Word: naipauls
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Since that is what Islamic fundamentalists do, Among the Believers reads like a long-drawn-out standoff. Naipaul's report is indeed filled with fascinating details. He carefully questions his subjects about their pasts and often evokes poignant sketches of uprooted lives leading to inchoate yearnings. His prose evokes obscure places that few will ever see: a mountain pass in the shadow of the Himalayas, where Afghan nomads drive and tend then-flocks; a small village in central Java, "an enchanted, complete world...
...occasions, Naipaul even approaches the religious satisfaction he senses in his subjects. At the end of one long day, sitting in the courtyard of a mosque in Pakistan, he feels "that Islam had achieved community and a kind of beauty, had given people a feeling of completeness-if only the world outside could be shut out, and men could be made to forget what they knew...
That "if is the block on which all the book's dialogues stumble. Naipaul thinks that the rest of civilization cannot be ignored; his partners disagree. He argues that the Koran alone is an inadequate blueprint for a functioning state...
Repeated encounters with those impervious to his logic turn Naipaul cranky...
...possible to agree with every word of Among the Believers and to feel, still, that something is missing. Naipaul gets the lyrics, but the music is dim. His book has clearly been written for Western eyes, a preachment to the unconverted. Muslim fundamentalists who were not persuaded by Naipaul in person are not likely to be swayed by his narrative or, in fact, to read him at all. They are busy with a struggle that they think will lead to their salvation; their chosen enemies, Naipaul included, can be forgiven for regarding them with some enmity and considerable dread...