Word: naipaul
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...Bend is yet another of V.S. Naipaul's impeccably crafted books. He maintains a level of tension that becomes almost intolerable; the reader can feel the vines and the president's guard coming too close to his house. This is writing that makes one want to open a window or turn on a fan. Or keep a gun by the bedside...
Another weakness is Naipaul's pessismism about Africa's future. He fells ruination and debauched immorality will scar Africa's future as they have scarred its past. Naipaul consistently uses examples from unstable areas like Zaire and Jamaica and ignores relatively stable ones like Tanzania and Kenya...
...because he is from a developing nation himself, V.S. Naipaul has a perspective a Westerner cannot glean. Naipaul's perspective as an East Indian in a black nation sets him apart from other Third World writers. This gives him a curiously advantageous literary position--he is both a participant and observer in his society...
...MUST BE hard to follow in the footsteps of a famous and brilliant older brother. Unfortunately, Shiva Naipaul cannot compete with his brother's polish or his sensitivity. Both are missing from North of South. The book is a montage of conversations held or overheard by the author during a six-month visit to Kenya, Zambia and Tanzania. For Shiva Africa is a land of hypocrisy, deceit and irony. Some of his examples are apt: an African student loves books but hates to read; young boys selling peanuts are condemned as capitalists in Tanzania; religious Hindus devour beef sandwiches...
...work has two other major flaws. First, Shiva presents no connecting analysis to link his anecdotes. This approach aggravates the reader's impatience with Naipaul's tone--as he becomes increasingly weary from traveling overland, so the reader becomes more tired of nasty asides...