Customer Reviews
More green than Greene - By: M. Bamford, 24 Oct 2008 
An impressive book,in many ways similar to the typical Graham Greene novel : cynical ex-pats livingin a third world setting & having affairs.
It's more three dimensional & rounded than Greene though, with more empathy & understanding of the 'locals', & more sense of place, Naipaul taking more time to set the scene, & leaving more room for poetical descriptions of the settings.
One thing that puzzled me was the almost seemless transition of Salim from an adolescent wet behind the ears to a cynical Greene-like characterin a matter of days. Not sure whether this is a literary device or a genuine non-sequitur, but would like to know.
Would also be interested to know if Chinua Achebe had had an opinion on this novel, with his famous opinions of non-Africans writing about Africa (ie Conrad)
Breath Taking Honesty - By: Herman Norford, 27 Jul 2008 
I must say that I regret that it took me a long time to discover the significance of A Bendin the River. Its significance was brought to my attention by the recent publicity surrounding a biography of V S Naipaul. As I began reading the novel, it immediately stuck a cord with me. Naipaul's opening sentence must be one of the most stunning first sentences of the literary novel. Its assertion creates a sense that one has embarked upon the reading of a great philosophical treatise. I was immediately engaged.
Our first person narrator & main character, Salim, takes over a shop somewherein central Africain a state of post rebellion. He is restless & trying to escape his former life on the east coast of Africa. Salim narrates his struggle for personal change against a backdrop of an array of characters who undertake their own personal journey of survival & changein the context of an emerging state that vacillates between the promise of success, & failure.
A Bendin the River is a timeless novel. Some twenty nine years after first publication if you take this passage as an example: "I had heard dreadful stories of that time, of casual killings over many months by soldiers & rebels & mercenaries, of people trusted upin disgusting ways & being made to sing certain songs while they were beaten to deathin the streets", you will soon realise that it is very relevant to certain parts of Africa today. One must pay tribute to Naipaul's profound percepton & unfortunate prophecy.
This is a well observed & down right honest story. For this reason I fear that some readers may well shirk from its truths. In trying to get at the truth, Naipaul has a keen eye for the social conditions & an acute awareness of the mores of the surroundingsin which his characters find themselves. The novel is rendered with frankness & heart felt honesty. However, Naipaul knows that we don't simply turn stones & find the truth. In a spirit of disillusionment a minor character tells us: "Do you think we will ever get to know the truth about what has happendedin Africain the last one hundred or even fifty years? All the wars, all the rebellions, all the leaders, all the defeats?
But the novel is much more than a story about the state of Africa or at least that part of Africa that it purports to cover. It is also a story about an ex-colonized people struggling to find a placein what they might perceive as the 'modern' world. Its like being cast off to drift by colonial masters, the 'ex-colonized' suddenly floats towards the shores of the mother countries but then find themselves lost. But what are these 'ex-colonized' people suppose to do? Should they take up the advice of one of Naipaul's characters, Indar, & acknowledge that: "the past can only cause pain" & then trample on it?
It is this theme, the psychological plight of the colonized & ex-conlonized that makes the novel a facinating read. It manifests itself dramaticallyin the character Salim. To some extent Salim is insecure & angry because he has managed to step outside the colonial frame of consciousness. He becomes adrift; he has no anchor. I quote at length to illustrate the point, & incidently this is symbolic of many a people brought upin the colonial world. This is how Salim describes his existential plight: "I too, breaking out of old ways, had discovered solitude & melancholy which is at the basis of religion. Religion turns the melancholy into uplifting fear & hope. But I had rejected the ways & comforts of religion. I couldn't turn to them again, just like that. That melancholy about the world remained something I had to put up with on my own. At some times it was sharp; at some times it wasn't there."
There is an array of wonderfully drawn characters. I was particularly taken by the couple Mahesh & Shoba. What we havein Mahesh is a bright, ambitious & optimistic man who is nonetheless thawted by his social conditions. In another place & time Mahesh represents the possibilities that could have been realised. What the main characters havein common, which makes them intriguing, is that they are running away from other lives & become caught up, & to some extent trapped,in the vast ramifications of the new post colonial Africa. On the whole these characters are not Africans & soin an ironic twist Naipaul turns the predator, who would exploit Africa for its potential, into hopeless prey simply adrift on a sea of events beyond their control. These characters are at once pityful & pathetic.
The prose is direct & straight forward yet dense with issues that the reader has to tease out. There is no rethorical flourishes. Mataphor & simile are kept to a minimum & where they are used they are not that vivid & memorable. I sense that this approach by Naipaul was deliberate. It's as if he did not want anything to getin the way of his powerful themes & ideas.
Ultimate, this is a novel of ideas. There us religion, politics, history & the eking out of an African intellectual culture. It depicts a people trying to find their feetin a post colonial world but inevitably stumbling. But the book is much more than a depiction of conditionsin Africa. Just as important for me, & for others who care about such issues, it outlines the psychological & intellectual plight of people livingin former colonies, & who have emmigrated to livein the so called mother countries. This is an honest book that touched me deeply. Twenty nine years on from publication it is still relevant & worth a read.
The World is What It Is - unfortunately bad books have a place in it - By: Ibrahim Ali, 08 Jun 2008 
I was rather disappointed with this tale of Indiansin Africa. Naipul seems not to have captured the mind of his subject & the book lacks direction or plot. There is no humour & despite a wonderful opening line the book isn't well written either. I would have expected better from a writer who is so lauded.
A Masterpiece - By: Pieter, 18 Mar 2005 What a great novel this is! It tells the story of Salim who left his family home on the coast to start a businessin central Africa at a town on the bendin the great Congo River. The inhabitants of the town, natives & expatriates, are described with empathy & an eye for detail.
Naipaul also narrates the history of the town as it is connected to the ups & downs of history, with great detail. His writing style is compelling & elegant, while the plot & characterization are superb. In many ways, the book illumines the post-independence history of those Africans that are of Indian descent.
Most of them were traders & many of them went into a second diaspora after the tumult & political upheavalsin Africa of the 1960s & 70s. I was particularly impressed by Salim's first experience of the voice of Joan Baez, when a record of hers was played at a partyin the academic suburb next to the old town.
Naipaul's extraordinary talent comes throughin every flowing sentence &in every well-chosen word. I'm not a great lover of fiction, but this book has enriched my mind. I highly recommend it to readers of serious fiction & to historians alike. I also recommend the travel book North Of South by Shiva Naipaul, the record of a journey through Africa that tiesin very well with A Bend In The River.
Welcome to Africa - By: B. Paszylk, 13 Aug 2002 So, here goes: my first Naipaul book. While reading it I really felt like beingin Africa. And that's what always draws me back to Naipaul: he can so astonishingly well describe a place he once visited that it gets reconstructed to the tiniest detailin the reader's mind. And not only that: Naipaul can create characters as well as he can re-create places; Salim, Metty, Yvette - or even minor characters like Father Huismans & Raymond - are all so alive that you can't do otherwise than caring for them & wanting to know what they are destined to do.
Now, having read several more books by Naipaul since this first encounter, I must admit, though, that 'A Bend In The River' is the most monotonous of them & without the usual quantity of humour. On the other hand, I struggled hard not to give it ****, which says something about the quality of Naipaul's writing. In fact, this very book can get more appreciation after you try some of Naipaul's autobiographical books & start notice parallels between his life & his fiction (some parts of 'A Bend...' are also shownin 'Finding The Centre' - with Naipaulin Salim's role).
