Guerrillas

Rich with sullen anger and irony, in Naipaul's novel, a Caribbean island's fragile racial balance unravels when a slumming ex-journalist from London opts to relieve her boredom by making an ill-considered sexual conquest. The result is deadly and the desolate corrupt underbelly of the island's simmering "Revolution" is revealed to be as afflicted by political ambition and personal vulnerability as the ruling white society that the guerrillas aim to destroy. In the end no one is a guerrilla because everyone is. Jane is reckless, intrusive, unthinking, and provocative by habit. Not "loose," but a loose cannon. Repulsed by the aging paramour with whom she currently resides, named Roche, who has long abandoned his celebrity status as an erstwhile imprisoned human rights activist for a life of anonymity and a steady paycheck, she fancies herself drawn to Jimmy Ahmed, the leader of the ostensibly non-violent wing of the island's guerrillas. Jimmy has made his own compromises, however, calling himself "Haji" for example although he has never visited Mecca, and using his status and reputation to obtain sex in disreputable ways, and has already taken the same road as Roche, choosing comfort and bribes over challenging the status quo. Still he resents being regarded as a plaything and having his vulnerabilities displayed before him. The interplay results in personal tragedy and paralyzes the island. Although topic and title are dated and show a preoccupation with trendy 70's "liberation movements," characterization and style show the deft work of an artist at home with his canvas and, as with all fine literature, are perennial in their appeal. A fine weave and text-book example of a writer focusing on that which he knows best.

Those who have read Naipaul's relatively more famous 'A Bend in the River', should remember that when Indar the professor took his childhood friend Salim to a party at historian Raymond's house Joan Baize's excellent songs on injustice and 'end of the world'(from nuclear threat) were being played. Salim knew for sure that those were make believe. He felt that only those who got justice most of the times and are expecting to get it as before could sing such sweet songs on injustice. Those who knew that the world would go on and they were safe in it were likely to sing such songs on the end of the world. Naipaul never believed in a hasty, romantic and adventurous way of improvemrnt that has been the vision of revolution among the guerrillas. His mantra has been continuous self-assessment. That is why Peter and not Jimmy Ahmed, is the hero in a novel with such an explosive title. Jimmy's diary that he writes time to time in the form of a letter clearly betrays his self- congratulatory narcissism only which, sadly enough, sustains him as a guerrilla. Then Meredith plays the game at the lawn of De Tunja. He asks De Tunja to describe an ideal day for himself but through a piece of paper written beforehand, shows Peter's adventure loving wife that men can not really think of much change at a time, as Tunja describes more or less an usual day. The woman is enraged. The story ends in total breakdown of faith and credibility among the revolutionaries. Naipaul's strength is in the balance of treatment that neither makes villains out of the revolutionaries nor does it ridicule them. This is a kind of novel which is not for the reader with passing interest in politics.

V. S. Naipaul is unquestionably one of the finest writers in the English language; I am not surprised he recently won the Nobel Prize. However, those who read "Guerrillas" may find it a very bleak, unsympathetic look at sexual, political and racial tension in Trinidad (Or is it Jamaica, instead?). The scenes and dialogue have an uncanny air of credibility about them. Vaipaul's magnificent prose paints a dark look at ethnic and political strife on this island. Naipaul is clearly someone who is quite willing to use fiction as a means of exposing corruption, hypocrisy and poverty as symptoms of gross government mismanagement by the natives themselves; he's unwilling to show a brighter, hopeful future for the protagonists, but instead, an unrelenting descent into their own private hells.

Having just finished reading GUERRILLAS, I surfed over to read what others thought. The other reviews left me somewhat staggered and altogether bewildered. GUERRILLAS is set on a benighted and misbegotten Caribbean island in modern (that is to say, postcolonial) times. The novel is not set in Africa. Pointedly, the book's power derives in part from its portrayal of Caribbean rhythms, the oppressive and ominous atmosphere of the coconut plantation, the tribal background beat of "the reggae" (Naipaul's phrase). The second great strength of this novel is its depiction of human frailites, transgressions, and moral breakdowns. An expatriate English couple and a West-Indian would-be revolutionary are the three main characters, and the agonizing (and mostly self-destructive) sexual and philosophic choices they are faced with ring true to life. The compromises and rationalizations they make to themselves and each other result in their irrevocable mental and moral deterioration. The fragility of the social setting in which Jane, Roche, and Jimmy find themselves leads to infidelity, sexual abuse, murder, and what can be just as horrifying as any of these, the voluntary surrender of one's soul. Finally, the novel's powerful, profound ending arrestingly reveals the enigmatic and conflicted essence of postcolonial consciousness. GUERRILLAS is a minor masterpiece.

What can i say... it was the best book i ever read since i moved to America. As a native i think it represents our culture and heritage as no other book could. We are a dignified and respected culture and V.S. Naipaul brings these views to life.It was tight.