A Way in the World [Hardcover]

V. S. Naipaul (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1997

'His own modern labour of love, loss and disquiet, this really is a book to treasure' Malcolm Bradbury, Sunday Express This vastly innovative novel explores colonial inheritance through a series of narratives that span continents, swing back and forth between past and present and delve into both autobiography and fiction. Naipaul offers a personal choice of examples of Spanish and British imperial history in the Caribbean, including an imagined vision of Raleigh's last expedition and an introduction to Francisco de Miranda, a would-be liberator and precursor to Bolivar, which are placed within a context of echoing modernity and framed by two more personal, heavily autobiographical sections sketching the narrator an eloquent yet humble man of Indian descent who grew up in Trinidad but spent much of his adult life in England and Africa. Meditative and dramatic, these historical reconstructions, imbued with Naipaul's acute perception, drawn with his deft and sensitive touch, and told in his beautifully wrought prose, are transmuted into an astonishing novel exploring the profound and mysterious effect of history on the individual. 'One of his supreme triumphs' Adam Thorpe, European 'A bewitching piece of work by a mind at the peak of its abilities' New York Times Book Review

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Billed by the publisher as Naipaul's first novel since The Enigma of Arrival in 1987, this can really be regarded as fiction only by the most extremely elastic definition. It is in fact a series of extended essays, meditations and dramatized historical reconstructions that originally carried the perhaps more fitting subtitle "A Sequence." Naipaul ruminates, with all his acute intelligence, on how history shapes personality--and vice versa. The book begins and ends with unexpectedly personal autobiographical sketches of Naipaul: as a boy in Trinidad; as a bright young clerk with a scholarship and a future; as a fledgling writer struggling in London; and, finally, in a later period, in an unnamed East African country where he reencounters a character from his youth. These flank two much longer pieces, which are both poignant and superbly realized portraits of elderly figures whose once-powerful lives were wrecked, more than 200 years apart, by their efforts to exploit, economically and politically, the corner of South America where Trinidad looks across the Bay of Paria to the swampy mainland of Venezuela. Sir Walter Raleigh came twice, with dreams of gold fathered by Columbus, and is seen on his last voyage, about to return to death in the Tower. Francisco Miranda, an astonishing, courtly con man who used, and was used by, both British and Spanish governments as a would-be "liberator" of Latin America in the late 18th century, is seen in fragile Trinidadian exile, exchanging thoughtful, chatty letters with his wife in London. Naipaul's mastery of his material is absolute, and his seemingly effortless, beautifully wrought prose carries the reader to the heart of the mysteries of human destiny. 35,000 first printing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

After seven years, Naipaul returns to fiction to explore the sources and implications of his feelings of rootlessness, the realities of the colonial experience, the impact of cultural displacement, and our need to belong. He does so through a series of linked historical narratives. Among them is an imagined vision of Raleigh's desperate but futile search for El Dorado. We are also introduced to Francisco de Miranda, one of the precursors to Bolivar's revolution. We are witness to the irony inherent in the life of Lebrun, a Trinidadian/Panamanian Communist of the 1930s. And then there is Blair, a former co-worker of the narrator in Trinidad, whose African roots prove no help when he becomes an adviser to an East African despot. These are tales of lost souls desperate to find a place at the table but who never quite succeed, leaving them doomed to remain on the fringes of history. A work from a fine and thoughtful storyteller that belongs in all collections of serious fiction.
--David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Peter Smith Pub Inc (July 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0844669091
• ISBN-13: 978-0844669090
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,698,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant and imaginative tour-de-force, March 18, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: A Way in the World: A Novel (Paperback)

Mr. Naipaul never ceases to amaze in the depth and fertility of his imagination. Weaving history with fiction, biography and comedy we are never sure where he is leading in a tale spanning continents and centuries. It is a prose poetry at its finest, enveloping the reader with texts that only Naipaul his capable of. To say V.S.Naipaul is a an exquiste writer; a writer's writer would be an understatement.

A Way In The World represents a novel of such genius, I was and continue to be in awe of the magnificent and masterly control of the English language. I am in love with writing again. Thank you V.S. Naipual

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The work of a Master in his prime - wonderful!, April 23, 2001

By 

Donal A. O'Neill - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Way in the World: A Novel (Paperback)

This is an unusual - perhaps even unique - variety of novel, having at first glance no discernible structure and seeming like a series of meditations on the experience of West-Indian colonialism, linked by personal reminiscences of the author. It is only when the book is finished that the masterful integration of the complexities of plot, descriptions and reflections become fully obvious. Much of the work can be seen as an extended series of imagined scenes and dialogues inspired by the dominant themes of the writer's earlier non-fiction work "The Loss of El Dorado", itself a powerful and searing account of the discovery of Trinidad, its capture from the Spaniards by the British, its failed role as a springboard for incitement of revolution on the South American mainland, and its transformation into a slave society. Whereas the earlier work was strictly factual the form of the later novel allows Naipaul to use the full power of his imagination to visualise the motivations of historical players such as Raleigh and Miranda and their reactions to specific situations. There are a host of other characters however, all probably with a basis in actuality, all are realised with the same degree of keen, indeed merciless, perception that characterises Naipaul's fiction at its best. The scenes of action shift rapidly in both time and locale - from the Elizabethan age, on through the turmoil of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, right through the twentieth century to our own day, with Trinidad, Venezuela, London and an unnamed African colony (Uganda?) providing the backdrop. Those who know these societies today will be impressed by the uncanny accuracy with which their very "feel" is portrayed. This is the work of a master in his prime - wonderful!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not a strong point for Naipaul, July 8, 2005

By 

Lusophile - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Way in the World: A Novel (Paperback)

I am a huge fan of V.S. Naipaul. The premise of this book--exploring the effects of the colonial situation upon the lives of three men--is excellent. However, this book is a confusing conglomeration of three separate and unrelated stories, and there were times when I found myself wondering what was going on. I love Naipaul's flair for narrative and description, but the sections on Miranda are almost entirely dialogue, with lots of obscure references. I actually skipped over the last section on Miranda because I just could not get through it, whereas normally I am unable to put down Naipaul's books. Not one of his best works...in fact I don't recommend it to anyone aside from those hardcore fans who are determined to read everything this great novelist has ever written.