The Enigma of V.S. Naipaul

In this book, Helen Hayward presents a perceptive, well-researched, and objective study of V.S. Naipaul, and identifies the recurring themes that run through his novels, travel books short stories, articles, and interviews spanning over 40 years. Born into and raised on a colonial world, he is regarded by many as one of the most trenchant critics of the corruption, greed, and brutality of the post-colonial world. Hayward traces a pattern of themes and concerns which cast new light in the relationship between the life and the work as well as the creative process itself. She examines key Naipaulian concepts such as cultural alienation, detachment, and anxiety, relating them to the narrative of the writer's life, a story in which fact and fiction are deliberately and artistically blurred.