A Bend in the River

by V. S. Naipaul

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Characters

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The main characters in V. S. Naipaul's novel A Bend in the River are all in some way alone. Salim, the protagonist, is alone in his new village by choice. Ferdinand, the son of an up-country woman, becomes the town manager in way over his head. Raymond, the neocolonial Frenchman who provides intellectual cover for the country's dictator, is left isolated when he's no longer willing to apologize for tyranny. There's a priest with a predilection for crumbling masks, Mahesh the family man fighting the corrosive effects of town life, and the Big Man himself, the big fish in a small pond.

Note that everyone is from somewhere else, no one is really "at home" in their circumstances, and consequently, no one has the moral authority to tell the true story of the place. What we get instead is a succession of reliable narrators telling unreliable stories. They're the stories of lone or lonely figures trying to carve out a life for themselves in an environment none of them can control or even fully understand. They're stories founded on insecurity and written by prejudice. They force readers to ask themselves, "Who really is of this place?" If everyone is in some way from somewhere else, if nobody can tell you the one truth about a place, then everyone belongs. Or no one belongs, and everyone must get along together. That makes this novel one of the most human stories you'll read. Check it out, and read the excellent study guide available on this website.

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