В.С. Найпол пише за Конго!

Тръпки полазват. Подобно и на "В свободна държава". Тук главно действащо лице е Мобуту Сесе Секо Куку Нгбенду ва За Банга, но не е наречен по име. Като лорд Волдеморт от Хари Потър. Затова му изписах цялото име в загадъчен статус в социалните мрежи. Да видим кой ще разбере, че е име и кой ще си спомни за него.

В романа основните тематични пластове са няколко:

Африка, като обречен на насилие, ограбване и неразвитие континент, където обречеността се самозадоволява по някакви едва ли не физически циклични закони, като от един момент нататък и култът към личността на може да спре спиралата на самоизяждането;

Несигурността (меко казано) и несъответствието на експатриата в Африка (това е тънката струна, която засяга и мене и разликите не са чак толкова големи);

Мястото в света, ако има такова, конкретно на експатриата с индийска физиономия, но не задължително с индийско самосъзнание.

Главният герой не е сам в опитите си първо да пробие, после да оцелее в лайняна дупка край река Конго. Друг залага на образование в Англия, колкото да срещне стена от невъзприемане след завършване. Трети се затварят в някакъв измислен пашкул, в който изглеждат красиви сами за пред себе си, като че ли светът навън не ги засяга. Четвърти опитват да пробият с бизнес след Конго в Кения, Уганда, Канада, докато иронията на съдбата не ги запраща като пишман рентиери на Глостър роуд в Лондон в сърцето (през 70-те) на имигрантската мешавица.

Naipaul has great style, but his depiction of Africa (most probably Congo in this book) is quite problematic.

This is my most favorite novel from V.S.Naipaul. In fact, the novel's setting and progress is such that when one reads it many years it was written, which is what I did, one can realize how prophetic and perceptive it is about Africa and its future after colonialism ends there. Naipaul is analytical and thoroghly unsentimental and consequently, he is rather pessimistic about Africa's resurgence with the end of colonialism, contrary to what many liberals believed. The story is absorbing, tracing the fortunes of a young Indian (but born in Africa) shopkeeper in a country which Naipaul does not actually name. But it is common wisdom that he implies Zaire as the setting. The story follows the 'big man' who assumes power (as it always was in post-colonial Africa) and how things gradually deteriorate. Naipaul has many insights into Africa and life in general.
The prose is superb as it is always with Naipaul. Anyone wanting to get to know Naipaul and his writings can start with this book.

2.5
A melancholic novel about belonging, set in a non-named country in Africa (Congo?) at the end of colonization.
This story is told to us by Salim (first person narrator), an Indian from the east of Africa who moves to a town in the interior at a bend in a river. Salim comes from a family who owned slaves. I hate Salim. He is a bad and weak guy. Not just the product of his time. He is horrible.
Salim, in a time space of ten years, witnesses the end of the rebellion against colonialism, the improvement and hope of a new Africa, and the corruption and the decay coming back strong and fast.
It’s a book full of history, of thoughts, of meanings. Its intense, slow paced, repetitive, melancholic (I know I already said it, but it is) and boring. You need time to read it, to savor it, to learn something from it. There is no specific plot… The main character is just witnessing and living what’s happening.
I did not like it. V.S. Naipaul is not for me.

This book contains one of the great opening lines: The World is what it is: men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it. It isn't long before the reader realizes that Africa is The World writ large, that this crepuscular leviathan of raw nature, beautiful and brutal, shrugs off civilization's efforts to restrain her like so many flea-bites. In an unnamed town—Kisangani—in an unnamed country—the Congo—under the boot of the Big Man—Mobutu—Salim arrives from the east coast, from British colonies where the Indian subclass functioned like Central African Jews. The town on the river bend is part of the bizarre, throbbing, exciting blend of modernity and tribal sorcery that the Big Man has concocted to sell the world, and his ethnic- and tribe-riven people, that his domain is now ready for prime time. Salim is part of the foreign contingent of the town—Europeans, Asians, Americans—valiantly endeavoring not to allow themselves to become nothing—scheming, trading, brawling, cheating, fucking, arguing, amassing money, spreading ideas—whilst the iron fist of the Big Man and his unifying ideology and the relentless pressure of the eternal jungle bear down and threaten to crush all life from these puny trespassers and their ridiculous, ephemeral ambitions and dreams. Probably my favorite book by Naipaul.

The first half made me think: everything that can be said has been said. But by the end it began to crumble, leaving more for us to say...

