The World is What it is
The World is What it is
The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul
By Patrick French
Publisher: Picador
Price: Rs. 952
By Sarad Pradhan
To understand V.S Naipaul is a mammoth task. More difficult is to understand his literary works that ranges from his Caribbean experience to exploration of Islamic fundamentalism in Indonesia. Just reading his early works like A House for Mr. Biswas –my all time favourite, provides a vista into his early life as a Caribbean boy of Indian origin - formative years of Naipaul who grew up among blacks and Indians. His trilogy on India- India: A million mutinies now, India: An Area of Darkness, India: A wounded Civilization are the outcome of his repeated visit to India, the country that his fore-fathers left years ago to work as sugarcane labours in Caribbean country. These three books are very critical about India. He writes,” I wrote the whole of A Wounded civilization with an idea of the invasion in my mind, in a broad way, the way Indians talk about it as through it’s an act of God. I am enraged by the way Indians don’t wish to understand their history, I am enraged. I think unless you begin to understand your history, you can’t have a new writing.” But the book that brought him to international fame with Noble Award is Beyond Belief, a follow up of his earlier book-Among Believers- both based on his quest to unravel mystery of converted Muslims and their fanaticism from Iran to Indonesia. Before his authorized biography came into light, Sir Vidia’s Shadow- survivor’s memoir of estranged disciple Paul Theroux dominated the world of Naipaul that Naipaul told to ignore and claimed to have not read it. Unlike his previous biography on his mentor –V.S.Naipaul: An Introduction of his work, Theroux, the author of famous travelogue, The Great Railway Bazaar, shows his displeasure, differences and discontent with Naipaul in this book
‘The World is What it is’ is perhaps only authorized biography of V.S. Naipaul nee Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul that allows the readers to peep into the life and works of one of the greatest writers of our generation. Authored by Patrick French, ‘The World is What it is’ is a candid biography of a celebrated author who is known for his whimsical unfriendly and snobbish behaviour. With the permission of Naipaul, Patrick French got access to more than 50,000 piece of papers that Naipaul sold to the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and; together with numerous interviews with Naipaul and his close associates, French’s Herculean task ended in 2008 in a form of a beautiful book whose title is drawn from first line of Naipaul’s famous book ‘A bend in River’ based on Central Africa. It is a tough job for a British author to trace down the historical and social background of a complex writer like Naipaul who was born in Hindu family, brought up among Blacks in Trinidad, grew up as a writer in England, writing novels on Africa and Latin American milieu, his essays on India and Muslims. Though many of us have heard of his mistress Margaret- inspiration for some of his works and his flings with other women, Patrick says,” Vadia’s physical attraction to Pat(his wife) had never been certain, and after they married it declined further. He felt too embarrassed to talk with her about this situation. In the summer of 1958, turning imagination into reality, he started to have sex with prostitutes.” Patrick is very particular in detailing the every aspect related to the life of Naipaul like update information of his siblings, his father’s and mother’s relatives even his contemporary Caribbean writers. He quoted Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook to sketch what kind of person is Naipaul: I think overall he is one of the most complex human beings I’ve met: I have never met anyone as insightful, or as brilliant. But he is certainly not an easy person to know…….. He was not a person who was going to tell you a great deal about himself. His books will tell you about himself, but he won’t tell you.
In this book, Patrick explores the personal life of Naipaul, his demure and submissive British wife Pat, his family and indifferent attitude to his equally talented brother Shiva Naipaul- author of several books like North of South, Black and White. Untimely death of Shiva Naipaul in 1985 at the age of forty made Vidia grief with a feeling of his unfulfilling fraternal responsibility. Almost two and a half decade ago I read A House of Mr. Biswas- the book that introduced me to writings of Naipaul subsequently. Written on the narrative style of R.K. Narayan, A House of Mr. Biswas is a book which brought together all his experience and the uniqueness of his perspective, a late twentieth-century global narrative that could have been written by no one else but Naipaul. And, after reading The World is What it is, I have found similar fictional characters in real life. Writing on Naipaul, even for a versatile writer, is difficult, for a reason that Naipaul appears to be ubiquitous in his writings. This book gives more insight to those readers who are already familiar with the writings of V.S. Naipaul. His infidelity, aloofness from friends and family, superiority complex in writing always revolve around his personality. Patrick finds Naipaul quite emotional and lonely when his first wife Pat dies. “ Vidia did not know what to do. Having spent a lifetime shunning friends, he had no network to support. His wife was dead, at the age of sixty-three,” writes Patrick. The book ends with the death of his first wife and his marriage with second wife Nadira- a Pakistani aspirant journalist and writer. Many a time the issue of his ancestral linkage to Nepal discussed within Nepal, the book doesn’t give any hint to prove it true.
‘The World is What it is’ is a window to the world of Naipaul- a big world that transcends many lives and works of common writers. Perhaps, The World is What it is gives more than what we generally expect to know about a writer. But to understand Naipaul, as Vinod Mehta says we have to read his books –the only way to fathom his complexity, his creativity, his megalomania.
