A Bend In the River by V. S. Naipaul

is our book for this month.

Thanks to Shelley who points out this great site: The Literary Encyclopedia.

The essay below might be helpful.

V. S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River was first published in 1979, after Naipaul had firmly established his considerable reputation?one that
would lead to the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001. Treating such
topics as the cultural interdependence of Africa and Europe, the
influence of ideology and ethnicity on an individual?s identity, and
the complexities of African nationhood following independence from
Belgian colonial rule, the novel grapples with weighty post-colonial
themes in an undaunted manner for which Naipaul has been both praised
and bitterly criticized.

The novel is set in Zaire (currently the Democratic Republic of the
Congo) during the rule of Mobutu Sese Seko in the late 1960s and early
1970s, a period of great social and political upheaval in the Congo.
However, though major historical events?including armed coups, cold-war
political machinations, guerrilla rebellions, urban riots, rural
massacres, and widespread social reforms?occur in the novel?s backdrop,
Naipaul avoids depicting those events directly; indeed, the country of
Zaire and its president Mobutu are never explicitly named in the book.
Instead, the narrative focuses on the personal life of Salim, the
novel?s first-person narrator. The book is divided into four parts as
follows.

Continues on here. On the sidebar on the left, click "One Work". Then enter the title of this book in the search field.

From Marlo: here's the link from the group email.