Life and times of a shopkeeper in a rural outpost in tumultuous post-colonial central Africa. Naipul provides insights and wisdom about the complexity of race, ethnicity, and nationality in Africa and spins a damn good yarn at the same time.

La verdad es que es un gran libro pero no es para cualquiera.

Empezaré diciendo que me FASCINÓ el análisis que hace Naipaul sobre la transformación de una nación que pasa del colonialismo al pos colonialismo. La forma en que se transforma como sociedad es impresionante. Pasa de la asimilación colonial a división social, inestabilidad, levantamientos sociales con violencia de por medio y finalmente el ascenso de un “GRAN HOMBRE” que toma el poder por medio del ejército.

Me impresionó y me encantó. Tenemos elementos como el machismo de una manera súper violenta como uso de ácido para atacar mujeres que toman decisiones. Brutal y muy doloroso. Tenemos xenofobia y polarización de la población. Igualmente contamos con corrupción, tradición, magia, superstición, racismo, saqueo arqueológico y discriminación.

Además me encanta que tenemos a tres personajes que representan diferentes facetas históricas de África: pre colonialismo, colonialismo y pos colonialismo. FASCINANTE.

Algo que quiero mencionar es que la historia general es algo cotidiana y el ritmo narrativo cae y puede ser difícil de seguir. Hablan de cosas poco interesantes como que los personajes juegan squash, van al club Helénico o incluso la universidad local. En fin, realmente esto lo veo como un adorno para el mensaje general que mencioné arriba.

En conclusión: es un gran autor ganador del Nobel. Me gusta mucho como escribe y sobre qué escribe. No hay muchas frases memorables pero si mucho que pensar.

This whole novel revels in the ugliness, the implicit and explicit hideousness, of the internal dilemma of a man who is a product of European imperialism. Salim is one of the complexest narrators I have ever read. The colonized with sympathies for the colonizer? Racist? Sexist? Beats his married mistress? All of the above, but Naipaul excavates moments of sympathy in Salim's profound sense of dislocation, his disappointment at the behest of his newfound gap between expectation and reality, his hypocrisy, and his seemingly overarching lack of agency. Naipaul is an essential character of anglophone postcolonial literature, and yet he defies the standard narrative of many postcolonial novels that handle post-independence: optimism. That first sentence!!!!! Imagine writing, "The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it." On page one??? In this economy???

The first-person narrator of V. S. Naipaul’s extraordinary novel, A Bend in the River, is Salim, a 20-something young Indian Muslim man. His general passivity and disinterestedness makes him a fairly reliable narrator, reporting his observations in an unsentimental, objective manner. Leaving his family behind, Salim journeys from somewhere on the African east coast to an unnamed town situated at a bend of some great river. Striving for personal independence, he buys a failing general store from Nazruddin, a friend. But independence is only part of the reason for this risky venture: this decision also enables him to delay an inevitable arranged marriage to Nazruddin’s daughter, Kareisha.

The town is having its own growing pains towards an uncertain independence. It has successively shed Arab domination and then British colonial rule. The second rebellion elevates one of their own chieftains to President, a man bent on rapid improvement. Close to the town is an area of ruined remnants of former European occupation. Now named the Domain, it is subject to aggressive renovation in the form of a polytechnic and other modern buildings. The town benefits from this activity, and Salim’s store turns into a profitable concern. Other characters populate the story: Metty, a servant from his family arrives to work for Salim; Salim’s friends, Mahesh and his wife Shoba purchase a successful Bigburger franchise; and Salim is introduced to Raymond, an academic, and his much younger wife, Yvette.

Everything begins to have a positive feel to it. But the President’s motives and methods are not always well-received. The intensity to “do it right this time” begets bureaucracy, which in turn, begets corruption. A positive veneer hides sham sincerity; support for the President cannot be guaranteed simply by creating an epidemic of his blown-up portrait on every conceivable surface in the town. The President’s confidence in the faith of followers is as tenuous as their belief in fragile, fleeting favored status. Change also happens in Salim’s life: he begins an affair with Yvette, idyllic at first, but with an uncharacteristic violent twist that soon follows. Stealthy distrust and deterioration in the societal and political structures make Salim uneasy enough to look for an exit.

He travels to London, where Nazruddin now resides after first hopscotching to Uganda and then Canada. Salim does get engaged to Kareisha, but he feels out of place in London and flees back to Africa, where things have taken a dramatic turn for the worse in terms of corruption. Salim’s store has been confiscated according to the President’s new radicalization program, and Salim is forced to work for a “trustee.” Dissatisfied, Salim engages in riskier ventures involving gold and ivory smuggling, but he is found out and imprisoned. Through a fortunate contact made in earlier days, he is released and escapes the town by the next steamer.

