The story of a writer's singular journey—from one place to another, from the British colony of Trinidad to the ancient countryside of England...
read full description
reviews
Jul 08, 2011
Troy
rated it: 
Borrowing its structure from Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time”, “The Enigma of Arrival” charts the possibility of its own realisation, although unlike “In Search of Lost Time” there isn’t an epiphanic, tea-soaked cupcake or uneven cobblestone in sight. Rather, in measured calm the narrator of “Enigma” (ostensibly Naipual himself) recounts his departure from his native Trinidad, his determination to become a writer, and then how the continual process of writing eventuates in this novel. Such reve
More...
8 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Dec 24, 2008
Rick
rated it:
Impressive work of fiction that is some high percentage memoir of a writer’s life (obviously Naipaul's) in his adopted country. For a book with virtually no plot, just deep observation and precise, attentive description, it is amazingly absorbing reading.
Naipaul, by most, if not all accounts, is not a nice man, perhaps even by many measures a bad one, mean, self-absorbed, and cursed with a bully’s violent temper. None of that, however, is a factor, even much of a presence here. There More...
Naipaul, by most, if not all accounts, is not a nice man, perhaps even by many measures a bad one, mean, self-absorbed, and cursed with a bully’s violent temper. None of that, however, is a factor, even much of a presence here. There More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Sep 20, 2011
Joselito
rated it: 
Purposedly boring, yet purposedly exciting. I used to think it is not possible for a book to be both boring and exciting until I read this autobiographical work.
So far, what I know of V.S. Naipul I got only from this book. His parents were from India who had migrated to the island of Trinidad ( with the other island nearby, Tobago, it completes the country of "Trinidad and Tobago" near Venezuela where the beauty queens are). Since this was before large oil and gas reserves we More...
So far, what I know of V.S. Naipul I got only from this book. His parents were from India who had migrated to the island of Trinidad ( with the other island nearby, Tobago, it completes the country of "Trinidad and Tobago" near Venezuela where the beauty queens are). Since this was before large oil and gas reserves we More...
5 comments
like
(5 people liked it)
Apr 29, 2011
Cbj
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jun 04, 2011
Texbritreader
rated it: 
An unusually structured novel about one man, much like the author, as he reflects on his life and experiences as an expatriate Indo-Trinidadian writer living in England. Over the course of the book he relates many events in his own life and events in the lives of the assorted people he encounters as he journeys from his homeland to a life and career in Britain.
The tone of the work is quite contemplative and full of rhythmically repetitive descriptions of the landscapes and seasonal More...
The tone of the work is quite contemplative and full of rhythmically repetitive descriptions of the landscapes and seasonal More...
Oct 26, 2011
Becky
rated it: 
I'm pretty sure you can figure out what I think of a book from the page number/time spent to read ratio. I've read so many five star reviews for this book and I've found them baffling. Sure, it's a cyclical narrative. Not that difficult to pull off when absolutely nothing happens. I got so sick of the repetition, which is apparently also a sign of brilliance. Does deciding you're going to be "a writer" really make you see the world any differently? I can understand being a pompou
More...
Aug 08, 2009
Mazel
rated it:
En 1950, un adolescent d'origine hindoue quitte les Caraïbes pour devenir écrivain en Angleterre.
Trente années plus tard, V.S. Naipaul, auteur consacré, se retire à la campagne et tente de faire le point sur son oeuvre, sur lui-même, sur son pays d'adoption.
Avec l'implacable lucidité qui le caractérise, il évalue les dégâts du "progrès", mais aussi les promesses que l'avenir dessine.
S'il célèbre et regrette un certain art de vivre, il se garde de More...
Trente années plus tard, V.S. Naipaul, auteur consacré, se retire à la campagne et tente de faire le point sur son oeuvre, sur lui-même, sur son pays d'adoption.
Avec l'implacable lucidité qui le caractérise, il évalue les dégâts du "progrès", mais aussi les promesses que l'avenir dessine.
S'il célèbre et regrette un certain art de vivre, il se garde de More...
May 04, 2011
James
rated it:
The Enigma of Arrival is one of V. S. Naipaul's masterpieces. In this autobiographical novel he successfully conveys to the reader the atmosphere of the English countryside through the meditations of the narrator on his original journey from Trinidad to England. Through the mind of the narrator we experience the fictional reality of the world-a world of Naipaul's making. Echoes from both James Joyce and Marcel Proust are visible in the narration of the novel. This seems a quiet book, but it is
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 06, 2008
Josh
rated it:
A perfect example of writing that feels very staid and traditional until, about half way through the book, you pick your head up and realize that it's doing something completely original. Not exactly fiction, not exactly non-ficiton (not exactly poetry for that matter), but filled with lush sentences that relay the slow, unstoppable movemements of a vegetative mind, Naipaul's, thinking about a particular place and a particular time so well that the meditation becomes about Place and Time, rather
More...
Nov 08, 2009
Patrick
rated it: 
This is a really odd book. The style is likeable enough that I read the whole thing even though this would be a candidate for the most words ever written about next to nothing.
It's basically an autobiographical novel that focuses on the writer's existance in Salisbury, UK. He skips over the good parts.