The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul
By Patrick French
Publisher: Picador
Price: Rs. 952
By Sarad Pradhan
To understand V.S Naipaul is a mammoth task. More difficult is to understand his literary works that ranges from his Caribbean experience to exploration of Islamic fundamentalism in Indonesia. Just reading his early works like A House for Mr. Biswas –my all time favourite, provides a vista into his early life as a Caribbean boy of Indian origin - formative years of Naipaul who grew up among blacks and Indians. His trilogy on India- India: A million mutinies now, India: An Area of Darkness, India: A wounded Civilization are the outcome of his repeated visit to India, the country that his fore-fathers left years ago to work as sugarcane labours in Caribbean country. These three books are very critical about India. He writes,” I wrote the whole of A Wounded civilization with an idea of the invasion in my mind, in a broad way, the way Indians talk about it as through it’s an act of God. I am enraged by the way Indians don’t wish to understand their history, I am enraged. I think unless you begin to understand your history, you can’t have a new writing.” But the book that brought him to international fame with Noble Award is Beyond Belief, a follow up of his earlier book-Among Believers- both based on his quest to unravel mystery of converted Muslims and their fanaticism from Iran to Indonesia. Before his authorized biography came into light, Sir Vidia’s Shadow- survivor’s memoir of estranged disciple Paul Theroux dominated the world of Naipaul that Naipaul told to ignore and claimed to have not read it. Unlike his previous biography on his mentor –V.S.Naipaul: An Introduction of his work, Theroux, the author of famous travelogue, The Great Railway Bazaar, shows his displeasure, differences and discontent with Naipaul in this book
‘The World is What it is’ is perhaps only authorized biography of V.S. Naipaul nee Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul that allows the readers to peep into the life and works of one of the greatest writers of our generation. Authored by Patrick French, ‘The World is What it is’ is a candid biography of a celebrated author who is known for his whimsical unfriendly and snobbish behaviour. With the permission of Naipaul, Patrick French got access to more than 50,000 piece of papers that Naipaul sold to the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and; together with numerous interviews with Naipaul and his close associates, French’s Herculean task ended in 2008 in a form of a beautiful book whose title is drawn from first line of Naipaul’s famous book ‘A bend in River’ based on Central Africa. It is a tough job for a British author to trace down the historical and social background of a complex writer like Naipaul who was born in Hindu family, brought up among Blacks in Trinidad, grew up as a writer in England, writing novels on Africa and Latin American milieu, his essays on India and Muslims. Though many of us have heard of his mistress Margaret- inspiration for some of his works and his flings with other women, Patrick says,” Vadia’s physical attraction to Pat(his wife) had never been certain, and after they married it declined further. He felt too embarrassed to talk with her about this situation. In the summer of 1958, turning imagination into reality, he started to have sex with prostitutes.” Patrick is very particular in detailing the every aspect related to the life of Naipaul like update information of his siblings, his father’s and mother’s relatives even his contemporary Caribbean writers. He quoted Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook to sketch what kind of person is Naipaul: I think overall he is one of the most complex human beings I’ve met: I have never met anyone as insightful, or as brilliant. But he is certainly not an easy person to know…….. He was not a person who was going to tell you a great deal about himself. His books will tell you about himself, but he won’t tell you.
In this book, Patrick explores the personal life of Naipaul, his demure and submissive British wife Pat, his family and indifferent attitude to his equally talented brother Shiva Naipaul- author of several books like North of South, Black and White. Untimely death of Shiva Naipaul in 1985 at the age of forty made Vidia grief with a feeling of his unfulfilling fraternal responsibility. Almost two and a half decade ago I read A House of Mr. Biswas- the book that introduced me to writings of Naipaul subsequently. Written on the narrative style of R.K. Narayan, A House of Mr. Biswas is a book which brought together all his experience and the uniqueness of his perspective, a late twentieth-century global narrative that could have been written by no one else but Naipaul. And, after reading The World is What it is, I have found similar fictional characters in real life. Writing on Naipaul, even for a versatile writer, is difficult, for a reason that Naipaul appears to be ubiquitous in his writings. This book gives more insight to those readers who are already familiar with the writings of V.S. Naipaul. His infidelity, aloofness from friends and family, superiority complex in writing always revolve around his personality. Patrick finds Naipaul quite emotional and lonely when his first wife Pat dies. “ Vidia did not know what to do. Having spent a lifetime shunning friends, he had no network to support. His wife was dead, at the age of sixty-three,” writes Patrick. The book ends with the death of his first wife and his marriage with second wife Nadira- a Pakistani aspirant journalist and writer. Many a time the issue of his ancestral linkage to Nepal discussed within Nepal, the book doesn’t give any hint to prove it true.
‘The World is What it is’ is a window to the world of Naipaul- a big world that transcends many lives and works of common writers. Perhaps, The World is What it is gives more than what we generally expect to know about a writer. But to understand Naipaul, as Vinod Mehta says we have to read his books –the only way to fathom his complexity, his creativity, his megalomania.
posted by Sarad @ 5:52 AM
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