YOUTUBE CHANNEL: LITECITY

SOURABH AGARWAL
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In a Free State
•V.S. Naipaul won the Booker Prize for this novel in 1971.
•It is collection of three stories that focus on the experiences of uprooted
people who try to live in different kinds of “free” societies.
•The novel is divided into a prologue, three stories and an epilogue.
•In the prologue, ‘The Tramp at Piraeus’, the narrator presents an excerpt
from a travel journal about a journey on a ferry from Greece to Egypt.
•The passengers include exiled Egyptians, Lebanese businessman, Spanish
dancers, an Austrian and an old tramp. The tramp is brutally treated by
others which pains the narrator but he doesn’t intervene.
• “One out of Many’, the first story is about Santosh who is originally from
Bombay working as a servant to a Civil officer.
• He becomes worried as his master is transferred to Washington D.C. , but he
is also taken along with his master to Washington.
• Here, Santosh is overwhelmed by the grand surroundings and is dazzled
about the new culture.
• One day, he incidentally meets Priya who has a restaurant and who offers
him work as a chef with higher salary which Santosh accepts.
• He makes a casual sexual relationship with a black woman and feels
ashamed of it later. However, as he realizes that he is living illegally in the
country and can be deported, he is left with one choice, to marry that black
woman in order to obtain Green Visa.
• The second story ,“Tell Me Who to Kill,” is about a West Indian man thinking
back over his life as he travels to his brother’s wedding along with a white man
named Frank.
• He remembers about his simple life at his native town with his brother Dayo.
Dayo was taken away by his uncle Stephen to a town for better living conditions
and education. However, didn’t feel happy there.
• As such, the narrator and Dayo both tried their luck by going to London where
the narrator worked at a cigarette factory.
• However, Dayo disappointed him by not taking the school seriously and one day
in a frustrated rage, the narrator killed a boy.
• Finally, it is revealed that the white man accompanying the narrator is a prison
guard and the narrator is released from jail just to attend his brother’s marriage.
•The third story, rather a novella, In a Free State, narrates a power struggle in an
African country between a king and a president.
•The president is supported by the British and they send forces to overthrow the
king. It is at the King’s Collectorate where Bobby works.
•Bobby and Linda, the wife of a man who also works in the Collectorate, share a
ride filled with awkward silences and intimate conversations where Bobby
reveals his homosexuality while Linda talks about her desire to leave for South
Africa.
•During the journey, Linda tries to have an adulterous affair with an American
man while Bobby misinterprets a local boy's interest for sexual desire. At one
check point, he is beaten by soldiers and feeling insulted he returns his home.
•In the Epilogue, ‘The Circus at Luxor’, the narrator notices a troupe of Chinese

people. He returns to Cairo and takes a trip to Luxor. Here, he encounters a

native with a whip who beats the children if they come near the tourists.

•For entertainment, an Italian hotel guest repeatedly throws food toward the

children and watching them get whipped for coming too close to the hotel.

•All other tourists remain apathetic, but the narrator grabs the whip away

from the Egyptian hotel employee. The employee suddenly asks forgiveness

begging the narrator not to complain to the management. Feeling powerless,

the narrator keeps an eye on the Italian for the rest of his trip.
A Bend In The River
• Set in a postcolonial African state it is the tale of a young Afro-Arab man of
Indian decent. The novel is divided in four parts: “The Second Rebellion,” “The
New Domain,” “The Big Man,” and “Baitle.”
• The narrator, Salim, leaves his home in East Africa for a market town in Central
Africa to start a new life as the owner of a shop he has recently bought from
Nazruddin.
• Salim’s journey is frequently halted by armed men as they demand money
because of his spurious identity.
• when he finally arrives, he finds the market town in a poor condition with little
population, and his shop in a mess.
• With hopes for better future, Salim runs a meagre business selling basic household
supplies to a small number of customers.
• Salim’s servant Metty inform him that one of his regular customers, Zabeth is a magician
who uses sharp mystical perfumes to keep enemies away.
• Salim becomes a ward to Zabeth’s son, Ferdinand, who along with other teenager boys
always requests to be sent to study in America.
• As the town starts to thrive a little, there is a local rebellion and the president sends
troops to suppress the uprising.
• The town again begins to settle however, Salim thinks it is all Façade. He meets,
Raymond, a White academic working on the history of the president.
• Salim has a brief affair with Yvette, Raymond’s wife but ends the affair in bitter
disillusionment.
• Sensing the growing political unrest, Salim travels back to Englad to meet
Nazruddin. The locality is full of immigrant Arabs trying their hands in business.
• Nazruddin’s daughter Kareisha, a pharmacist is betrothed to Salim as he return to
Africa to finally settle his thing there.
• On arriving, he finds that his store has been and is now owned by a “state trustee”,
lazy Théotime. In order to make some money, he starts trading in ivory and hiding
some of the cash. However, Metty informs the police and Salim is arrested.
• Ferdinand, who is now commissioner, arranges his release but instructs him to leave
the place the very next day.
• Salim escapes the place through a steamer that is attacked midway, but somehow,
he is able to rescue himself from gunshots.
The Enigma of Arrival (1987)
•A semi-autobiographical novel about a young man’s journey from

