Finally finished A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul. It's not something you just trip along in merrily. It's a very serious book, reminiscent of Coetzee with the unnamed country, the vague menace lurking and the general coolness in his writing. The contrast of the cold brilliant prose with a sudden soaring poetic image is always a bit of a shock. There's this stunning final image in the book of a searchlight on the river, illuminating tons of insects and bugs flying in the air, suddenly going dark and the insects all vanishing into the darkness. It was very powerful and somehow he managed to capture the whole book in that one image...it captures life actually.
So he deserved the Nobel---the man can write. I will not be taking it away from him.
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