The best part of it is a review on the back cover that: "like a computer game leads the reader on by a series of clues....." This is from 1987 so if you liked More...
It's basically an autobiographical novel that focuses on the writer's existance in Salisbury, UK. He skips over the good parts.
The best part of it is a review on the back cover that: "like a computer game leads the reader on by a series of clues....." This is from 1987 so if you liked More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 19, 2009
Katelis
rated it:
I bought this book long ago before V.S. Naipoul earn the Nobel Price. The painting of the cover stuck me. The title shuits perfectly not with the context but with the painting. Such a cover and such a title were very suggestive. Unfortunately the context just was absent. Very good language, but without something really amazing.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 23, 2010
Yrinsyde
rated it:
A strange novel, very hypnotising in parts. It is the first circular novel I've read - you can start reading from any chapter. In fact, the first and longest chapter is almost the wrong chapter to start reading this novel and when I read this novel again, I'll start at the second. The first chapter annoyed me a little because I was always trying to picture in my head where all the geographical features were in relation to the buildings. If only there was a map! In the end, I had to ignore my loc
More...
Jan 01, 2011
Mark
rated it:
A pleasant ramble and a deep consideration of what it means to be a foreigner. Plot-wise, almost nothing happens. It is more an account of daily life in the English countryside for a Trinidadian who is a barely fictionalized version of Naipaul himself.
Aug 25, 2011
Robert
rated it:
I have to be honest, While I liked Naipaul's previous books, I found this one a bit dull in places. If he was humorous (and Naipaul can be very funny when he wants to) I would have enjoyed it more.
Oct 19, 2010
Leo
rated it:
Superbly crafted, phenomenal accuracy of language and acuity of observation, expecially of human foibles. A celebration of the English countryside.
Oct 29, 2010
Awful!!! V.S. Naipaul is good over all....but this book is boring and I can't figure it out!!!
Jan 20, 2010
Lovmelovmycats
rated it:
So boring. It could have won the Pulitzer Prize for SO BORING if there was one.
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 22, 2010
Rochelle
rated it:
Naipaul's novel is a melancholy blend of autobiography and fiction. This book is his meditation on change, decay, and what it means to be a writer in the modern world.
Jan 23, 2008
Caleb
rated it:
This is a curious book because, in the end, nothing much happens in it. But to me it is the best Naipaul I have read besides A Turn in the South, and the best one at unpacking his conflicted feelings of self without the kind of self- and other-loathing that plagues his travels to the Caribbean and India. For anyone who has traveled in countryside of England, or feels torn between where one is from and where one is/wants to be, I think this is a surprisingly marvelous read.
Dec 31, 2007
Pa
rated it:
I just love the title of this half fiction half memoir by V.S. Naipaul. Apparently it's named after a famous, old painting. The novel itself though is neither engrossing nor "enigmatic"; it's enigmatic only in the sense that it's not clear what it's about. I enjoyed the novel most when Naipaul wrote about his life before coming to England, and his hopes and dreams and struggles to become a writer. Parts of the novel are beautifully written, though.
Jan 21, 2008
Sarovar
rated it:
Recommended by my sister in laws uncle. So far- the first chapter was boring at first but then I realized it was absolutely brilliant. I don't think you can explain it. I think you have to read it to get it. I also think you have to be it. Like seriously, be it. I don't think I've ever really read anything like this, that was too smart for me and at the same time I intuitively "get". Good ol' VS Naipalm! Blowing me away.
Nov 12, 2011
William
rated it:
Just a note here. I've read this book twice and have an observation that I haven't come across elsewhere. In short it is that there is a vertiginous aspect to Naipaul's descriptions of landscape here. I never have a stable sense of the world around the narrator, but one that is always off-kilter, if not spinning. This is something that I've come across in none of Naipaul's other books, all of which I've read.
Mar 11, 2009
I picked this up after seeing Paul Theroux write highly of Naipaul somewhere (I don't remember if it was a book or essay), but I had trouble getting into it over the holidays when I went home to visit family -- I think that the first twenty or so pages consisted solely of descriptions of an English countryside. I'm doubtful that I'll pick it up again; I have a large stack of other books to read at this point.
Dec 10, 2009
Heather
rated it:
This was a slow read and a fairly action-less book, yet I felt intrigued to continue because of the way the author reflected on life and change. I'm not sure if it was a memoir or a fictional account written as a memoir. It was a good book to read during the process of moving and transition because I found some connection to his reflections.
Oct 21, 2008
Austin
rated it:
I had been hearing a lot about V.S. Naipaul in late 2000, so I decided to read one of his books, but I was greatly disappointed in his writing. Then, in 2001 he won the Nobel prize for literature. Goes to show how much I know.
Jan 18, 2010
Richard
rated it:
Had the advantage of reading this on over the period of a week travelling by train through the countryside described in the book.
An intimate account of the nature of identity.
Nothing much happens..but nothing much happens beautifully.
An intimate account of the nature of identity.
Nothing much happens..but nothing much happens beautifully.
Aug 15, 2008
Lau
rated it:
He hems inside a cyclical narrative narrative happenings which are descriptive, thus converting the descriptive – which abounds– in its principal deliberative strategy.
