A Turn in the South (Paperback)

by V.S. Naipaul (Author) "JIMMY WORKED in New York as a designer and lettering artist..." (more)
Key Phrases: bulk barns, New York, United States, Jack Leland (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
"Naipaul portrays the American South as a strange mixture of self-reliance and community, desperation and playfulness," wrote PW . coffey/i like your changes/ok i suppose since the quote is ours?/pk "Part travelogue, part oral history, this ruminative ramble permits Naipaul to depict the South as only an 'outsider' could, with wonderment and multiple cross-cultural references."
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this work, parts of which orginally appeared in the New Yorker, noted essayist and novelist Naipaul travels the American South in an attempt to explore and explain this unique region. Stopping at places as diverse as Atlanta and rural Mississippi, Naipaul develops contacts and sources which span race, class, and sex. He admits that at the start of his journey he had no central theme. And, indeed, at the end, no clear "mind" of the South emerges. Rather, the South seems infinitely varied in outlook and attitude, vaguely unified only by a common past that tends to emphasize a sense of order, reverence for "the land," and intense religious faith. Because of a perhaps necessary lack of focus, this will not be easy reading for everyone. But Naipaul's insights--and those of the Southerners he talks to--are penetrating enough to make this a valuable addition to most libraries.
- Anthony O. Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, Ind.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (February 19, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679724885
• ISBN-13: 978-0679724889
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #673,363 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars always an interesting perspective, May 22, 2001

By	Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Naipaul went on a brief trip to the South of the US and wrote a travellogue on it. While I do not believe it is as good as the ones he has written on India and Islam, it was well worth the read. What he concentrates on is the struggle of people to realise themselves, to find an identity in the chaos of modern life. As he sees it, the plight of American blacks is very moving indeed, and beautifully written as always.

I think that where a lot of people get critical of this book is that they expect it to be academic and somehow definitive, rather than so personal. Naipaul is a novelist, so what you get is anecdote and impression, rather than a comprehensive approach. If that is what you expect, this is a very fulfilling reading experience.

REcommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Race, Religion, & Rednecks, December 27, 2004

By	Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Globetrotting author V.S. Naipaul turns his eye to the American South in this fascinating, multifarious examination of culture and attitudes prevalent among blacks and whites from Tallahassee to Charlestown to Nashville.

The title is a bit misleading. "A Turn In The South" suggests a change or culture shift Naipaul is tracking, for better or worse, in the Southland. In fact, the story here can be summarized as more of the same, a region so steeped in tradition it's almost choking from it like kudzu. Naipaul is not particularly critical; in fact his book is remarkably even in tone and light in judgment. But if there's one message in this book, it's that the South remains the same, for good and ill.

Unlike the better-known Southern guidebook "Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil," Naipaul doesn't focus on just one city, He moves around, and you don't get a strong sense of place much of the time. People and ideas interest Naipaul more, and there are some wonderful portraits like the Forsyth County sheriff who says a racial crisis in his county is now "dead" because everyone involved got their 15 minutes in front of the camera and the black activist who promotes his civil disobedience arrest record to the point of carrying a toothbrush in his jacket pocket.

Writer Anne Seddons notes Americans are born protesters, "It's what we know how to do." Many talk raptly about their religious faith, which leaves the non-religious Naipaul respectfully puzzled. Naipaul makes clear that there is intelligence in the devout, and that even the more doctrinaire and conservative sects allow room for questioning and self-expression. This is something many Americans have a hard time picking up on.

When I told a relative I read this book, he recalled it was the one with the redneck in it. That's probably what "Turn In The South" is best known for, the account Naipaul gives of a zesty conversation with a self-styled "neck" named Campbell which provides a great deal of comedy and insight as he describes the men and women who make up the South's best-known subculture (though perhaps counterculture is a better word.)

"He's probably thinking, with that hair and beard, that he's God's gift to the world," Campbell tells Naipaul after spying a fellow redneck in a hotel lobby. "But he's just a neck. He's as lost as a goose. He's never been on a tiled floor in his life."

"Turn In The South" is not always so zippy. Naipaul moves carefully, and while he's great at relating dialogue, he's not as certain about what makes Southerners tick. He often pulls back and likens the Southern experience to that of his native Caribbean, which gets repetitive after a while and adds little. He's justly famous for describing cultures in India, Africa, and Trinidad, and this feels more like an attempt to broaden his palette than say something new.

But what's here has value and readability. Many of the characters stay with you, and since Naipaul doesn't linger on anyone for more than a few pages, often much less, there's a lot of narrative churn to keep your interest even when individual characters don't.

"Turn In The South" is a good, solid, refreshingly humble, and non-P.C. account of what makes the South tick, how, as Naipaul puts it, it is a place of "optimism in the foreground, irrationality in the background," and why, for all its faults, crimes, and travails, it is still a place people are proud to call home.

16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the world'sgreat travelogues, December 24, 2001

By	Walker E. Rowe III "Walker Elliott Rowe" (Castleton, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"A Turn in the South" is one of my favorite books. It's memoir like style is evocative of the best of Naipal. Couple that with his talents as a journalist and his keen eye for controversy and you have a solid travelogue that addresses important topics of Southern culture.

When V.S. Naipal, raised in Trinidad of Indian parents, makes a wide swath through the Deep South he plunges headlong into its controversies while making notable mention of what makes it beautiful and different. This is typical Naipal, his views on colonization and the freedom granted to people who no longer live under dominion of the conquering powers would get him into much trouble were he, say, professor of English at Duke University. But being both a minority and a former colonial subject he can freely say what others might cower away from.

For example, in "A Turn in the South" Naipal travels to Missippi to visit Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute. If you've read "Up from Slavery" you know of Washington and his school built to educate the recently-freed negro to whether the vicissitudes of living in the dominate apartheid white culture. That was a grand accomplishment indeed. But what does Naipal highlight when he rolls into town? It is the drunken, unemployed black men hanging literally at the door of this great school. It is this irony which makes this section of the travelogue so pleasurable to read.

Another great section is Naipal's journey to Atlanta, Georgia the self-proclaimed "black mecca"--the "city that is too busy to hate". Seeking to dig beneath the glass and steel veneer of the downtown skyline Naipal seeks out the most controversial local political character Josea Williams. For those who do not know him, Mr. Williams is the Al Sharpton of the South, a race baiter par excellence.

As a South Carolina native I am pleased that Naipal chose Charleston, South Carolina for a stop over. He visits one of the local plantations as the guest of the editor of "The News and Courier"newspaper whose family owned the plantation since the days of slavery. Naipal's visit is not critical as might be the case with people in the non-South diaspora. Yankee writers like John Steinbeck--read "Travels with Charlie"-- tend to dismiss the region as backward, unenlightened, and owing reparations. But Naipal's jaunt is whimsical-written in the Magnolia and Moonlight voice that Naipal points out is what pleases the Southerner. Naipal is dead-on accurate when he says that to a Southerner "history is religion". We believe deeply in our heritage and decorate our landscape with commerative plaques and Confederate flags. The plantation that Naipal visits is just one oversized monument to our ante-bellum lore.

In my mind this is among the great travel essays comparable to those of Mark Twain's trip around the world, Gustave Flaubert's journey to Egypt, and D.H. Lawrence's time spent in Italy. I can't end here without mentioning that Naipal's brother Shrinivas wrote an excellent travelogue of Africa--equally filled with controversial vignettes--called "East to West".