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dclark32 's review for:
A Bend in the River
by V.S. Naipaul
Brilliant by any objective standard. This is my third book by Naipaul, and I see much kinship with Orwell. There is that same pervasive sense of disillusionment, the same skewering gaze, international perspective, and attention to small but telling details. The decline and ruins of empires and governments are thematically paramount in the writing of each. Both share a ruthlessly efficient writing style; reduced to its barest, most essential elements. To it all, I would add that Naipaul's is the greater intellect, and he has a keen eye for uncovering ethnic and societal differences. All of this is why I read him.
But he lacks Orwell's social conscience, and so where Orwell is my favorite author - the prototype of a modern commentator - my appreciation for Naipaul's work never extends beyond the intellectual. Absent in A Bend in the River, an otherwise brilliant novel about the gradual erosion of a post-colonial society's civic institutions, is any sort of compassion for the downtrodden. His treatment of female characters is openly misogynistic. Often, the brilliant but cynical eye for societal dysfunction veers into racism. There is no heart.
Yet for all of this, against the backdrop of often hyperbolic discussions of colonialism in the media, here is an uncommonly subtle and complex look both at what it has done to a society, and how the reaction to its legacy can turn oppressive. It will be some time before I can fully organize my thoughts around it. Certainly, Salim is not the most sympathetic of characters, but that's kind of the point. Other reviewers have pointed out that he's both selfish and spineless, but in a society marred by ethnic hostilities his meekness is what allows Salim to fly under the radar, and thus survive. That it also prevents him from taking any sort of independent control over the direction of his life goes without saying; such are the chances for those left in the wake of an empire.
My sense is that his deep character flaws (probably not strong enough of a word), and those of his novels described above, has caused Naipaul's work to fall out of favor given current sensibilities. But the reader avoids him at their peril. He is a gifted writer, and among the greatest chroniclers of empire. A Bend in the River would be a great place to begin a study of his work.
4/5
But he lacks Orwell's social conscience, and so where Orwell is my favorite author - the prototype of a modern commentator - my appreciation for Naipaul's work never extends beyond the intellectual. Absent in A Bend in the River, an otherwise brilliant novel about the gradual erosion of a post-colonial society's civic institutions, is any sort of compassion for the downtrodden. His treatment of female characters is openly misogynistic. Often, the brilliant but cynical eye for societal dysfunction veers into racism. There is no heart.
Yet for all of this, against the backdrop of often hyperbolic discussions of colonialism in the media, here is an uncommonly subtle and complex look both at what it has done to a society, and how the reaction to its legacy can turn oppressive. It will be some time before I can fully organize my thoughts around it. Certainly, Salim is not the most sympathetic of characters, but that's kind of the point. Other reviewers have pointed out that he's both selfish and spineless, but in a society marred by ethnic hostilities his meekness is what allows Salim to fly under the radar, and thus survive. That it also prevents him from taking any sort of independent control over the direction of his life goes without saying; such are the chances for those left in the wake of an empire.
My sense is that his deep character flaws (probably not strong enough of a word), and those of his novels described above, has caused Naipaul's work to fall out of favor given current sensibilities. But the reader avoids him at their peril. He is a gifted writer, and among the greatest chroniclers of empire. A Bend in the River would be a great place to begin a study of his work.
4/5