it so special is how personal it was, how Naipaul seemed to be fighting against the usual way people have of making Africa symbolic, full of dread, or in some way political.

There is politics in the background, and toward the end it invades the for...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Becky rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've wanted to read V.S. Naipaul for awhile because of his reputation as a novelist. But, I must say that my first book of his was very difficult for me.

Salim, the narrator, is from a family of Indian-Muslim traders who live on the coast of Africa. When a family friend offers to sell him a store in a village at "the bend in the river" in central Africa, he goes.

The book describes the complexity of Africa with its history, different ethnic groups, religions and traditions. The story takes place...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

'Brilliant and terrifying' Observer Set in an unnamed African country, the book is narrated by Salim, a young man from an Indian family of traders long resident on the coast. He believes The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it. So he has taken the initiative; left the coast; acquired his own shop in a small, growing city in the continent's remote interior and is selling sundries little more than this and that, really to the nativ

...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Arukiyomi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books

Another Naipaul down. Not as good as In a Free State which I read earlier this year and which I thought was excellent, but nevertheless a hard-hitting, thought-provoking exploration of the impact of the colonial legacy.

The focus is Salim and the entire book is narrated by him. Starting on the east coast of an (unnamed) East African nation, he migrates inland to a town on the eponymous bend in the river to take over a small shop. From the vantage point of this interior settlement, Salim describes...more Another Naipaul down. Not as good as In a Free State which I read earlier this year and which I thought was excellent, but nevertheless a hard-hitting, thought-provoking exploration of the impact of the colonial legacy.

The focus is Salim and the entire book is narrated by him. Starting on the east coast of an (unnamed) East African nation, he migrates inland to a town on the eponymous bend in the river to take over a small shop. From the vantage point of this interior settlement, Salim describes his experiences there, the cast of characters and their various fates as the inevitable post-colonial political pall is cast across the nation.

I found Salim really two-dimensional and felt extremely claustrophobic throughout the novel. He seemed really inaccessible to me. He spends almost all his time interpreting and commenting on the characters about him but never really considers his impact on them. For example, there’s a woman he gets involved with and all he can think about is what the affair means to him. He doesn’t seem to give a second thought to what it means to her. I wanted to give him a good slapping on more than one occasion.

And the tension that builds takes forever. I read a 223 page edition and things didn’t really come to a head until the late 190s. Pretty much like life in many isolated towns (not just African ones) not much of note happens except that people go around trying to block out the incredible boredom that sets in from nothing much of note happening. It took me ages to read because of that because it just didn’t motivate me.

Perhaps that’s what the novel is really about. Perhaps Naipaul was trying to say that while the mundane life of millions went on, plots were hatched in far away capitals which would eventually make people long for the mundane. If so, then the novel certainly conveys that.

Salim eventually finds his destiny catching up with him, but by then, I wasn’t really bothered what happened to him. This book, like all of Naipual’s, are essential reads for those who are interested in the complex issues that the post-colonial world struggles with and, for that reason, is still relevant today. But Bend isn’t his most captivating rendition of that theme.(less)

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Aug 06, 2012 Nick Jones rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are people whose opinions I respect (Derek Walcott, Edward Said) who can’t abide V.S. Naipaul. I don’t know if this antipathy is just due to Naipaul’s character and politics or to his writing as well. I know little about Naipaul, although he does seem to inhabit some lofty domain from where he can look down on the rest of the world. He seems to be a man who doesn’t suffer fools gladly and a fool is defined as anyone who disagrees with him. But we don’t have to agree with an author’s views...more There are people whose opinions I respect (Derek Walcott, Edward Said) who can’t abide V.S. Naipaul. I don’t know if this antipathy is just due to Naipaul’s character and politics or to his writing as well. I know little about Naipaul, although he does seem to inhabit some lofty domain from where he can look down on the rest of the world. He seems to be a man who doesn’t suffer fools gladly and a fool is defined as anyone who disagrees with him. But we don’t have to agree with an author’s views and outlook to enjoy and appreciate their work, as long as they leave us room to disagree and respond in our own ways. A Bend in the River is the first Naipaul book I have read and it is a work with a Big Theme: the development of post-Colonial Africa. But this is tackled through the perspective of the narrator, Salim, a petty merchant from Indian descent, who travels from his family and community on the coast to a town in central Africa. A history of civil war, peace and complacent prosperity, growing dictatorial power and further civil war, but told from a limited and self-involved perspective. Written in first person, the plain, almost drab sentences lack any particular ‘literary’ finesse or prettiness, yet they are full of meaning, not in what is explicitly said but in their richness of connotation, each seemingly overflowing their full stops to push out to gather resonance: I think this is great writing which gives us the room to breathe and think and feel. To say the novel is an accurate or truthful portrayal of Central African society is glib: surely the point is that it is a limited perspective. The novel lacks any particular political analysis of events, the growing power of the dictator, the growing corruption and authoritarianism are presented as though they are natural phenomena, outside of Salim’s understanding...but this is part of Salim’s complacency. To see it as nostalgic for European colonialism is also strange: Naipaul cannot be accused of any such positive ideals. The only European characters in the African town are the old mentor of the dictator, who now lives in a world of academic self-delusion, and his wife, who becomes Salim’s lover, a character who could be out of an Antonioni film in her self-involved emptiness. (That their relationship ends in Salim’s violence against her leaves a bad taste in the mouth, Naipaul lacking the means to examine the significance of such violence.) This is a society that complacently submits to the violence of the encroaching authoritarianism. An obvious comparison is with Heart of Darkness, and, although Naipaul’s black African characters have greater life than Conrad’s dark figures, they still remain largely symbolic figures, gaining their meanings through their influence on the lives of the main characters. I don’t think this is necessarily wrong, but if I was an African I might resent the complexities of my experience being reduced to the symbolic needs of an author. There is a tension within the book between its openness, the freedom it gives its reader, and the constant negativity that closes it down: Naipaul’s lack of political interest is a weakness: bad things happen because the world is a bit shitty and there isn’t anything we can do about it. Where I feel the weight of this balance between openness and limitation lies might depend on my reaction to further Naipaul works, but, at the moment, despite my uncertainties about the book, I think it is remarkable. Naipaul recently created outrage by suggesting he was a better writer than Jane Austen, but, judging by this novel, I don’t think it a ridiculous proposition.(less)

