Summary
Willie himself is a blank, and this is part of the problem. In Naipaul's earlier novels, it was sometimes possible to read the misogyny, racism and elitism as the point of view of the protagonist; one thinks of Salim in A Bend in the River (1979), his barely concealed hysteria surfacing in frequent exclamation marks ("Wine! It was hard to get the simplest food . . ."; "What a strain it was, picking your way through stupidity and aggressiveness and pride and hurt!").
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Extract
Colonial Psychosis
Colonial psychosis V S Naipaul's prejudices - once kept in check by his gift for social observation - have now expanded to devour everything appealing about his fiction, writes SIDDHARTHA DEB Magic Seeds V S Naipaul Picador, 294pp, £16.99
VS Naipaul's return to fiction three years ago was an oddly muted effort, giving the impression that the doubts he had raised abou...See the full content of this document
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