A Turn in the South (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

Having grown up in the race-conscious society of Trinidad, where heritage, family, and place were the basis of identity, V.S. Naipaul is peculiarly well equipped to understand the American South. The very title of his book A TURN IN THE SOUTH suggests his approach to defining a section of the United States which is eternally preoccupied with defining itself. For some months, Naipaul studied its history, observed its customs, visited its cities, its suburbs, its farms, and its plantations, and above all, listened sensitively to its people, ranging from Hosea Williams and Eudora Welty to waitresses and small-town preachers. His research, covering seven states, was thorough. Partly because his own approach was so tentative, the resulting book is very effective. Naipaul lets the people of the South speak for themselves; what he adds is the wealth of his own experience, reflected in his earlier writings.

In novels such as GUERILLAS and A BEND IN THE RIVER and nonfiction books such as INDIA: A WOUNDED CIVILIZATION, Naipaul has indicated the results when a postcolonial society loses its sense of identity. In A TURN IN THE SOUTH, Naipaul concludes that the rapidly changing South faces some similar problems. Even though the sense of the past and the sense of place so strong in Southerners may be based on myths, Naipaul would regret the loss of that feeling of community they provide, if it were to be replaced only by the alienation and the anger of the modern world.

Sources for Further Study

The Atlantic. CCLXIII, March, 1989, p. 89.

The Christian Science Monitor. March 6, 1989, p. 13.

Library Journal. CXIV March 1, 1989, p. 82.

Listener. CXXII, April 20, 1989, p. 24.

Los Angeles Times Book Review. March 5, 1989, p. 2.

The New Republic. CC, February 13, 1989, p. 30.

The New York Review of Books. XXXVI, March 30, 1989, p. 3.

The New York Times Book Review. XCIV, February 5, 1989, p. 7.

Newsweek. CXIII, February 13, 1989, p. 77.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXXIV, December 16, 1988, p. 64.

The Times Educational Supplement. April 7, 1989, p. B6.

The Washington Post Book World. XIX, February 5, 1989, p. 1.