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Aug 03, 2012 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars

Men who believe they are nothing, become nothing. Funny enough, it's Salim is developing into nothing or at least a realization of it. His hiding, neutrality, first experiences with affection, and the idea of moving from home would magically change his life, all add to a static or blindness that he can't quite awaken too. He is waiting for the tidal wave to fall on top of him. In some sense, this book is not just about Africa, but the idea that a unrealistic identity is crushing to all people. T...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Riley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Disillusionment is the underlying theme of this book, and it offers many layers of it. I'm not sure if I agree with V.S. Naipaul's seeming nostalgia for colonial Africa, but I enjoyed the novel nonetheless.

Here's one passage, which gives a sense of the hopes dashed that dominates the work. It is told by Yvette, who is having an affair with the narrator and whose husband was close to the nameless African leader who is a key figure in the novel's progression:

"'The President invited us to dinner re...more

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May 28, 2012 Smcleish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Originally published on my blog here in November 1999.

Many parts of Africa in the seventies must have been bewildering, terrifying places to live. The driving forces for instability were very strong, based partly on the conflicting feelings of the recently independent nations towards the former colonial powers: hatred of what they had stood for, jealousy of their wealth, and a desperate desire to be as "advanced". The need for the West to provide the status symbols the new nations desperately wa...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: truly-outstanding, literature, fiction

I'd long wanted to read this book, and the expectation did nothing to diminish the pleasure. It's utterly compelling. Naipaul shows us real human beings, acting out against historical and social circumstance, often revealing their ugliness. The very people we might be tempted to romanticize, Naipaul shows to be imposters.

Line to line, the book is rich with detail and insight. We are transported to Uganda (we don't actually know which African country is the setting), we come away knowing the cha...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, literature, nook

The setting for this novel is post-colonial central Africa. Salim, the Indian/Muslim shopkeeper, was born and raised in coastal Africa, but his new business venture has brought him to a small city where he must find his place between the villagers who are his customers, the other non-African business owners, the Europeans who inhabit a nearby modern enclave, and the changing political landscape under an increasingly-nationalist African president. This is an unsettling novel; the reader can see t...more

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Dec 10, 2010 Monthly Book Group rated it 4 of 5 stars

As is usual when a writer undertakes first person narration, there was speculation about the degree to which Salim was a self-portrait. Elements of his behaviour – misogyny in particular – were compared with aspects of Naipaul’s own personal biography. The view was expressed that Salim was in many respects an ‘empty’ character – an observer of events rather than an active protagonist. He seems predominantly passive, awaiting events or developments that will show him how to lead his life. In this...more As is usual when a writer undertakes first person narration, there was speculation about the degree to which Salim was a self-portrait. Elements of his behaviour – misogyny in particular – were compared with aspects of Naipaul’s own personal biography. The view was expressed that Salim was in many respects an ‘empty’ character – an observer of events rather than an active protagonist. He seems predominantly passive, awaiting events or developments that will show him how to lead his life. In this context, the opening sentence of the novel was much admired: ‘The World is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.’ As a starting point for an open story that invites a variety of interpretation, this was seen as a very well crafted beginning.