Naipaul’s prose is brilliant and a pleasure to read. However, the book’s uncertain ending seems to tell readers this is only one in an infinite series of segments of Salim’s up-and-down life, and that he is now simply heading for another. I have a feeling there is more symbolism in A Bend in the River than I discerned. The boom-and-bust cycles of social stability and rebellion, of hope and faded dreams, of lawful life and corruption, all might simply mirror the vicissitudes of Salim’s life.

Told from the POV of Salim, an Indian-African, this is life in Central Africa in the post-colonial era. Interesting enough in parts but sometimes a bit of a slog to get through.

3,5 Sterne – „An der Biegung des großen Flusses“ (Kongo) liegt Kisangani, eine Stadt im Nordosten der heutigen Demokratischen Republik Kongo. In Naipauls Roman werden weder die Stadt noch der Staat beim Namen genannt, aber sie stehen exemplarisch für das postkoloniale Zentralafrika, dem Schauplatz der Handlung.
Salim stammt aus einer Familie indisch-muslimischer Händler, die seit Generationen an der Ostküste Afrikas leben, sich selbst jedoch nicht als Afrikaner verstehen. „Wir […] waren eigentlich ein Volk des Indischen Ozeans. Das wahre Afrika lag in unserem Rücken.“ (14) Dennoch kann sich diese privilegiert Minderheit (ehemaliger Sklavenhändler und immer noch Sklavenhalter!) den Veränderungen, die das Ende der Kolonialzeit mit sich bringt, nicht entziehen. Umsturz und Armut drohen, so dass Salim mit Anfang zwanzig der unsicheren Küstenregion und seiner traditionellen Großfamilie Adieu sagt und ins Innere des Kontinents auswandert, wo er einen kleinen heruntergekommenen Laden übernimmt. Das nicht namentlich genannte Land ist gerade unabhängig geworden, die Europäer haben es überstürzt verlassen und die gesamte Wirtschaft liegt darnieder. Salim versucht das Geschäft wieder aufzubauen und in der Fremde Fuß zu fassen. Er sucht nach Sicherheit, Wohlstand und Zugehörigkeit.
Die Geschichte, die sich über ungefähr zehn Jahre erstreckt, wird aus der Perspektive Salims erzählt und beschränkt sich auf die Gegenstände seines Interesses. Sein Blick ist vor allem auf sich selbst, den Alltag und die Menschen gerichtet, mit denen er zu tun hat: der afrikanischen Händlerin Zabeth und ihrem Sohn Ferdinand, dem Familiensklaven Ali, dem an einer britischen Universität ausgebildeten Jugendfreund Indar, der Belgierin Yvette. Dialoge sind selten. Und obwohl – oder gerade weil – er alle Personen so genau analysiert, bleibt er auf Distanz. Salim schwankt zwischen Verachtung für diejenigen, die keinen Erfolg haben, z.B. die Afrikaner im Busch, die (ehemaligen) Sklaven und Verehrung für diejenigen, die sich ihren Platz im neuen Afrika erobert haben.
Sehnsucht und Enttäuschung, Ordnung und Gewalt kennzeichnen auch den zweiten Protagonisten des Romans, nämlich die Stadt an der Biegung des großen Flusses. Genau wie Salim kommt sie nicht zur Ruhe und öffnet sich abwechselnd westeuropäisch-liberalen, sozialistischen und traditionell afrikanischen Ideen, die jedoch weit davon entfernt sind, das Land zu einem besseren Ort zu machen, sondern – zumindest in Salims Augen – die Kolonialzeit als Epoche der Stabilität und des Wohlstands erscheinen lassen. Leider wird auch Salim nicht unbedingt zu einem besseren Menschen. Ob daran der unsichere, selbstbezogene Protagonist schuld ist oder die politischen Umstände, lässt der Roman meines Erachtens offen.
„An der Biegung des großen Flusses“ ist die Geschichte eines gescheiterten Aufbruchs, in dem ein entwurzelter junger Mann und ein neuer Staat vergeblich nach Identität suchen. Es ist ein melancholischer und weitgehend unaufgeregter Roman, der einen faszinierenden Eindruck von einer Gesellschaft im Übergang vermittelt und durch eine abwechselnd präzise und poetische Sprache besticht.