Trinidad to London.

• Divided in five sections, it recounts the story of Jack who as an

aspiring writer comes to a small town, Wiltshire.

• In the first section “Jack’s Garden,” the narrator describes a garden

cultivated by Jack , the owner of this property. As Jack dies and new

people move in the garden also turns into a farm under the leadership
•In the second chapter, “The Journey”, the narrator focuses more on his

experiences and thoughts when he first arrived in England. He also reflects on his

development as a writer.

•In the next chapter, “Ivy”, where the narrator introduces his landlord whom

Naipaul views as a man with high social privileges.

•In the last two chapters, “Rooks” and “The Ceremony of Farewell”, the narrator

talks about Alan, the ‘other’ writer in this novel who is a native and so

understands what does it means to be English.

Half a Life (2001)
• The story of Willie Somerset Chandran, son of a Brahmin father and a Dalit
mother. Willie's middle name 'Somerset’ is a tribute to the writer Somerset
Maugham who visited his father in a temple.
• As he goes to London for study, he lives the life of a poor immigrant. However,
he manages to publish a book which brings him in contact with Ana, a fan of
him.
• They both fall in love and he goes back with Ana to her homeland in Africa.
• The novel ends with Willie leaving his 18 year stay in Africa and going to live
with his sister in Berlin.
Magic Seeds 2004
• This novel is a sequel to Half a Life and starts with Willie living with his sister
Sarojini in Berlin.
• Exasperated with his indolent ways, the idealist sister forces him to return to
India where he joins a philosopher's rebel army of communist guerrillas.
• He develops bonds with some leaders and realizes that each of them has become
a rebel due to some personal grudge with society and not out of idealism.
• Eventually he gets captured and imprisoned, and finds life in prison better than
that of a fugitive. As his English friend Roger arranges for an old collection of his
short stories to be republished, he is released.
• Willie moves back to London, and slowly drifts into the life in the suburbs.
AN AREA OF DARKNESS
• Naipaul’s second travelogue after the first travelogue ‘The Middle
passage’, begins with ‘A Resting place for the Imagination and ends in
flight’.
• The book is about how Naipaul has a 'mythical' image about India
while living in Trinidad and how his one-year visit to India shattered
his childhood image of the country.
• ‘An Area of Darkness’ is divided into three parts and eleven sub-parts.
It has a prologue- “ Traveller’s prelude”, and an epilogue–‘Flight’.
India: A Wounded Civilization 1976
• It is the second book of the trilogy written by Naipaul on India based
on his experience during his second visit to India in 1975.
• It is divided into three parts, namely. ‘A Wounded Civilization’, ‘A
New Claim on the Land’ and ‘Not Ideas, but Obsessions’. There are
two chapters in each of the first two parts and four chapters in the
third part.
• “India is for me a difficult country. It isn’t my home and cannot be
my home; and yet I cannot reject it or be indifferent to it; I cannot
travel only for the sights. I am at once too close and too far.”
India: A Million Mutinies Now 1990
• It is the third book of the trilogy on India by Naipaul.
• It relates the stories of many of the people he met traveling
India more than fifty years ago.
• Though like previous two books, the book presents Naipaul’s
scathing criticism of Indian way of life and its many ugly
sides, this books also shows a thin optimist attitude
pertaining to its economic growth.