A Bend in the River

A Bend in the River
A Bend in the River  
BendInTheRiver.JPG
1st edition
Author(s) V. S. Naipaul
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Alfred A Knopf
Publication date May 1979[1]
Media type Print
Pages 278 pages
ISBN 0-394-50573-5
OCLC Number 4494403
Dewey Decimal 823/.9/14
LC Classification PZ4.N155 Be 1979 PR9272.9.N32

A Bend in the River is a 1979 novel by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked A Bend in the River #83 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 1979.[2]

Contents

Plot

Set in an unnamed African country after independence, the book is narrated by Salim, an ethnically Indian Muslim and a shopkeeper in a small, growing city in the country's remote interior. Though born and raised in another country in a more cosmopolitan city on the coast during the colonial period, as neither European nor fully African, Salim observes the rapid changes in his homeland with an outsider's distance.


Analysis

One critic thinks it represents "the gradual darkening of African society as it returns to its age-old condition of bush and blood" [3] and thinks this pessimistic response shows Naipaul's "inability to examine postcolonial societies in any depth"[4]

Naipaul credits an extramarital affair for giving A Bend in the River and his later books greater fluidity, saying these "in a way to some extent depend on her (i.e., his mistress). They stopped being dry.”[5]

References

  1. ^ http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/n/v-s-naipaul/bend-in-river.htm
  2. ^ "A Bend in the River, V S Naipaul". Man Booker Prize. http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/books/180. Retrieved 2011-01-03. 
  3. ^ V.S. Naipaul by Selwyn Reginald Cudjoe, p. 186
  4. ^ Ibid. page 185
  5. ^ New York Times

External links

v · d · eBooks by V. S. Naipaul
Novels:

The Mystic Masseur • The Suffrage of Elvira • Miguel Street • A House for Mr Biswas • Mr Stone and the Knights Companion • A Flag on the Island • The Mimic Men • In a Free State • Guerrillas • A Bend in the River • The Enigma of Arrival • A Way in the World • Half a Life • Magic Seeds
Non-fiction:

The Middle Passage • An Area of Darkness • The Loss of El Dorado • The Overcrowded Barracoon and other articles • India: A Wounded Civilization • A Congo Diary • The Return of Eva Peron and the Killings in Trinidad • Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey • Finding the Centre • Reading and Writing: A Personal Account • A Turn in the South •India: A Million Mutinies Now • Bombay • Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples • Between Father and Son: Family Letters • The Writer and the World: Essays • Literary Occasions: Essays • A Writer's People: Ways of Looking and Feeling

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