705. A Bend in the River

A Bend in the River
V.S. Naipaul
1979

Around 280 pages

There's something about Naipaul that I find dreadfully dull. I try to hang in there through his plodding stories, but I always find myself just wanting it to end. V.S. Naipaul, J.G. Farrell, A.S. Byatt...we are not having much with luck with the two-initial authors.

Salim is a merchant trading in an unnamed African country that has recently achieved their independence. Feeling insecure about his future, he buys a business from Nazruddin in a town at "a bend in the river." When he moves there he finds the town destroyed by the locals, in a show of anti imperialism. Salim remains uneasy even as he gradually becomes essential to the town.

This reminded me heavily of Joseph Conrad, and I wasn't the biggest fan of his writing style either. Neither are offensive authors, but they aren't particularly compelling either. I had a hard time getting a read on Salim as a character, and I wasn't that invested in how he fit in, like I was in Christ Stopped at Eboli.

Skippable.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

In 2001, without specifically referring to this novel, the Nobel Literature Prize Committee indicated that it viewed Naipaul as Conrad's heir as the annalist of the destinies of empires in the moral sense: what they do to human beings.

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