Literary Occasions: Essays
by V. S. Naipaul
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Offers eleven essays on reading, writing, and identity, discussing such topics as early forays into the world of books, the relationship between different literary forms and their cultures, and the author's reflections on his career.Tags
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Member Reviews
This series of essays was somewhat disappointing. Since many were written at various occasions, they are either very repetitive or, taken out of context, somewhat unsatisfactory. There are however nuggets of wisdom. I particularly enjoyed Naipaul's take on identity, the evolution of the novel and the need to redefine literature in a global context.
From what I have read about him, Naipaul is a harsh person, so I approached this cautiously, but I found his prose thoroughly enjoyable, although I have currently shelved his fiction writing. I was interested in his perceptions as an outsider, an Indian immigrant in Trinidad, and then later as an immigrant to England on scholarship. In this I was completely gratified, as I felt it worked the empathy muscles extensively, expressed in clear prose.
Naipaul is as fine an essayist as he is a novelist.
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Author Information
97+ Works 25,728 Members
Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born of Indian ancestry in Chaguanas, Trinidad on August 17, 1932. He was educated at University College, Oxford and lived in Great Britain since 1950. From 1954 to 1956, he edited a radio program on literature for the British Broadcasting Corporation's Caribbean Service. His first novel, The Mystic Masseur, was show more published in 1957. His other novels included A House for Mr. Biswas, A Bend in the River, Guerrillas, and Half a Life. In a Free State won the Booker Prize in 1971. He started writing nonfiction in the 1960s. His first nonfiction book, The Middle Passage, was published in 1962. His other nonfiction works included An Area of Darkness, Among the Believers, Beyond Belief, and A Turn in the South. He was knighted in 1990 and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He died on August 11, 2018 at the age of 85. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Classifications
- Genres
- Literature Studies and Criticism, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 809 — Literature & rhetoric Literature, rhetoric & criticism History, description, critical appraisal of more than two literatures
- LCC
- PR9272.9 .N32 .L5 — Language and Literature English English Literature English literature: Provincial, local, etc.
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 304
- Popularity
- 104,503
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.67)
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 15
- ASINs
- 4
