V. S. Naipaul (ni-POL) is a rarity among writers in that he enjoys equal recognition for his novels and for his works of nonfiction. Indeed, had Naipaul never published a novel, his works of nonfiction would in themselves be sufficient to ensure his reputation as a major writer. As a writer of nonfiction, Naipaul has specialized in a distinctive blend of travelogue, reportage, and autobiography, offering penetrating accounts of regions as diverse as his native Trinidad, India (the home of his ancestors and the subject of several of his books), Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the American South.

Naipaul is a prolific writer, and, as a journalist and fiction editor for the New Statesman, he wrote a considerable number of articles, book reviews, and short stories for a variety of magazines in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Most of these have not been collected in any form, but A Flag on the Island (1967) contains some of Naipaul’s stories on the impact of Christianity on Hindus, culture clashes between boardinghouse tenants and owners, and even the cleverness of West Indian business practices. Literary Occasions (2003) collects his literary essays and reviews.

In his own author’s note to the Penguin editions of his books, V. S. Naipaul, who began to write in London in 1954, states, “He has followed no other profession.” In Naipaul: An Introduction to His Work, Paul Theroux describes Naipaul as completely dedicated to his art. Naipaul’s characters Ganesh (The Mystic Masseur), Biswas (A House for Mr. Biswas), Ralph Kirpal Singh (The Mimic Men), and Mr. Stone (Mr. Stone and the Knights Companion) are all writers who, like Naipaul himself, participate in the “thrilling, tedious struggle with the agony and discouraging, exhilarating process of making a book.” Naipaul considers extensive travel essential to sustaining his writing and to releasing his imagination from deadeningly familiar scenes.

Starting his career as a comic/satiric interpreter of Trinidadian society, Naipaul gradually developed into a serious novelist with human concerns: an interpreter of global issues, culture conflicts, and change. The Mystic Masseur, his first novel, has a regional flavor, while In a Free State, written fourteen years later, has an international cast. His landscapes have shifted from the alleys and lanes of Miguel Street (Trinidad) to East Africa, French Africa, South America, and India. From the Dickensian comedy and irony of A House for Mr. Biswas, he moved to probing the heart of universal darkness in Guerrillas and A Bend in the River. As John C. Hawley has observed, Naipaul has a compassion and appreciation for the vulnerable “man in the street.”

Consequently, Naipaul has received wide critical attention. He is the subject of a number of full-length critical studies and innumerable articles, and his books have received front-page reviews. Irving Howe has called him “the world’s writer, a master of language and perception, our sardonic blessing.” Writer Elizabeth Hardwick considers the sweep of Naipaul’s imagination and the brilliant fictional frame it encompasses unique and without equal in contemporary literature. Writer Paul Theroux considers him superior to existentialist author Albert Camus in his treatment of the theme of displacement. Critics and students of Naipaul place him in the company of such masters of fiction as Joseph Conrad—whom Naipaul admires intensely—and Graham Greene. In fact, critic Michael Thorpe has stated that Naipaul is Joseph Conrad’s heir as a political novelist. Moreover, even his critics praise his mastery of English prose. For example, in 1987 Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, a Caribbean-born poet who rejects many of Naipaul’s views,...