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3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
I am still not sure what I think about this book. The most interesting part of it to me was the main character, Salim's, identity of being from Africa, but not defining himself or defined by others as African. This complication added needed complexity to a book with so much foreshadowing and allusion to The Heart of Darkness, but it also allowed for the narrator to remain an outsider and an observer. The river has to be the Congo although it is never identified officially. Salim reminds the reader of Marlowe when he is traveling across Africa or to London, but especially on the steamer at the end of the book. There are quite a few characters that resemble Kurtz in some ways, including the president. Naipaul shows how colonization has deeply damaged Africa and in its aftermath the question of which way the civilization will go arises. There are decidedly different factions and answers to that question: development on African terms for Africans but using what colonizers left and not shutting out non-African people, continue to sell it off as was done during colonization, go back to before colonization, or continued conflict. This is of course as interpreted through Salim's eyes and there is a point in the book when he begins to believe that the first idea can actually work. Naipaul, in delving into these questions, still portrays the mysterious home of a great river. The town and the fancy foreigner settlement are contrasted with the river in terms of security and clarity. The biggest problem with the book is that he ends up focusing more on what he and other foreigners think of the place, and he espouses some really essentialist views of Africans. This is the same problem with H of D - African characters don't have a voice. However, in the end, Naipaul does allow one African voice, that of Ferdinand, to speak out clearly and poignantly about how the main question of the novel is being answered at that moment.
Couldn't get into it. Not in the right frame of mind. Also disturbed by Naipaul's characterizations of Africans.
A Bend in the River - V.S. Naipaul
This story of an outsider (Salim) trying to make his way through life in a small town of post-colonial central Africa starts, I felt, underwhelmingly. Plodding, dry, and mostly uninspiring prose gave me second doubts initially, but as Salim's life gradually takes on more personal complexity so does his relationship with his surroundings and society. Salim mostly ignores or plays down these things, preferring to keep his head down and avoid trouble, but the reader is increasingly caught watching how a dictator's power seeps in to Salim's quiet town. As the story progresses it becomes more textured, it's prose grows richer, and its social commentary becomes more explicit: a quaint and almost idyllic little trading outpost as a melting pot of diverse peoples slides into one of terror where violence and greed are easier than trust and trade. There are some places that strain credibility - voices of characters that cannot possibly come from them - but over all the novel delivers wonderfully. Salim is never quite likable and at moments even detestable, but one somehow feels that in some way he must represent a lowest minimum threshold for civilization. As the walls of society cave in around him we wonder, if Salim cannot find a way to live there, how could anyone?
This story of an outsider (Salim) trying to make his way through life in a small town of post-colonial central Africa starts, I felt, underwhelmingly. Plodding, dry, and mostly uninspiring prose gave me second doubts initially, but as Salim's life gradually takes on more personal complexity so does his relationship with his surroundings and society. Salim mostly ignores or plays down these things, preferring to keep his head down and avoid trouble, but the reader is increasingly caught watching how a dictator's power seeps in to Salim's quiet town. As the story progresses it becomes more textured, it's prose grows richer, and its social commentary becomes more explicit: a quaint and almost idyllic little trading outpost as a melting pot of diverse peoples slides into one of terror where violence and greed are easier than trust and trade. There are some places that strain credibility - voices of characters that cannot possibly come from them - but over all the novel delivers wonderfully. Salim is never quite likable and at moments even detestable, but one somehow feels that in some way he must represent a lowest minimum threshold for civilization. As the walls of society cave in around him we wonder, if Salim cannot find a way to live there, how could anyone?
An incredibly frustrating book. Naipaul clearly has highly developed powers of observation, it's a shame that he chooses not to exercise them on any of the book's African characters.
Read this in high school and decided to revisit. Feelings are still "eh" towards it. Although I do understand the significance of post colonialism better now than I did then, Naipaul's story still feels drab and drawn out without any real payoff. He poses a lot of questions and talking points but never seems to offer any definitive answers. In an attempt to provide his characters with depth he actually just muddles them down with unclear motives and too much introspective monologues. Also finding out that Naipaul had violent encounters with his mistress that directly mirror those between Salim and Yvette definitely gave the confusing scene a very bitter taste. I had hoped with time, I would appreciate this "classic" more but it just seems to have exasperated the novel's flaws.
Brilliant novel, indeed, one to discuss for hours. The protagonist’s deep longing for first world experience, his failure to achieve it through his own merit, his frustrated lashing out, his ultimate subservience, make him one of the more pathetic characters I’ve come across. The setting in a country and continent in post-colonial upheaval is portrayed with brutal and sympathetic reality, including the struggles of various characters to sort out their attitudes, directions, and even wardrobes in the face of major change.
The story is so-so, it is the strength of Naipaul's writing which carries it up to two stars. Maybe two and a half. It falters often, but on occasion will come across as perceptive and wise of the world.
I'm skeptical and wary of Naipaul's outlook and politics, although he cloaks them well enough that it's hard to tell the exact perspective he is coming from. Also, talk about depressing. There isn't a moment of true joy to be found. Just anxiety, estrangement, fear of the future, resentment, paralyzed inaction, exploitation, and so on. Times of uncertainty can reveal the nature of people. Some will see the potential for good and positive change in the space which has opened up, others will predict dark things. Naipaul likely falls into the second camp, although I suspect he'd argue it as being realistic instead, not jaded.
I'm skeptical and wary of Naipaul's outlook and politics, although he cloaks them well enough that it's hard to tell the exact perspective he is coming from. Also, talk about depressing. There isn't a moment of true joy to be found. Just anxiety, estrangement, fear of the future, resentment, paralyzed inaction, exploitation, and so on. Times of uncertainty can reveal the nature of people. Some will see the potential for good and positive change in the space which has opened up, others will predict dark things. Naipaul likely falls into the second camp, although I suspect he'd argue it as being realistic instead, not jaded.
I don't think I've read another book that so prosaically bears its symbolism.
This book is basically the story of a whiney, adultering, mistress-beating, smuggler who doesn't know what he wants out of life. I don't tknow what I want out of life either, but I hope I live my life with more integrity than Salim does.