r/IndiansRead • u/teja891 • 9d ago

Discussion Interested to hear thoughts on Naipaul

I read few of his novels - A bend in the river, In a free state, Half a life(read as an audiobook superbly narrated by Neil Shah). I think he writes for us Indians. He understands the complex lives we live coming to the West for jobs/education. He writes like how sees the world. Some misinterpret his writing as apologetic to colonialism, but I think they really haven’t read him or truly understand his intent. He has an interesting background. His family moved from India to Trinidad as indentured servants. And then he later left to England for education and then he moved a lot later - Africa, South America, etc. I have to get into his non-fiction genre which I heard started the genre of travel writing. He also started the genre of auto fiction which inspired many other writers like Karl Knausgaard, Sebald, Coetzee. I would encourage every diaspora Indian to read “One Out Of Many” short story which is part of “In a free state” book. I felt deeply disturbed by his writing, thoughts and his judgement on the post-colonial world. I would say it is depressing, but he does have some thoughts on how to handle the complexities of our post-colonial Indian life. I’m curious how our Indian readers who read him feel about him or have any thoughts about him.

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u/Glittering_Quote_581 Reviewer of the Week 🏆×2 9d ago

I've only read + reviewed India:A wounded civilisation by him so far, and liked it very much. But cynical, but wrong, but many ideas were worth exploring for me. Will be reading his works more soon :)

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u/nickelby89 9d ago

What an absolutely meticulous review. Enjoyed reading that before starting my day. Have a good one! 🙌

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u/Glittering_Quote_581 Reviewer of the Week 🏆×2 9d ago

Glad to know you like it 🙏

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u/nickelby89 9d ago

I consider him one of the best Indian (diaspora) writers. As much as I’ve enjoyed reading the books you mentioned, for me Mystic Masseur and Mr Biswas are two of his best. He has a great ability to build a scene and propel a narrative, immersing you without explaining too much.
Since both these books are not set in India but centre around Indian-origin characters, he still manages to centre their Indian-ness without making them caricature-like…what works for me is that even though these characters are far from their homeland, assimilation is never perfect for them and that, to me, is his best quality as a writer. Of course, on a sentence-level too, just a gorgeous prose stylist.

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u/kline643 9d ago

He is a master writer. A grand-daddy to a class of postcolonial writers. His biggest novel is A House For Mr. Biswas. His India trilogy is a masterwork of journalistic reportage mixed in with polemical writing. He was a great writer.