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.

This story has all the hallmarks of great fiction: moving, thoughtful prose; exotic setting (a post-colonial African country); fascinating storyline; tragic characters; grand themes. This was the first Naipaul story I have read, and now I know what all the fuss is about. I found the writing very full, every sentence very active, moving the story forward in a staggeringly complete way. Salim is an Arab-African of Indian descent. He moves from the east coast of Africa to a town situated on a "bend in the river" in a central African country, presumably the former Belgian Congo, ostensibly to run a rudimentary general store, but more likely to delay finding what his real objectives in life are. He wants to experience the so-called "European" colonial culture of the town, and gets involved in the Hellenic Club, pursues an affair with the wife of a prominent political figure, and mentors his family servant Metty, and a young African, Ferdinand. In both these latter characters we see the symbolism of the "new" Africa, and the struggles in asserting identity, manhood, authority and organization. We get a glimpse into the sham intellectualism surrounding the educated elite, a world that Salim is drawn into but ultimately rejects. We see a man go from a kind of hope to a lazy idealism, then inertia, failing to change his life or make key decisions while the world around him is changing. The struggles of the country under its new leadership and the resistance from within all occur in the backdrop until they take center stage; this same pattern describes Salim in his approach to it all. He does not confront the emerging chaos until it is almost too late. We see the country and atmosphere change dramatically: "This piece of earth - how many changes had come to it! Forest at a bend in the river, a meeting place, an Arab settlement, a European outpost, a European suburb, a ruin like the ruin of a dead civilization, the glittering Domain of a new Africa, and now this." The "this" he is referring to is the decay of the idealistic "Domain" which is a kind of centre of learning, symbolic of the emerging sophistication of the African mind - it has become overrun with weeds and collapsed, seeming to revert to its more basic, tribal incarnation. I am sure Naipaul has had his share of criticism for his portrayal of race, slavery and women. That has always struck me as an unfair assessment of any fiction writer, as if there had to be an agenda or belief system underlying a writer's writings. I find the best fiction is usually where there is no agenda or motive, just a representation of real people and their idiosyncratic lives. I don't believe that he was necessarily trying to create a sympathetic character in Salim, just a realistic one. We live with a character who appears to be blown to and fro like a reed in the wind, making human choices but also steadily procrastinating. At the end of this story, I felt as if I had been to central Africa, lived Salim's li

V.S. Naipaul is one of the most talented modern authors we have. It is a shame that his reputation is often tarnished by those who sense something less than sympathy in his depictions of the postcolonial communities and realities he describes. He can be funny but in the same way any novelist can be funny in describing human situations, if there is satire it is a sympathetic satire as he himself was born into the situation he describes. Naipaul's work describes the often absurd situations that arise when a people no longer have a solid societal structure to rely on, he describes situations where identity and reality are split between two or more cultures. In his early sixties books he does this in a profound and comic way. House for Mr. Biswas is his classic from this period. In the 1970's the realities Naipaul describes no longer are presented comically, rather they reflect the tragedy of the very real conflicts in the world at the time. A Bend in the River is his classic from this period. Guerrillas(1975) is also good though. A Bend in the River(1979) gets a lot of attention because it has so often been compared to Conrad and there is some reason for this most notably being the fact that Naipaul writes in a very clear prose that recalls that lucid minded Englishman who also saw into the heart of the reality of the African situation. This book is very bleak but beautifully written. You will be haunted by some of the images such as the white moths fluttering, symbols of the insecure condition of all life. Naipaul deserves to be appreciated by a wider audience. This book should be on every individuals syllabus who wishes to be aware of the great authors not just of the past but of the present.

This is one of those novels that can haunt the imagination for the rest of the reader's life. It is a true masterpiece of exploratory fiction, from the opening paragraph, "The world is what it is," to the closing images of moths "white in white light." Its world is brutal and alien, yet brings out the humanity, vanities, and hopes that all of us share. As a window into the mind of underdeveloped countries, it is unsurpassed. It is so superior to Conrad's Heart of Darkness, to which it is so frequently compared, that critics should not even mention them together.The writing is plain, yet elegant, a quiet symphony as it portrays a journey of violence and despair and growth. Once I finished it, I read it again from cover to cover in a single sitting, transported into these alien lives that only occur in few novels I have ever read. As such, it can serve as the starting point of a lifelong inner conversation, the true mark of a classic.This novel was written at the high point in Naipal's career. He was just becoming world famous and this one cemented his reputation. It is a pity that his subsequent works never quite matched the sweep and depth of voice in this novel. Now he is criticized, perhaps rightly, for his sexism, his pessimism, and his petty prejudices. But this novel is one of the best I ever read.

Naipaul's "A Bend in the River" is almost as much reportage as fiction. The novel is set in the city of Kisangani, on the Congo River in Congo (formerly the Zaire river in Zaire) -- though interestingly, the author never says this explicitly. I have never seen an account as to what Naipaul's experiences in Zaire were exactly, but he manages to tell the story of the early days of Zaire's independence, after colonial rule as the Belgian Congo. The protagonist is a young Indian from the Eastern coast. ("Indian" in the sense of his ethnicity, his family has been in Africa longer than they can remember.) He has purchased a shop in Kisangani, and trys to build up his business as the "big man" consolidates power in the newly independent country. Things go from bad to worse, for the new shopkeeper and the country. Though this is fiction, every word is true. Naipaul writes beautifully, and has many insights into Africa, colonialism, history, and life. This is one of the few books that I have read and enjoyed more than once.Some people recommend Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" to readers looking for an "African" novel. But to recommend "Things Fall Apart" over "A Bend in the River" makes sense only if you can read just a single book about Africa. Achebe's novel is set in Nigeria; Naipaul's is about Zaire. It's like saying don't bother with "Brothers Karamozov", read "Great Expectations" instead. I should hope a serious reader would turn his attention to both.(The last days of the Belgian Congo is the setting for Barbara Kingsolver's "The Poisonwood Bible". Many good nonfiction stories from this time and place are found in "A Doctor's Life: Unique Stories" by William T. Close. A literary approach to the early days of the Belgian Congo is Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness".)