Take a photo of a barcode or cover
levishak 's review for:
A Bend in the River
by V.S. Naipaul
The writing was beautiful, flowing like a river. The story was bleh--kind of dull. I had to slog through the book, and I kept looking at how many pages I had left to read. There were parts where I perked up.
Now, I do realize this book had important messages and metaphors and themes. For one, the difficulty newly independent countries have/had/are having to find a balance between their history and modern realities. A new country--like a freed slave--previously a colony, must climb from its past to a new beginning, but how is the question. With no background in democracy, only vague memories of its tribal past, and a desire to throw off the shackles of a colonial history, strongmen/women take hold of the country with disastrous results. We read it in the news every day.
There are metaphors galore--flimsy "modern" compounds; a river--with clogging weeds--flowing through a dark forested land, to name just two.
Two other facts to be mentioned. This book is quite old, written from "July 1977--August 1978". The author has been criticized for being racist and stereotypical towards Africans.
He was a violent man, and he abused women, yet he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I am not sure how I feel about that.
A Bend in the River appears to be autobiographical, since the main character, Salim, is Indian, born in a colony, and eventually moves to Europe. Naipul was born in Trinadad, a former colony of England. He became an assimilated English writer, an expatriate himself living in England.
Now, I do realize this book had important messages and metaphors and themes. For one, the difficulty newly independent countries have/had/are having to find a balance between their history and modern realities. A new country--like a freed slave--previously a colony, must climb from its past to a new beginning, but how is the question. With no background in democracy, only vague memories of its tribal past, and a desire to throw off the shackles of a colonial history, strongmen/women take hold of the country with disastrous results. We read it in the news every day.
There are metaphors galore--flimsy "modern" compounds; a river--with clogging weeds--flowing through a dark forested land, to name just two.
Two other facts to be mentioned. This book is quite old, written from "July 1977--August 1978". The author has been criticized for being racist and stereotypical towards Africans.
He was a violent man, and he abused women, yet he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I am not sure how I feel about that.
A Bend in the River appears to be autobiographical, since the main character, Salim, is Indian, born in a colony, and eventually moves to Europe. Naipul was born in Trinadad, a former colony of England. He became an assimilated English writer, an expatriate himself living in England.