Staying with characterization, Ferdinand was considered as representing the fluidity of the continent in general. In fact, all the characters had a role in expressing aspects of Africa. There was a lack of dynamics between them, it was felt. They were all essentially isolated, even Matty and Salim who had spent their lives together. They were also, it was agreed, not particularly sympathetic or appealing characters. Of course, we see them primarily through the eyes of Salim, and it was suggested that Salim himself was not a perceptive observer. In fact he is quite openly uncomprehending about some of the people he encounters, which places a substantial barrier between the reader and the characters.

In spite of this sense of being held at a distance from characters, there was widespread admiration for Naipaul’s prose style. One of the group pointed out for example the book’s fascination with the river itself, and the precision and variety of natural descriptions.

We turned to themes, and wondered if ultimately it was a rather depressing book. Ferdinand’s final words to Salim, when he has got him out of jail and recommends that he flees, suggest capitulation to a nightmarish breakdown of ethics, culture and order. There seems to be no choice left between right and wrong, because there is no right any more. Salim’s efforts to make a success of his life in this place have come to nothing, and all that is left is to run away. At this particular bend in the river and at this point in central Africa’s history, civilization has failed.

This is an extract from a review at: http://www.monthlybookgroup.com/ Our reviews are also to be found at http://monthlybookgroup.blogspot.com/
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Oct 06, 2010 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars

The news that V.S. Naipal had won the Nobel Prize for Literature came shortly after the shocking events of 9-11. The Wall Street Journal hailed the news and editorialized that Naipal was especially worthy as a third world author who embraced the values of the west. Quoting A BEND IN THE RIVER, the Journal argued that Naipal's message is that men in the third world should be judged by the same standards as men in the industrialized west.

For some reason, the Journal's assessment of A BEND IN THE...more The news that V.S. Naipal had won the Nobel Prize for Literature came shortly after the shocking events of 9-11. The Wall Street Journal hailed the news and editorialized that Naipal was especially worthy as a third world author who embraced the values of the west. Quoting A BEND IN THE RIVER, the Journal argued that Naipal's message is that men in the third world should be judged by the same standards as men in the industrialized west.

For some reason, the Journal's assessment of A BEND IN THE RIVER was on my mind as I read it the past several days.

It does seem likely that Naipal would have sympathy for the notion that humankind everywhere should be judged by the same standards. He favors that those standards should include certain western political values. This is most vivid as he rejects the common view that everything about colonialism in Africa was evil, even offering an apology for slavery that is reminiscent of Aristotle's defense of slavery in Book II of the Ethics.

But that is not his central message. A BEND IN THE RIVER explores the Hobbesian view that, in his natural state, each man is at war with every other man. That state of nature has been realized in times of civil war in post-colonial central Africa and Naipal's depiction of it is terrifying. Hobbes' solution to this horrifying natural state is for men to surrender their autonomy to a strong king who is given near absolute authority in exchange for order, security and safety. This solution has been attempted in post-colonial central Africa. Naipal's "Big Man" is just such a leader. But in late 20th century central Africa, he cannot guarantee his own safety against tribalism and violence, much less the safety of the populace. His government becomes only slightly less horrifying than no government at all.

When I search for a message, I conclude that Naipal is wondering about the role of institutions in moderating the behavior of humans. He acknowledges that the institutions of colonialism protected the populace against violence, whereas the post-colonial politics of central Africa have failed to create such institutions. This is not an argument for colonialism. Rather, it is an inquiry about institutions and their role in protecting humankind from Hobbes' vision of our natural state.(less)

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Apr 20, 2010 Valentina rated it 4 of 5 stars

By personal upbringing and sheer talent, Naipaul can talk about far-away lands and people of mixed origins and nomadic lifestyles like nobody else. Here, with his typically honest and sometime ruthless eye, Naipaul takes the reader to the heart of Africa, to a town that sits by a bend in an unnamed river (which is thought to be the Congo). He zooms on the life of Salim, the narrator, an Africa-born Indian Muslim who moves from the east coast to the interior in the hope of finding fortune and, in...more

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Apr 04, 2010 Becca The rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't have a lot to say about this book since I did not enjoy it very much. It was alright, but getting to the end felt kind of like a chore. It reminded me of The Heart is a Lonely Hunter because it seemed a lot like something you would read in school. I don't know why they always think these kinds of books are so great. I suppose it did a good job of depicting a certain place and time (i.e. Africa in the 1970's), but all the characters seemed depressed, sad, and kind of nihilistically hopele...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Andy Beveridge rated it 5 of 5 stars

"The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it."

This aphorism part of which serves as the title for Patrick French's biography of Naipaul sums up both Naipaul's understanding of the Congo, and his own relationship to the wider world beyond Trinidad.

His horrific personal life and the way he related to others, including his first wife, his mistress and Paul Theroux, as well as his incredibly withering view of third world countries, as do...more

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