In V. S. Naipaul's recent novels, there has been an increasing sense of displacement, abandonment, and denial of hope, although to a certain extent these themes have been present since his earliest work.

Rootless, yet overpowered by the need to discover their own special niches in the universe, Naipaul's recent protagonists have wandered through alien geographies—foreign states on the verge of collapse, in no way capable of offering a sense of comfort or solace to these weary individuals….

In Naipaul's newest novel, A Bend in the River, the pattern is much the same, though, if anything, purified even further, reduced almost to the archetypal level….

The story gives the impression of déjà vu; we have read it all before in hundreds of other novels, yet there is a convincingness to Naipaul's version that has often been lacking in the works of lesser writers and in some of Naipaul's earlier works. The British expatriates who populated In a Free State were a particularly sorry lot—difficult to feel concerned about. Even in Guerrillas, which is certainly one of Naipaul's finest novels, violence always precluded (for me, at least) the possibility of any emotional identification with the main characters. However, in A Bend in the River, the narrative voice (Salim's) rings disturbingly true—and this is because, as he did in his early works, Naipaul has chosen as his central character a displaced Asian Indian (like his grandfather), baptized by historical events over which he has had little control….

I admire the ease with which V. S. Naipaul handles the language, the deceptive simplicity of his narrative skill. I can think of no one else writing today who can capture the stagnation of Third World nations burned out even before they have had the chance to begin their emergence into the contemporary world. If Salim's story has none of the humor of some of the author's earlier narratives (A House for Mr. Biswis, for example), neither does it display the terminal despair of the main characters in the author's more recent works. Rather, A Bend in the River shows us the mellowing of one of our greatest contemporary writers.