Customer Reviews
Familiar pessimism about the future of newly independent nations - By: Trevor Coote, 18 Apr 2008 
Once again exile & cultural dislocation, & the mess of independence, are the principal themesin V S Naipaul's early & acerbic commentary on the ironies & paradoxes of post-colonialism. This time, the narrator, Ralph Singh, an ex-colonial minister from a small Caribbean island, ensconcedin London, writes his memoirs from a roomin a suburban hotel. His writings rock back & forth between the present & the pastin an attempt to explore the meaning of his childhood & the relationship with his family, his education, his brief marriage to a ridiculous white woman & above all his political careerin Isabella, the island of his youth, during its formative post-independent years. All the criticisms are here that he has made of his own native Trinidad: the ideological bankruptcy, greed & stupidity of the new post-colonial elite resulting from an inferiority complexin relation to their colonial masters, the abandonment of traditional cultures & values perceived as inherently inferior, & a desire by both communities (African & South Asian) to imitate, to mimic, the behaviour & mores of their white ex-rulers. The result is an ill-disciplined & poorly governed country, with the familiar racial & social tensions that are characteristic of that region & of Naipaul's novels, a place without social cohesion or any meaningful sense of direction. The chaos of Singh's own mean-spirited & selfish life is mapped over that of his unruly country to give a dispiriting pessimism about the future of nations seeking a fresh start after the demise of colonialism. But then this was writtenin 1967 - & by V S Naipaul.
A Bend In the River II - By: B. Paszylk, 01 Aug 2002 OK, so it's pretty unjust to say a book of such a writer as Naipaul is a sequel to another book of his; with that I can easily agree, don't take the title of this review seriously then. But what I wanted to emphasize here is that Naipaul generally describes One Man's Journeyin his books - & while 'A Bend In the River' was a chapter concerning this man's Escape, 'The Mimic Men' deals with his Arrival & Return. And it really doesn't matter that the countries change: the protagonist remains the same; it doesn't matter that the 'sequel' was written before the 'part I': Naipaul jumps back & forthin the history of his own life & it is the reader's task to sort it out correctly... & this task, I must add, is tremendous fun. Personally I consider 'The Mimic Men' one of Naipaul's greatest novels -in fact it's even better than the more famous 'A Bend In the River'.
Acute � but Distasteful. - By: Donal A. O'Neill, 25 Oct 2001 This is one of Naipaul's earlier novels &in it he addresses many of the same themes that occupy his latter, & masterful "A Placein the World". These include the transition of a multi-ethnic Caribbean society from colony to independence; the culture-shock of a colonial exposed to higher educationin Europe; post-independence power struggles and, ultimately, failure, corruption & slow descent into near chaos arising from lack of any dynamic other than lust for power & wealth. The cultural impoverishment of Asian communities cut off from their cultural roots are poignantly described here, asin much of Naipauls's other work (including the masterful "A House for Mr.Biswas", where the treatment is tragic-comic). As always Naipaul's evocation of place & character is acute, bleak & wholly convincing. This said however, the major criticism may be less one of the book than of this particular reader. There is only so much reality that can be comfortably absorbedin a single novel. The fact that the first-person narrator, unsparingin his confessions of mean-mindedness, lechery, callousness & greed, is so contemptible a human-being makes it very hard for the reader not to feel soiled by the time the whole sordid tale is done. I first read this book fourteen years ago, & retained a very unpleasant memory of it for this reason. On re-reading I found that my earlier perception was sustained. It is a splendid literary achievement - but a very distasteful one.
