VS Naipaul dies at 85

[K74T]

Nobel Prize-winning author VS Naipaul dies at age 85



The British author VS Naipaul has died at his home in London aged 85, his family said in a statement.

Lady Naipaul said: "He was a giant in all that he achieved and he died surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavour."

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born in Trinidad, publishing more than 30 books ranging from comic novels set in his homeland to memoir and travel writing.

He moved to Britain to study at Oxford in 1950 after winning a government scholarship to study at any Commonwealth university in the world.

He was knighted by the Queen in 1990 for a career distinguished by extravagant critical praise for works such as A Bend in the River and A House for Mr Biswas.



He was awarded the 1971 Booker Prize for his novel In a Free State and in 2001 won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Yet his approach to detailing life in former British colonies split audiences. While to many readers in Britain and the US he offered a way into reading about African or Caribbean nations, he generated hostility among people who thought he had left them behind.

As Edward Said, a former professor of English and comparative literature at Colombia University, once put it, although Naipaul, in the West is seen as "a master novelist and an important witness to the disintegration and hypocrisy of the third world, in the postcolonial world he's a marked man as a purveyor of stereotypes and disgust for the world that produced him - though that doesn't exclude people thinking he's a gifted writer."

Fans of his writing also had to reconcile his elegant prose with a complex private life when it emerged he kept a mistress for 24 years before leaving his first wife.

He later admitted that his mental cruelty to Patricia Naipaul may even have killed her.

"I think that consumed her. I think she had all the relapses and everything after that," he said in a 2001 biography.

"She suffered. It could be said that I killed her. It could be said. I feel a little bit that way."

In later life, he also became embroiled in a bad-tempered literary feud with Paul Theroux. Their friendship was shattered in 1996 when Naipaul offered personally-signed and dedicated copies of Theroux's books for auction.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/nobel-prize-winning-author-vs-naipaul-dies-age-85/

[*$kїđž!™]

Rip

[Daran]

sheit.....RIP the legend

[Dizzy28]

Flawed genius as many them tend to be. Miguel Street remains one of favourite local books. RIP!!

[RedVEVO]

RIP

Miguel Street
A House for Mr Biswas

Now have plenty crime, no street light ..
And it was broken into ..
He exiled himself from Trinidad.

[hydroep]

I remember the time he "rough up" a SAGHS student for asking what was in his opinion a stupid question...

Eccentricity is not an excuse for being an arsehole.

R.I.P.

[RedVEVO]

I remember the time he "rough up" a SAGHS student for asking what was in his opinion a stupid question...

Eccentricity is not an excuse for being an arsehole.

R.I.P.

He was NOT an arsehole , you illiterate DA.

RIP Genuis

[trebornattaj]

Rip, Sir Vidya Naipaul, I'll always remember Miguel Street.

[antlind]

I remember the time he "rough up" a SAGHS student for asking what was in his opinion a stupid question...

Eccentricity is not an excuse for being an arsehole.

R.I.P.

He was NOT an arsehole , you illiterate DA.

RIP Genuis

Genius he may have been, but he had a reputation for being arrogant and rude. RIP.

[antlind]

.....

[shake d livin wake d dead]

Sad to say....page 1...because that post^ ....going n stir some loins up in here

[pugboy]

Dodds kidney pills ftw

[Gem_in_i]

Hmmm well

[randolphinshan]

Hmmm well

Goodbye and good riddance. Was a rude and pompous man.

[RedVEVO]

Hmmm well

Goodbye and good riddance. Was a rude and pompous man.

Look into a mirror ..

But without the genius part ..

" The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it .. " VS Naipaul .

[skylinechild]

aww...RIP Sir. you are a son of the soil

[aaron17]

No rip from me....

[pugboy]

Any of you guys read his books?

Biswas was a very long read but excellent

[shake d livin wake d dead]

Any of you guys read his books?

Biswas was a very long read but excellent

Miguel street...because I had to...fun book doh

[bluefete]

My mother got a cow in Miguel Street - " ... when yuh pee turn to froth". LOL.

[Redman]

RIP.
Great author,
but seems hydroep is correct-if a bit understated.

[airuma]

RIP.... whether he is arrogant or not should not take away what he offered through his writing. I'm sure a similar attitude is common amongst the "achievers" in our nation and many of us would treat them just short of gods even though their achievements have not gone beyond our shores. We should be proud that one of our nationals achieved one of the WORLDS highest awards. IIRC, Obama stated publicly that he is a fan of his book "A bend in the river".

[Daran]

RIP.... whether he is arrogant or not should not take away what he offered through his writing. I'm sure a similar attitude is common amongst the "achievers" in our nation and many of us would treat them just short of gods even though their achievements have not gone beyond our shores. We should be proud that one of our nationals achieved one of the WORLDS highest awards. IIRC, Obama stated publicly that he is a fan of his book "A bend in the river".

Fully agreed

[RedVEVO]

" .. Among his widely quoted comments: He called India a "slave society," quipped that Africa has no future, and explained that Indian women wear a colored dot on their foreheads to say "my head is empty." He laughed off the 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie as "an extreme form of literary criticism ... "

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/europe/europe ... li=BBKxOg5

He was 100 % correct .

[RedVEVO]

RIP.... whether he is arrogant or not should not take away what he offered through his writing. I'm sure a similar attitude is common amongst the "achievers" in our nation and many of us would treat them just short of gods even though their achievements have not gone beyond our shores. We should be proud that one of our nationals achieved one of the WORLDS highest awards. IIRC, Obama stated publicly that he is a fan of his book "A bend in the river".

Fully agreed

x2


" .. Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories .. "

" In 1950, Naipaul was awarded one of a few available government scholarships to study in England, and he left his family to begin his studies in English literature at University College, Oxford .. "

" .. "I was born there, yes," he said of Trinidad to an interviewer in 1983. "I thought it was a great mistake."


https://www.msn.com/en-xl/europe/europe ... li=BBKxOg5

[Dizzy28]

This is pretty succinct description of his life, successes and his weaknesses which didn't really make him a decent human being.

Obituary: VS Naipaul -m http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44820536

[Redman]

He was a great author.
And and arsehole.

Neither takes away from the other.

[Dizzy28]

He was a great author.
And and arsehole.

Neither takes away from the other.

From that obit he was more than an a$$hole. He was also an islamophobe and a racist. I'd be surprised if the SJWs don't ask for a boycott of his works.

[shogun]

Deeply flawed man with a literary gift. Such is the human condition.

[RedVEVO]

Deeply flawed man with a literary gift. Such is the human condition.

How was he deeply flawed ? You are a Judge and a Priest ?

Lil youth man did you ever win a Noble Prize for Literature ?

V.S. Naipaul was a genius .

He was human and a man .