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A Hot Country: (Love and Death In a Hot Country)
Cuyama, a small country in South America, its spirit robbed by centuries of conquerors and colonizers, is poised on the brink of crisis. Shiva Naipaul's passionate and evocative novel focuses on two casualties of Cuyama's post-Independence malaise, Aubrey St Pierre, dedicated to redeeming the sins of his slave-owning ancestors, and his wife, Dina. While Aubrey sits in his highbrow bookshop composing protest letters to The Times in London and New York, Dina stands aloof and passive in the face of an impending tragedy that seems to her more personal than political. The fate of their marriage comes obliquely to reflect the fate of a nation, portrayed by Naipaul with intense sympathy, vision and eloquence.
- GenresFictionLiterary Fiction
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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About the author
Shiva Naipaul
18 books34 followersShiva Naipaul was a Trinidadian-born British novelist and journalist, known for his incisive fiction and travel writing. The younger brother of V. S. Naipaul, he studied at University College, Oxford, before publishing his debut novel, Fireflies (1970), which won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. He followed with The Chip-Chip Gatherers (1973) before turning to non-fiction with North of South (1978) and Black & White (1980), exploring postcolonial societies. His final novel, A Hot Country (1983), marked a shift in his literary style. Despite mixed critical reception during his lifetime, his work has since been reassessed for its sharp prose and unique perspective.
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December 29, 2015
پرسـید: تا حالا سعی کرده اید چــیــز بنویسـید؟"
داینا گفت: نه. هیــچوقــت
.تا خودتان آزمایش نکنید ، رنجی را که لازمهی کار خـلاقه است درک نمی کنید
!چه جــان کنـدنی! چه درد و رنجـی
"..درست مثل این است که بخواهید ســنگـی را بچـلانـید و ازش خــون بگیرید
در این کتاب، نویسنده یک کشور خیالی(کویاما) را توصیف میکند. کشوری که در گذشته تحت استعمار کشورهایی چون اسپانیا، هلند و فرانسه بوده و مردمانش برده آنها بودهاند؛ تا اینکه بهدست انگلیسیها بردهداری لغو میشود.
...و حالا این کشور دچار معضلات دیگریست: فقر، فساد، حاکمان ناشایست و
شخصیتهای اصلی کتاب، یک زن و شوهرند. مرد (اوبری سنت پیر) شخصی تحصیلکرده، روشنفکر و آرمانگراست که زندگیاش را وقف اصلاح کشورش کرده تا شایدمرهمی باشد برای وجدانش که اجدادش همه بردهدار بوده اند
.زندگی در کویاما مبارزهای بیامان است. ولی من هرگز دل و جرئتم را از دست ندادهام"
مطمئنم که تو هم با من موافقی که توسعه نیافتگی فقط پدیدهای اقتصادی نیست. بلکه بُعدی معنوی هم دارد و به همان اندازه که حالتی استثماری است، حالتی ذهنی هم هست. اقتصاد توسعه ینافته بر پایهی شخصیت توسعه نیافته قرار گرفته است"
تنها وقتی پیشرفت آغاز میشود که شخصیت توسعه نیافته رو به استحاله بگذارد.
داینا گفت: نه. هیــچوقــت
.تا خودتان آزمایش نکنید ، رنجی را که لازمهی کار خـلاقه است درک نمی کنید
!چه جــان کنـدنی! چه درد و رنجـی
"..درست مثل این است که بخواهید ســنگـی را بچـلانـید و ازش خــون بگیرید
در این کتاب، نویسنده یک کشور خیالی(کویاما) را توصیف میکند. کشوری که در گذشته تحت استعمار کشورهایی چون اسپانیا، هلند و فرانسه بوده و مردمانش برده آنها بودهاند؛ تا اینکه بهدست انگلیسیها بردهداری لغو میشود.
