The Writer and the World: Essays by V.S. Naipaul

 I give an excellent rating to this book for its language. Just like Naipaul's other works, this book is, too, in parts, quirky. The book has five essays. The first two essays 'The Worm in the Bud' and 'An English Way of Looking' are engaging. In the first one, he writes about writers from Trinidad, and their struggles, including his father's, with writing. The essay, in fact, traces the history of significant writers who came from that part of the world – those who became successful and known, and those who vanished. I liked reading what he has to say about his father's work, and how that has shaped him. Since I have read letters between Naipaul and his father, I liked reading this essay.

 The second essay is about his life in England and his friendships with editors, publishers and other writers. He writes with great care, concern, and honesty about the author Anthony Powell. The essay gives a peep into the nature of friendships and politics that prevails in the literary world. He also wrote in detail about his own grappling with words and deadlines, but once he established himself he gave up writing book reviews. It came as a pleasant surprise that Naipaul usually took a week to write a thousand-word book review.

The rest of the essays are on India. He writes about India, its culture, politicians, and his own relationship with India. Of course, the picture that emerges is a fascinating one no matter how much one dislikes some of the stuff Naipaul writes, he cannot be easily dismissed. He writes about India with great understanding. Many Indian people bash him for his views on India because they think that he panders to the western audience. There could be some truth in these accusations, however, there is a lot in his critique that is significant.

Naipaul writes effectively about caste and the immigrant experience, and how immigrants when living far away from their native lands turn reality into myths. Here he talks about his own family. For instance, when his family could travel back to India, his mother visited her village. She was hugely disappointed in them. The way this visit is described in the book makes it clear that both mother and son get disgusted by the dust-ridden Indian landscape, and the muddy tea the poor relatives offered his mother. The Brahmin relatives are looked upon as if they were untouchables. It is fascinating to see that Naipaul is harsh with almost every aspect of Indian life, he never gave up his caste. There is a lot in Brahmanism that he seems to admire: in fact, in the book he claims that almost all human nature can be expressed by the Hindu epics. He confesses that religion has a huge impact on him, and in very important ways, in a foreign land, his ancestors could maintain their sense of self by practicing caste and religious rituals.

Coming back to the experience of the mother rings perfectly true, but the conclusions drawn from the experience are not convincing. I have seen very poor people, especially the so-called upper castes, who are clean and extremely cultured. As I read him, I wondered Naipaul's own ancestors had survived outside India, in his own estimation, due to their religion and what they knew in terms of rituals, stories, and so forth. The cultural values were strong and remained a guiding force in the unfamiliar land. How come, then, those who stayed back in India, in their own world doing what they have always been doing for centuries, unfazed by conquests and colonialism, turned heathen.

There are several such contradictions I notice while reading Naipaul. It is for these contradictions that I read the amazing Naipaul.