A Bend in the River

What a great novel this is! It tells the story of Salim who left his family home on the coast to start a business in central Africa at a town on the bend in the great Congo River. The inhabitants of the town, natives and expatriates, are described with empathy and an eye for detail.

Naipaul also narrates the history of the town as it is connected to the ups and downs of history, with great detail. His writing style is compelling and elegant, while the plot and characterization are superb. In many ways, the book illumines the post-independence history of those Africans that are of Indian descent.

Most of them were traders and many of them went into a second diaspora after the tumult and political upheavals in Africa of the 1960s and 70s. I was particularly impressed by Salim's first experience of the voice of Joan Baez, when a record of hers was played at a party in the academic suburb next to the old town.

Naipaul's extraordinary talent comes through in every flowing sentence and in every well-chosen word. I'm not a great lover of fiction, but this book has enriched my mind. I highly recommend it to readers of serious fiction and to historians alike. I also recommend the travel book North Of South by Shiva Naipaul, the record of a journey through Africa that ties in very well with A Bend In The River.

Welcome to Africa (11/14 people found this helpful)

So, here goes: my first Naipaul book. While reading it I really felt like being in Africa. And that's what always draws me back to Naipaul: he can so astonishingly well describe a place he once visited that it gets reconstructed to the tiniest detail in the reader's mind. And not only that: Naipaul can create characters as well as he can re-create places; Salim, Metty, Yvette - or even minor characters like Father Huismans and Raymond - are all so alive that you can't do otherwise than caring for them and wanting to know what they are destined to do.
Now, having read several more books by Naipaul since this first encounter, I must admit, though, that 'A Bend In The River' is the most monotonous of them and without the usual quantity of humour. On the other hand, I struggled hard not to give it ****, which says something about the quality of Naipaul's writing. In fact, this very book can get more appreciation after you try some of Naipaul's autobiographical books and start notice parallels between his life and his fiction (some parts of 'A Bend...' are also shown in 'Finding The Centre' - with Naipaul in Salim's role).

A difficult book to read - but worth the effort (16/17 people found this helpful)

This is one of the most difficult books I have ever read, mainly due to the author's subdued writing style and my personal inability (as a white Briton) to relate to much of the content.

The plot is minimal, but the theme of a country (Africa), lost because of its inability to create any kind of permanent memorial to itself, permeates the novel.

This theme is particularly poignant during the chapters when the narrator lives for a time in London. The concrete and the bricks, the enduring 'sameness', the sense of century on century, is utterly alien to all that Africa appears to mean.

I found this a haunting book, filled with emotions which returned again and again after the book was read and put away.

V.S. Naipaul

Reader Reviews:

A Masterpiece (19/20 people found this helpful)

Welcome to Africa (11/14 people found this helpful)

A difficult book to read - but worth the effort (16/17 people found this helpful)

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