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‘An autobiography can distort, facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies. It reveals the writer totally.’
-V.S. Naipaul
V.S. Naipaul’s ‘A Bend in the River’ reiterates the above given lines. Among other things, the book talks about immigration, revamping of oneself and the identity crisis that comes with it. It is a classic example of how the post-colonial world left the minds and souls of the colonized.
Millions were displaced and dislocated after the colonial rule ended in Africa. These people who immigrated to other parts of the world, leaving their homes and histories behind are the ones Naipaul talks about in the book.
Introduction
Book’s name - A Bend in the River
Author’s name - V.S. Naipaul
Genre - Political Fiction
Language - English
Synopsis- Spoiler Alert!
Published in 1979, ‘A Bend in the River’ is often considered to be reminiscent of Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’. The novel chronicles both an internal journey and a physical journey to the heart of Africa as it explores the themes of personal exile and political and individual corruption.
It expresses Naipaul’s skepticism about the capabilities of the newly decolonized countries to establish independent and politically viable identities.
Set in the postcolonial times of an unnamed country in Africa, the book is narrated by Salim, a young man of Indian origin whose family has been in traders and have been living on the coast for a long time. He believes to leave a mark on this world, he must work and work away from his family.
So he takes the decision to leave his family and acquires a new shop in a small, growing city in the interior parts of the continent and sells sundry items to the natives. Here he is caught up in between the Independence movement, in a scene of chaos, violence, warring tribes, ignorance, isolation and poverty.
From all this chaos, emerges Naipaul’s masterpiece- a truly moving story of historical upheaval and social breakdown.
About the Author
Picture Credit- The New Yorker
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was a Trinidad and Tobago- born British writer. He is widely known for his novels entailing the themes of postcolonial literature and alienation in the postcolonial world. Since he was also of an Indian background and an immigrant, his written works comprise the themes of dislocation and identity crisis.
He won the Booker Prize in 1971 for his novel ‘In a Free State’, The Trinity Cross in 1989 and received a Knighthood in Britain in 1990. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001.
About the Book
The book begins with the narrator’s shift away from his family. Salim, the narrator moves from his family home in the east coast to the interior parts of the African continent to an unnamed town situated at the end of the river. Here, he buys a small shop where he sells day to day items to the natives.
A family servant, Metty, tells Salim that his hometown was attacked and his family is now scattered. Salim becomes aware of the fact that he now has no home to go to and tries to build a life, his life, in the town where he lives. He meets a woman, a witch called Zabeth, who buys merchandise for her entire village and makes a quite dangerous journey to do so. She brings her son Ferdinand to attend the re-opened school in town and asks him to look after him, which Salim reluctantly agrees to.
As the town begins to grow, the President builds a huge government complex outside the city called the Domain. Indar, Salim’s childhood friend, introduces him to some of the people who work there. Salim attends a party at Raymond’s house, who is a historian and works for the President. He immediately is attracted to his wife Yvette and they begin to have an affair.
As revolutions take place and tensions build, Salim leaves Africa and goes to England where he gets engaged to a woman from his hometown. He returns to Africa to close up shop and get his money, only to find that the President has nationalized all foreigner owned shops and his hop is now owned by a former mechanic called Theotime.
Salim now begins dealing in gold and ivory to make some money and get out of the country, but he is caught with ivory and jailed. In the jail, he is untouched but he sees how the young boys are beaten and forced to memorize tributes to the President.
Ferdinand, who now has some authority in the government bails him out. He also tells Salim that the country is no longer safe for him and he should leave immediately. Metty begs Salim to take him along with, but since he doesn't own a passport or a visa, Salim has to leave him behind.
The steamer Salim is on, gets attacked and many people are killed. The book ends with Salim on the steamer ship, sailing away in the dark.
Themes Involved
One of the major and most dominant themes involved in the novel is that of dislocation. Salim leaves his family and moves to the town at the bend in the river. Here too, Salim is unable to find that feeling of home and is constantly threatened and attacked. He then moves to England but has to return. Salim looks for a home in the entire novel but never really finds one.
The second theme is that of alienation. Since Salim is an Indian in Africa, he is never really, entirely accepted by the people there. He always feels like an outsider. Same happens to Indar when he goes to England to attend University.
The only difference is that Indar finds a way to make his alienation a strength and use it for diplomacy and earn respect through his work and Salim keeps on struggling.
Famous Quotes
‘The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.”
‘You can always get into those places. What is hard is to get out. That is the private fight. Everybody has to find his own way.”
“The rage of the rebels was a rage against metal, machinery, wires, everything that
was not of the forest and Africa.”
‘After all, we make ourselves according to the ideas we have of our possibilities.”
“Small things start us in new ways of thinking,”
The Bottom Line
‘A Bend in the River’ is a book that speaks volumes of the troubles associated with independence. Although set in the African continent, it is reflective of the struggles of Indians and the problems they faced. The problems of displacement and dislocation that followed post-colonialism is very well described in Salim’s character.
He is lost and without a home, alienated in a land he is supposed to belong to and these are only a few of the things that would keep you engrossed while you read this book.
My Ratings for the Book- 4 on 5
Get your copy from Amazon- A Bend in the River
Written By - Sakshi Singh
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