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A Bend in the River
A Bend in the River
Author: V.S. Naipaul
'Brilliant and terrifying' - "Observer". I had to be the man who was doing well and more than well, the man whose drab shop concealed some bigger operation that made millions. I had to be the man who had planned it all, who had come to the destroyed town at the bend in the river because he had foreseen the rich future.'Salim, the narrator, is a ...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780394505732
ISBN-10: 0394505735
Publication Date: 5/12/1979
Pages: 278
Edition: 1st
Rating:
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 2

3.5 stars, based on 2 ratings
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 2
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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.


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