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The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography Of V.S. Naipaul (2008)

by Patrick French(Favorite Author)

4.06 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1400044057 (ISBN13: 9781400044054)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Knopf

review 1: V.S. Naipaul was an unpleasant man who led a fascinating literary life. Determined to be a writer he made use of his Trinidad birth, his Indian background and his life in England in stories and novels. This is a well-written biography that doesn't avoid its subject's shortcomings and warts; the interesting part of it is the history of the times and places when he lived, the people he met. Naipaul himself was intolerant and petty; I wish they'd never awarded him the Nobel Prize.
review 2: I don't generally read biographies, but this one I could not pass on. I am not a fan of V.S. Naipaul's writing. I could only manage to finish one book of his, "A House for Mr. Biswas". But when I read Paul Theroux's account of is friendship with Naipaul ("Sir Vidia's Shadow"... more) I was intrigued. Naipaul was portrayed as selfish, brilliant, obstinate, proud, unfeeling, shocking, and more. How could you not want to know more about him? French charts Naipaul's personal life through all of its ups and downs, marriages and affairs, books and travels, and tells it with a cold-eyed objectivity that left me wanting to know more. I suspect the book practically wrote itself for with such a complex subject as Naipaul, there is a fantastic lode of richness to be mined, and much of it is right beneath the surface. All the time I was reading, my main interest was in tying the person to his work, or separating them. I didn't come away with a lot of insights, just that writers are all different, and one could be a less than upright character in the sense of personal morality, but could still be a respected writer. less

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