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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An extra star for kiiiind of interesting character studies redacted for documenting your irl women beating experience shamelessly
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
This was a political treatise poorly disguised as a novel. It seemed to me that the self absorbed protagonists were simply flimsy cardboard cut-outs, clothed in the agenda of the author. There was barely any plot, and the themes of post-colonial identity diffusion, corruption and destruction were delivered with all the nuance of a sledge hammer. Authentic, no doubt, but the author should have written an essay and published it in a political journal, rather than masquerading his observations as a work of literature.
Unsettling, haunting, melancholic, exhilarating, a work of brilliance because it evokes so much. This is the story of Salim, an African of Arabian descent who makes a life halfway across the continent from his home at a town at a bend in the river. The town remains anonymous, it could be anywhere in Africa. And we witness a transition between the genteel oppression of colonialism as it gives way to the ascendancy of the bush, a word which describes not just the jungle, but also the disenfranchised African who is coming into his power at the behest of the President. But out of the bush comes a legacy of difficulty. Not just ambition and corruption, but also terror and superstition and new values undermine the simple routines of life at a bend in the river, until Salim finds that he did not understand the important distinction between a businessman and a mathematician, and now he is in mortal danger.
Naipaul writes with such refinement and sensitivity, and with a kind of covert intensity that is so rare. This novel really gets under your skin, it is wonderful.
Naipaul writes with such refinement and sensitivity, and with a kind of covert intensity that is so rare. This novel really gets under your skin, it is wonderful.
Salim is an Indian from the east African coast who travels to a town in central Africa to take over a shop he's bought from a family friend.
Salim's town was all but destroyed in the recent struggle for independence, in which many Europeans were killed. Now Salim lives in a social world that is a remnant of the foreign merchants and others who inhabit the town. The peace is fragile. The country is run by a dictator, the shadowy and reactive President who makes life a Kafkaesque endeavor to predict trends based on the President's speeches and iconography.
The locals resent the foreigners and their property. They have little opportunity and many are not adapted to the economic life of the town, having their origins in the villages of the bush. People of the villages enjoy the European goods on offer at the shops, so the economy, at least for Salim, thrives in fits and starts.
Salim's challenge is to figure out when to get out when the gettin's good, given the unstable political situation. Unfortunately, he's a complacent sort, and is in danger of being caught out when the next revolution comes.
The observations here are all about Africa, but this book shares similar themes with other books that deal with the trials of everyday life in countries with unstable governments.
Salim's town was all but destroyed in the recent struggle for independence, in which many Europeans were killed. Now Salim lives in a social world that is a remnant of the foreign merchants and others who inhabit the town. The peace is fragile. The country is run by a dictator, the shadowy and reactive President who makes life a Kafkaesque endeavor to predict trends based on the President's speeches and iconography.
The locals resent the foreigners and their property. They have little opportunity and many are not adapted to the economic life of the town, having their origins in the villages of the bush. People of the villages enjoy the European goods on offer at the shops, so the economy, at least for Salim, thrives in fits and starts.
Salim's challenge is to figure out when to get out when the gettin's good, given the unstable political situation. Unfortunately, he's a complacent sort, and is in danger of being caught out when the next revolution comes.
The observations here are all about Africa, but this book shares similar themes with other books that deal with the trials of everyday life in countries with unstable governments.
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This whole novel revels in the ugliness, the implicit and explicit hideousness, of the internal dilemma of a man who is a product of European imperialism. Salim is one of the complexest narrators I have ever read. The colonized with sympathies for the colonizer? Racist? Sexist? Beats his married mistress? All of the above, but Naipaul excavates moments of sympathy in Salim's profound sense of dislocation, his disappointment at the behest of his newfound gap between expectation and reality, his hypocrisy, and his seemingly overarching lack of agency. Naipaul is an essential character of anglophone postcolonial literature, and yet he defies the standard narrative of many postcolonial novels that handle post-independence: optimism. That first sentence!!!!! Imagine writing, "The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it." On page one??? In this economy???
Not sure how to feel about this one. While Naipaul has a striking style, his subject is colonialism and his views are very of a time. Although it's different to hear about a region where Indian and Arabic outsiders moved in, it all comes down to the same thing - the destruction of a local culture and violence and destruction that occurs in a vacuum of power. The main character certainly enjoys his position as one of the elite outsiders, and doesn't seem to have much sympathy for those outside of this community. As a result, it's a tough read, with little insight to the other side.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Naipaul explores post-colonial central Africa and finds a dynamic, half-formed world ruled by blind anger, fear, and, above all, stupidity. His prose slowly immerses the reader into this strange, far-off world. The book takes a nuanced view of colonialism and Africa's position in the modern world. The heart is dark as ever.