...و حالا این کشور دچار معضلات دیگریست: فقر، فساد، حاکمان ناشایست و
شخصیتهای اصلی کتاب، یک زن و شوهرند. مرد (اوبری سنت پیر) شخصی تحصیلکرده، روشنفکر و آرمانگراست که زندگیاش را وقف اصلاح کشورش کرده تا شایدمرهمی باشد برای وجدانش که اجدادش همه بردهدار بوده اند
.زندگی در کویاما مبارزهای بیامان است. ولی من هرگز دل و جرئتم را از دست ندادهام"
مطمئنم که تو هم با من موافقی که توسعه نیافتگی فقط پدیدهای اقتصادی نیست. بلکه بُعدی معنوی هم دارد و به همان اندازه که حالتی استثماری است، حالتی ذهنی هم هست. اقتصاد توسعه ینافته بر پایهی شخصیت توسعه نیافته قرار گرفته است"
تنها وقتی پیشرفت آغاز میشود که شخصیت توسعه نیافته رو به استحاله بگذارد.
October 5, 2015
Subdued story of political and personal tyrannies in a fictional Caribbean coastal country named Cuyama (almost certainly Guyana, given the mixture of African and Indian descended populations), written by V.S. Naipaul's not so famous brother.
A dictatorial president prepares to hold a sham plebiscite which will effectively hand him sole rule without constitution, as an english journalist called Alex visits his old university friend Aubrey St. Claire, a descendant of one of the countries once wealthiest slave trading families.
Aubrey is ashamed of his past and has become an active force in opposing the dictatorship, writing letters to foreign newspapers such as The Times whilst running an unsuccessful bookshop, which he stocks with left-wing political works that no one buys.
His wife, Dina, does not share his fervor for the cause, nor his hope for change, though he constantly lectures her. Alex the englishman wonders if she "had been ground to dust by the tyranny of his uncomprehending affection?" For her part, she half-heartedly finds refuge from her husband's dogma via native superstitions.
This is a placid but deeply pessimistic piece of post-colonial writing, perhaps a perfect reflection of a distinctly Caribbean malaise, yet suffering for its torpid tone by a lack of drama.
Certainly well written, with characters that seemed very real, but largely unengaging.
A dictatorial president prepares to hold a sham plebiscite which will effectively hand him sole rule without constitution, as an english journalist called Alex visits his old university friend Aubrey St. Claire, a descendant of one of the countries once wealthiest slave trading families.
Aubrey is ashamed of his past and has become an active force in opposing the dictatorship, writing letters to foreign newspapers such as The Times whilst running an unsuccessful bookshop, which he stocks with left-wing political works that no one buys.
His wife, Dina, does not share his fervor for the cause, nor his hope for change, though he constantly lectures her. Alex the englishman wonders if she "had been ground to dust by the tyranny of his uncomprehending affection?" For her part, she half-heartedly finds refuge from her husband's dogma via native superstitions.
This is a placid but deeply pessimistic piece of post-colonial writing, perhaps a perfect reflection of a distinctly Caribbean malaise, yet suffering for its torpid tone by a lack of drama.
Certainly well written, with characters that seemed very real, but largely unengaging.
Read
August 28, 2015Naipaul's final novel before his early death is ser in a country on the right shoulder of South America, thinly disguised a Cuyana. As if the author may have sensed that this was a valedictory work, it is sombre and doomed.
It is a portrait of a decaying marriage in a decaying country. Dinah, a 22-year-old English literature graduate (of Cuyana University) finds employment with Aubrey St Pierre, the owner of a boo store that sells few books, and falls into marriage with him. Alex, a former undergraduate acquaintance now a journalist, comes to visit Aubrey for a week and goes away again. Racism is always in the background - Dinah is descended from a family who were once slave owners.
Of the subsidiary characters, only Dinah's cousin, Beatrix, contributes occasional brittle touches of light but does not dispel the overwhelming sense of a novel of despair.
It is a portrait of a decaying marriage in a decaying country. Dinah, a 22-year-old English literature graduate (of Cuyana University) finds employment with Aubrey St Pierre, the owner of a boo store that sells few books, and falls into marriage with him. Alex, a former undergraduate acquaintance now a journalist, comes to visit Aubrey for a week and goes away again. Racism is always in the background - Dinah is descended from a family who were once slave owners.
Of the subsidiary characters, only Dinah's cousin, Beatrix, contributes occasional brittle touches of light but does not dispel the overwhelming sense of a novel of despair.
December 15, 2007
This is a very nice book to read, and one got the feeling that a talented director might be able to make a very good film out of it.
