Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Reviews of A Bend in the River

A Bend in the River
A Bend in the River
Author: V.S. Naipaul
ISBN-13: 9780330487146
ISBN-10: 0330487140
Publication Date: 5/10/2002
Pages: 336
Edition: New Ed
Rating:
  • Currently 2.5/5 Stars.
 1

2.5 stars, based on 1 rating
Publisher: Picador
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

2 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed A Bend in the River on + 813 more book reviews
The novel is setting is the interior of an unnamed East African nation during the 1960s-70s: a time following an upheaval of the government. What follows is the periphery of the coups, insurrection, and despotism of the region during that era. Salim, an Indian Muslim from the coast, has purchased, after the first rebellion, a business in the western reaches of the country: at a bend in the river that has become a trading center. The object of a businessman, we are reminded, is to make a small profit on investment and to know when to sell out before politics and dissonance change the plain of the playing field. But, for a foreigner there is only one way out.
reviewed A Bend in the River on + 3 more book reviews
Deep meditative thoughts enmeshed in a compelling narrative told by a shopkeeper in Africa, located at a bend in the river, Naipaul grasps one's basic need to belong . . . and the struggle to survive our ever present state of man's inhumanity to man.