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S'està carregant… A Bend in the River (1979)de V. S. Naipaul
![]() Booker Prize (77) » 28 més Nobel Price Winners (47) 1970s (44) Books Read in 2016 (734) Best African Books (44) Top Five Books of 2016 (389) 20th Century Literature (450) 1,001 BYMRBYD Concensus (356) Swinging Seventies (43) Africa (43) hopes (9) Elegant Prose (67) Read This Next (77) SHOULD Read Books! (267) AP Lit (265) Allie's Wishlist (139) No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. Another one I remember reading some years ago, without now recalling its details. Protagonist and narrator, Salim, lives in central Africa in the 1960s-1970s. He has moved from the coast to run a shop in the interior located at the bend of a great river. It is a postcolonial novel, set in central Africa. The circumstances described in the novel are comparable to what happened in the Congo after the Belgians departed. The country is run by a corrupt President, known as the “Big Man,” who gradually increases his power base to that of a dictator. This novel is supremely well-written. It is character-driven, so we meet the people in Salim’s circle, and we are privy to his thoughts. The theme is centered on what happens when civilization breaks down. The old rule of colonialism exploited the people. But the new rule is that of a Cult of Personality. It is based on corruption, fear, and oppression. In this case, individuals who were previously striving for financial gain or recognition for their abilities, living in relative security, end up fearing for their lives. This fear negatively impacts their relationships and ways of interacting with others. We see Salim turn from a typical shopkeeper trying to make a decent living to a man of questionable ethics who is only saved from destruction by his status as an outsider. The book portrays the basic need of all people to find a safe haven to fulfill their dreams and aspirations, and how social upheavals can wreak havoc on this basic need. This type of situation has occurred in history many times, and not solely in Africa. I cannot say it is a particularly “enjoyable” read but I appreciate its relevance. A book about displaced people; people living in foreign lands, villagers living in urban areas with no retrievable past or conceivable future and all the futility and frenzy that creates. This book is about a man who moves from the east coast of Africa to the interior to open a store at a bend in the river during unsettled times. It got me wondering what it takes to leave everything behind and start again somewhere remote. What kind of faith or courage is needed or is it just being open to where life leads you? (This is not necessarily what the book is about- but I really could not stop thinking about this as a concept) Sense ressenyes | afegeix-hi una ressenya
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Fiction.
Literature.
Historical Fiction.
HTML:In the "brilliant novel" (The New York Times) V.S. Naipaul takes us deeply into the life of one man??an Indian who, uprooted by the bloody tides of Third World history, has come to live in an isolated town at the bend of a great river in a newly independent African nation. Naipaul gives us the most convincing and disturbing vision yet of what happens in a place caught between the dangerously alluring modern world and its own tenacious past and traditio No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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![]() GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:![]()
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I find the setting fascinating but the story is told in what I am beginning to think of as the "Booker Prize" style -- lots of description of Salim's thoughts and opinions and the action felt as if it was occurring at a distance even when it is happening to Salim himself. (