The book speaks of the legacy that colonial empires leave on their distant subjects. It is set in the fictional country of Cuyama, somewhere in South America. It must be noted that Naipaul hails from Trinidad – not too far from Guyana. The author gives us a peek into the emotional and intellectual impulses of the middle class in this part of the new world.
These are people whose ancestor’s were not natives of the region in which they find themselves. These are a people that have lost their cultural inheritance and are now unsure of what idea they should have of themselves. Cuyama is also in that part of the new world that, unlike America, was not able to create an economically evolved and politically ordered society.
The story is told from the perspective of Dina Mallingham, an anglicised lady of East Indian origin. The original family name of Mahalingam was mangled by her father to prove his Christian credentials – to himself more than to anyone else. She is married to Aubrey St. Pierre, the scion of the former slave owners. He was educated in England and spends his time showcasing his consciously possessed liberal values. He asserts them by reading high literature in the bookstore that he owns and by pompous sermons. Both the bookstore and the sermons draw no patrons. The couple are visited by a college friend of Aubrey, Alex Richer, who is now working as a journalist. He is very much the European journalist; unconsciously projecting a sense of adventure and romance on Cuyama, while secure on the knowledge that he will soon be back in Europe.
The marriage came from a proposal that Dina only half-agreed to in her own mind, and throughout the book the cruelty of an unhappy marriage shows. The lack of joy is one with the general hopelessness in the country. The climate is hot and there are forest fires. The place seems full of cruel poverty and despair. A third-world, pretending to-be-Communist dictatorship is around the corner. It threatens to destroy by violence what it cannot steal by public corruption. Death and revolting violence will soon envelope Cuyama. Aubrey wishes to hold on to his liberal English values, even though the society that may support such sensibility no longer exists. The wish for possessing the sensibility blinds him to the faults of Cuyamese society. Dina would like to share this perspective but is unable to. Her hopelessness is more visceral. She is more sharply aware of the inadequacies of her country.
The feeling you get at the end of the book is one of despair and dejection.
The book speaks of the legacy that colonial empires leave on their distant subjects. It is set in the fictional country of Cuyama, somewhere in South America. It must be noted that Naipaul hails from Trinidad – not too far from Guyana. The author gives us a peek into the emotional and intellectual impulses of the middle class in this part of the new world.
These are people whose ancestor’s were not natives of the region in which they find themselves. These are a people that have lost their cultural inheritance and are now unsure of what idea they should have of themselves. Cuyama is also in that part of the new world that, unlike America, was not able to create an economically evolved and politically ordered society.
The story is told from the perspective of Dina Mallingham, an anglicised lady of East Indian origin. The original family name of Mahalingam was mangled by her father to prove his Christian credentials – to himself more than to anyone else. She is married to Aubrey St. Pierre, the scion of the former slave owners. He was educated in England and spends his time showcasing his consciously possessed liberal values. He asserts them by reading high literature in the bookstore that he owns and by pompous sermons. Both the bookstore and the sermons draw no patrons. The couple are visited by a college friend of Aubrey, Alex Richer, who is now working as a journalist. He is very much the European journalist; unconsciously projecting a sense of adventure and romance on Cuyama, while secure on the knowledge that he will soon be back in Europe.
The marriage came from a proposal that Dina only half-agreed to in her own mind, and throughout the book the cruelty of an unhappy marriage shows. The lack of joy is one with the general hopelessness in the country. The climate is hot and there are forest fires. The place seems full of cruel poverty and despair. A third-world, pretending to-be-Communist dictatorship is around the corner. It threatens to destroy by violence what it cannot steal by public corruption. Death and revolting violence will soon envelope Cuyama. Aubrey wishes to hold on to his liberal English values, even though the society that may support such sensibility no longer exists. The wish for possessing the sensibility blinds him to the faults of Cuyamese society. Dina would like to share this perspective but is unable to. Her hopelessness is more visceral. She is more sharply aware of the inadequacies of her country.
The feeling you get at the end of the book is one of despair and dejection.
