"A Bend in the River" by V.S. Naipaul
Well, I read 156 of 278 pages. It's a Brock House Bookclub choice and perhaps in non-pandemic times I might have finished it. I kept putting it down then taking it up again. I don't usually read reviews before I finish a book and I have read Naipaul and feel he is a very good writer. I felt it was very "talky" and banging you over the head with ideas rather than showing you through characterization, setting, and plot. There are lots of ideas and you learn things about Africa...most of which is very depressing. It certainly isn't the Africa of Alexander McCall Smith.
So, I decided to read a review. I agree completely and decided to move on to reading novels that work.
From: Kirkus Reviews
Naipaul's gloomy vision of post-colonial Africa is sure to attract interest, especially since it creepily coincides with his brother Shiva's far less compassionate African journey, North of South (p. 371). But, though the Naipaul prose here is as gracefully moody as ever, the interplay between think-book and novel-of-character doesn't work at all: Salim remains an uninvolving personality throughout, and the cross-cultural themes are carved out much too thickly—often in long chunks of dialogue. This should have been an essay, perhaps, and one or two short stories; as a novel, it's listless—as a framework for ideas, it's never less than provocative.
