Beyond the Dragon's Mouth

by Shiva Naipaul

Stories and essays chronicle the people and places of the author's youth

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Shiva 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.

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Even Up Looks Like Down to Me"

I really wonder what life in the Naipaul family of Trinidad was like. Something gave both brothers---the Nobel Prize winning V.S. Naipaul and his younger brother, Shiva---a most negative outlook on everything. Could it be growing up in Trinidad? I don't know. Perhaps a narrow colonial society bestows a wish on those who are intellectually-inclined to escape to a wider world more accepting of their proclivities. Perhaps. In any case, there is a definite family tendency towards Complete Gloom. I really admired and enjoyed the stories about Trinidad in this collection. They are all gems. Each day as I read one or two, I felt that I was having a very fine literary experience. I admired the construction of the stories, their description and humor. Even "Lack of Sleep", a grim tale of English boarding houses, shows great skill even if it is quite unpleasant. When I started the essays, though,---biographical sketches or vignettes of his travels in England, India, Iran, Portugal, Morocco, Surinam and the West Indies or observations of those societies---I soon began to sink under the weight of gloom, pessimism, and negative vibes. Did this guy ever like anything? Everything is messed up, everyone is a pretender, a bureaucratic fascist, a thief, a bourgeois airhead, or__________(fill in the blank). He sees trash, mud, poverty, and decline. The kids in rural English schools are not interested in literature. What a revelation! For sure it doesn't represent a sudden change! Hopelessness runs rampant, disappointment whistles round his windows 24/7. Yup, Shiva Naipaul was a great writer, as good as his brother, which is saying a lot, but he mixed with the powerbrokers of society, with the pseudo-intellectuals or the fatuous rich. He didn't like them, which I can readily understand, but then why did he persist on cuddling up to them? Why did he want to write about them? Could he not take his eyes off their faults and the poverty that surrounded them? When he wrote about the varied characters of Trinidad slums or middle class suburbs of Port of Spain, he reached the top heights of literature in my opinion. You may find his essays or "pieces" interesting, but you will feel in the end that his view of life was extremely negative.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published the year of his death, this is a collection of stories and journalism focused on England, India, and the Caribbean. Naipaul is a continual outsider; Hindu, of Indian descent, growing up in Trinidad, and going to Oxford for his university, he has faced a range of biases in different countries; his observations are unfortunately never outdated.

[Ian Durham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humorous, mystical, and poignant, both in the fictional pieces as well as the essays.

[Ida-maria Skavhaug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely collection of stories with a very strong presence of Shiva Naipaul himself. I wish he had lived to write more...