June 17, 2016
This novel uses the marriage of Aubrey and Dina to reflect upon the tensions felt in post-colonial Cuyama (I've seen some here equate Cuyama with Guyana; I get the feeling that it's more representative of Grenada's development into a Marxist state in the early '80s). Aubrey is trying to keep his place in the country's social fabric while he attempts to atone for the sins of his ancestors. Dina is poised between the plight of the non-white natives and the former privilage of the colonizers reflected in Aubrey and his family; Dina is the daughter of Anglicized Hindustanis.
Naipaul does an excellent job of describing a tropical Caribbean island (he was a native of Trinidad; the son of journalist Seepersad Naipaul and younger brother of Nobel Prize-winning novelist V. S. Naipaul). His writing gives the greatest detail of the state of the young island nation and vivid portraits of its less fortunate citizens. Further, the book relays the emotional impact of the strife that often comes with independence. Naipaul focuses on those classes being pushed downward instead of those who supposedly will be pulled out of their misery.
This book is unique in that it gives you the "other side" of post-colonialism. The decline and disenfranchisement of the white former colonizers is something that is rarely discussed, nor is there place in a newly freed colony (for the few that usually stay, as represented by Aubrey). My biggest problem was with the dialogue. It often seemed that conversations were set up to instruct the reader. If the speech of the characters had been more natural I think that the impact of events would have sunken in more deeply. I also think, in a few spots, that Naipaul did too good a job of describing Cuyama. Good description is necessary in a novel, but I ofter felt like the characters got lost in the setting (which could have been partly intentional on the part of the writer).
In the end, I found this to be an enjoyable, if not completely fulfilling read.
Naipaul does an excellent job of describing a tropical Caribbean island (he was a native of Trinidad; the son of journalist Seepersad Naipaul and younger brother of Nobel Prize-winning novelist V. S. Naipaul). His writing gives the greatest detail of the state of the young island nation and vivid portraits of its less fortunate citizens. Further, the book relays the emotional impact of the strife that often comes with independence. Naipaul focuses on those classes being pushed downward instead of those who supposedly will be pulled out of their misery.
This book is unique in that it gives you the "other side" of post-colonialism. The decline and disenfranchisement of the white former colonizers is something that is rarely discussed, nor is there place in a newly freed colony (for the few that usually stay, as represented by Aubrey). My biggest problem was with the dialogue. It often seemed that conversations were set up to instruct the reader. If the speech of the characters had been more natural I think that the impact of events would have sunken in more deeply. I also think, in a few spots, that Naipaul did too good a job of describing Cuyama. Good description is necessary in a novel, but I ofter felt like the characters got lost in the setting (which could have been partly intentional on the part of the writer).
In the end, I found this to be an enjoyable, if not completely fulfilling read.
December 5, 2011
This novel is set in a fictional island nation, Cuyama, in the throes of a revolution. The physical, political, and social heat is palatable in this narrative. Shiva Naipaul's beautiful prose illuminates this fictional post-colonial nation. The dirt, sweat, lush jungle, smell of night blooming jasmine, racial tension, and decay are all expertly transferred. This short beautifully written novel transports the reader to a place that may or may not exist.
The struggles of the diverse population of Cuyama are written about in stark realism. The bush people, once enslaved on plantations are hinted at and never illuminated, but lie on the outskirts of the narrative. The Hindustani shanty towns are driven through in one scene in the novel. The main focus of the novel lies in the miserable marriage of Dina and Aubrey. Aubrey is the son of one-time slave holders who feels a responsibility to stay in Cuyama and "fix" things. Dina is the daughter of a mixed race couple and finds herself working for and then married to Aubrey. Reading about their relationship is an exercise in futility.
"Only misery and death had been exhaled under this unrelenting sun - the primeval miseries of the small bands of wandering aborigines, worshipping fierce gods, living on roots and berries and small wild animals, periodically hunting each other's heads; the miseries of the second-rate conquistadors who had come looking for gold and finding none had gone mad with disappointment and blood lust; the miseries of the slaves and their terrible revolts; the miseries of a fabricated statehood. The history of this patch of earth was written in blood. Pain was the only thing that had ever flourished on its red soil. Only in pain had they been self-sufficient. Submergence might come as a merciful release."
