Karol - Bend in The River -1/31

3. Most readers, beginning the book, would tend to associate the main character with VSN. However, their origins are different. Can you tell us a bit about VSN and look for associations between author and the character of Salim?

I apologize for posting so late. It took me a little while to place who V.S. Naipul was because I had been introduced to him through Paul Theroux's book  Sir Vidia's Shadow: A Friendship across Five Continents. Having no idea who the man was before I knew his drama it is refreshing to put a voice to the caricature that Paul Theroux presents.

My first impression of this novel is the imagery of unexpected awkward statement like the "beauty of numbers" (24) or  "Ghosts from the future" (27) the statement are then explained and push the narrative  along. The synthesis of enumeration in the first awkward statement then  explanation gives a consumerist hue to the tone of the book. I am also biased because I read what Edward Said said about this book before I began reading it.  Is it neocolonial to reject socialism and choose consumerist symbols over socialist ones? There are free market liberals out there.

Naipul takes a travelers risk in explaining this African non-place. Things are described as African and non-African the way a seasoned traveler would describe them. There is also this ambiguousness as well as acknowledgment of boundaries, natural boundaries, where African violence occurs. Or where it occurs in the Western imagination. There is no doubt that is a pro western narrative. 

 To answer the question:  Naipul is nothing like the protagonist in his book. Neither in ethnicity nor vocation. With this author it is important or me to separate the man from the work. Patrick French, in his biography of Naipul, accuses Naipul of being a sadist and a batterer of women.