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In a Free State A Novel V S Naipaul Books

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In a Free State A Novel V S Naipaul Books

In a Free State is a literary assmemblage.It's not a unified novel. It begins with a piece about someone traveling via freighter to Alexandria from Athens.It's followed by two short stories - One out of Many and Tell Me Who to Kill .Then there is a short novel ,In a Free State.It closes out with a short piece where the traveler to Alexandria is back and in Egypt right before the 67 War , 25 or so years later.

My favorite part was One out of Many because it's actually pretty funny. It's the story of an Indian peasant who moves to Bombay and is content .Then his boss gets a job in Washington DC and brings him along.The urban West is a shock.His reactions to what he sees and experiences and how he ultimately adapts makes for a good story.

Tell Me Who to Kill is less succesful.It's set in what we can deduce is Trinidad and centers around a man of Indian descent who lives in a village from which he immigrates to London to follow his brother whose success he has dedicated himself to.In London he gradually finds out his brother is conning him .He's not a student but pretty much a near do well.He opens a restaurant .Is harassed by White people and winds up killing someone.The story has a certain amount of power and color but it's unduly murky.While well written , it's too remote.

Then there is In a Free State which is a decidedly strange piece of work.It kept me going and I admit held my interest but I wondered why at times.It's set in a version of what is obviously Uganda.It could be called Bobby and Linda go for a drive because that's what is going on for most of the novel.Bobby , a rather strange guy from England works for the government .Linda is married to someone who works for local broadcasting (I think).Both of them are kind of creepy.They drive from the capital to what 's refered to as the compound , I gather a considerable distance.Something like a civil war is going on.They have adventures.They are unpleasant to each other.The country is falling apart.They get to the compound .It's over.It's weirdly interesting.

I read this back to back with Guerillas and am now convinced that as time went on , Naipaul became a better essayist than he was a novelist.I think his books on travel in the Islamic world are brilliant.His early novel A House for Mr Bisawas may be a great book .But these books are lesser.That doesn't mean they aren't worthwhile. Naipaul is a fine writer with a fine mind.You can get a lot out of him even in these works. One Out of Many even reminds you that he can be quite funny.However the books have a dyspeptic quality to them which gets irritating at times.I felt like kicking Linda and Bobby.I also found him unecessarily opaque here.Yet , for all my complaints ,I think he is an essential writer.I'll take his sourness any day of the week over the phoney sanctimonious goo that so many writers go in for.


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In a Free State A Novel V S Naipaul Books Reviews

Lovely prose, and intense storytelling. Interesting point of view - the outsider in different perspectives. But, not as great as his best, like A House for Mr Biswas
Beautifully written. It describes in profound clarity how living away from the country of your birth leaves you quite adrift at times and also how no country wants to be governed by another. Great book!
Having been a fan of Naipaul for several years I was disappointed with the book In A Free State. Of the stories included I found only One Out Of Many amusing and entertaining. When reading the story In A Free State I recognized much of the East Africa where I worked and lived for three years, but the story is too drawn out and I was longing to come to its end.
Descriptions and adjectives used in the whole book feel harsh to the reader. Many times the characters' prejudices may cause disconfort, just as the prejudices the characters themselves suffer. No one escapes, things just happen. Feelings and perceptions mix with the events. And that is exactly what makes Naipaul books feel so real, even when places and characters differ so much.
Naipaul at his best, unflinching, absolutely unsentimental take on race & sexual politics
The writing is superb, obviously. The characters, who tell the story, come through with all the complexity and richness of their consciousness. An Indian man-servant, gaining freedom and incredible loneliness in Washington DC. A Trinidadian, trying to make it in London for live of his ingrate younger brother and possibly ending up jailed or under some sort of surveillance. And a gay Englishman finding a way out of his depression in Africa, which he loves and sees in all its wildness, savagery and oppression. Memorable stories from one of the world's greatest writers.
V.S. Naipaul's "In a Free State" takes the reader through four narratives of the post-war 20th Century. In each, characters whose identities are deeply rooted in their cultural backgrounds find themselves encountering situations in which the social environment has become disjointed. Who they are inside just suddenly does not correspond to the world outside; the world has begun to change faster than many of us can keep up. The polyglot melange of a ferry from Greece to Egypt, a Pakistani who finds employment in Washington D.C., the anxieties of British caucasians in central Africa, and tourist encounters at Luxor; these four narratives confront the construction of identity, culture, "race" and the great--often unseen--pressures of contemporary historical change without ever losing the vivid flow of really great fiction. This book provokes questions that we (post)moderns have yet to suitably answer. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for anyone who wishes to expand their horizons. Happy Reading!
In a Free State is a literary assmemblage.It's not a unified novel. It begins with a piece about someone traveling via freighter to Alexandria from Athens.It's followed by two short stories - One out of Many and Tell Me Who to Kill .Then there is a short novel ,In a Free State.It closes out with a short piece where the traveler to Alexandria is back and in Egypt right before the 67 War , 25 or so years later.

My favorite part was One out of Many because it's actually pretty funny. It's the story of an Indian peasant who moves to Bombay and is content .Then his boss gets a job in Washington DC and brings him along.The urban West is a shock.His reactions to what he sees and experiences and how he ultimately adapts makes for a good story.

Tell Me Who to Kill is less succesful.It's set in what we can deduce is Trinidad and centers around a man of Indian descent who lives in a village from which he immigrates to London to follow his brother whose success he has dedicated himself to.In London he gradually finds out his brother is conning him .He's not a student but pretty much a near do well.He opens a restaurant .Is harassed by White people and winds up killing someone.The story has a certain amount of power and color but it's unduly murky.While well written , it's too remote.

Then there is In a Free State which is a decidedly strange piece of work.It kept me going and I admit held my interest but I wondered why at times.It's set in a version of what is obviously Uganda.It could be called Bobby and Linda go for a drive because that's what is going on for most of the novel.Bobby , a rather strange guy from England works for the government .Linda is married to someone who works for local broadcasting (I think).Both of them are kind of creepy.They drive from the capital to what 's refered to as the compound , I gather a considerable distance.Something like a civil war is going on.They have adventures.They are unpleasant to each other.The country is falling apart.They get to the compound .It's over.It's weirdly interesting.

I read this back to back with Guerillas and am now convinced that as time went on , Naipaul became a better essayist than he was a novelist.I think his books on travel in the Islamic world are brilliant.His early novel A House for Mr Bisawas may be a great book .But these books are lesser.That doesn't mean they aren't worthwhile. Naipaul is a fine writer with a fine mind.You can get a lot out of him even in these works. One Out of Many even reminds you that he can be quite funny.However the books have a dyspeptic quality to them which gets irritating at times.I felt like kicking Linda and Bobby.I also found him unecessarily opaque here.Yet , for all my complaints ,I think he is an essential writer.I'll take his sourness any day of the week over the phoney sanctimonious goo that so many writers go in for.