The struggles of the diverse population of Cuyama are written about in stark realism. The bush people, once enslaved on plantations are hinted at and never illuminated, but lie on the outskirts of the narrative. The Hindustani shanty towns are driven through in one scene in the novel. The main focus of the novel lies in the miserable marriage of Dina and Aubrey. Aubrey is the son of one-time slave holders who feels a responsibility to stay in Cuyama and "fix" things. Dina is the daughter of a mixed race couple and finds herself working for and then married to Aubrey. Reading about their relationship is an exercise in futility.
"Only misery and death had been exhaled under this unrelenting sun - the primeval miseries of the small bands of wandering aborigines, worshipping fierce gods, living on roots and berries and small wild animals, periodically hunting each other's heads; the miseries of the second-rate conquistadors who had come looking for gold and finding none had gone mad with disappointment and blood lust; the miseries of the slaves and their terrible revolts; the miseries of a fabricated statehood. The history of this patch of earth was written in blood. Pain was the only thing that had ever flourished on its red soil. Only in pain had they been self-sufficient. Submergence might come as a merciful release."
January 7, 2021
This book seemed to be heading to a particular climax regarding the parallels between the political conflict in Cuyama and Aubrey and Dina's sad, failing marriage, but somehow it never really arrives. It was pretty anticlimactic actually. Also nobody actually died in any meaningful way which I think makes the title a bit misleading, but maybe that's just me being petty. It's a short read, but I really did expect more. The story had a lot of potential, in particular the worldbuilding, that was woefully underutilized. I understand that Aubrey is a delusional man, enough that as a white man and direct descendant of slave owners he thought he could best tell the story of Cuyama, but also the way that particular plotline played out didn't make the points the author thought he was making and fell rather flat. It was a quick read but I wouldn't go back to reread and would only recommend as an example of a story with squandered potential.
July 29, 2019
Naipual contemplates what’s left when nothing is left. Evocative, insightful novel about post-colonial confusion and what comes after Woke. It’s quick and I can’t imagine anyone regretting picking it up.
December 14, 2019
Timely, now that USA has so much in common with third world. Crumbling infrastructure. Huge wealth disparities. Increasing Authoritarianism. Racial strife.
And on and on. No hope for us to be found in this slim volume.
And on and on. No hope for us to be found in this slim volume.
July 30, 2022
so good and the characters and attitudes r so familiar to academia and to elites who rose and fell and to girls in their year of agitated rest and relaxation in a hot and swampy country … cheers to crooked politicians and power posturing disguised as moral good
September 23, 2020
This one wasn't easy. For me personally, I didn't find much compelling in the characters to keep me engaged.
December 17, 2022
not rly sure what this book was even about
March 8, 2025
Beautiful writing but god what a dull read. Oppressive & morose.
May 16, 2017
A novel set in a fictional country, but so apparently modeled on Guyana I read it as such. The main character is a citizen of a newly independent country but descended from the old colonial masters. Guilt ridden, he atones for the sins of his family by operating an unprofitable bookshop in the capital city, by marrying a woman descended from indentured servants almost as a project for her intellectual betterment, and – in short – by stubbornly refusing to leave the country even as it descends into despotism with his kind identified as public enemy. The novel, steeped in cynicism and hopelessness, is a long rebuke of the damage wrought by colonialism. I would have been receptive to a slightly more cheerful take on the place I was about to call home. For all that, this book was one of my favorite discoveries. The book so well evokes the feeling and flavor of living in Georgetown. Several times while walking around the central district, I’ve half expected to come across a bookshop operated by an old, penitent white guy. Perhaps I will yet.
May 17, 2009
Was on my list forever. It's a short, but good portrayal of the third word and the racial/class/post-colonial issues. Since I lived in that kind of environment when this was written, I liked: the main character and how he tried to explain/inculcate the differences between races. I didn't like: his wife's role wasn't fully enriched until very late in the novel, but that must have been by design.
September 16, 2007
This took me forever, and I have no idea why. It's not long, it's not complicated...I was probably just in an intellectual funk.
December 25, 2011
A good light read. Shiva Naipaul has a way with creating beautiful descriptions. The character development, I felt, could have had more substance, but otherwise, a good book.
May 26, 2014
Features an interesting and unusual female progtagonist.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews