A Bend in the River
| A Bend in the River | |
|---|---|
 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 | |
| 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[hide] |
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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]
