- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (26 Aug 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 014028110X
- ISBN-13: 978-0140281101
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 546,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Sir Vidia's Shadow: A Friendship Across Five Continents
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Paul Theroux first met V.S. Naipaul, or Vidia to his friends, in Uganda in 1966. Theroux was an unknown writer, while the older Naipaul had already established a name for himself as the author of such classic novels as A House for Mr. Biswas. Their unlikely subsequent friendship stretched for more than 30 years and spanned five continents, as Theroux grew in literary stature, with novels such as The Mosquito Coast and travelogues including Riding the Iron Rooster, and Naipaul went on to secure, among other plaudits, the 1971 Booker Prize for his extraordinary collection In a Free State.
But then, in 1997, their friendship ended. Snubbed by Naipaul following a chance meeting on a London street, Theroux immediately realised that "his rejection of me meant I was on my own. He had freed me, he had opened my eyes, he had given me a subject." The result was Sir Vidia's Shadow, a humorous but often elegiac account of the cantankerous Naipaul, which often reads as much as an account of Theroux's own rise to artistic maturity as a literary memoir of Naipaul. Some of the finest sections of the book deal with Theroux's contrasting experiences to Africa compared with the patrician attitude of Naipaul, and his emergence as a literary figure in London--with the help of Naipaul.
At times, Sir Vidia's Shadow offers hilarious insights into Naipaul's bizarre and often offensive musings on politics, race and sex, and his selfish and single-minded belief that writing is the only thing that really matters. This is a fascinating book, made all the more intriguing by the nagging feeling that a deeper level of recrimination lies behind Theroux's account than he actually concedes. If Naipaul's rejection of Theroux allows him to become just another "subject", then how much difference is there in the end between the two writers? In the end, is this really a book about killing the literary father? Only time, and perhaps Naipaul's response, will tell. --Jerry Brotton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"A compact, provocative gem of a novel." Boston Globe
"Vigorous and evocative . . . the kind of story you force yourself to savor slowly though you're dying to find out what happens next." The Washington Post
"Both unputdownable and utterly engaging."
Times Literary Supplement --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"Vigorous and evocative . . . the kind of story you force yourself to savor slowly though you're dying to find out what happens next." The Washington Post
"Both unputdownable and utterly engaging."
Times Literary Supplement --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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IT IS A GOOD THING that time is a light, because so much of life is mumbling shadows and the future is just silence and darkness. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
IT IS A GOOD THING that time is a light, because so much of life is mumbling shadows and the future is just silence and darkness. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What began as a mentoring relationship between established novelist V. S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux, a young writer working on his first novel, went on to endure as a "friendship" for thirty years as both writers traveled the world but remained in touch with each other. They met when Theroux was a young ex-Peace Corp worker teaching in Uganda at the university in Makerere in 1966, and Naipaul, nine years his senior, became "writer-in-residence" there, though Naipaul hated teaching and mocked the writing of his students and the Makerere faculty. He did, however, recognize Theroux's talent, and he did help and encourage him to get his novel published. Theroux, in turn, was an astute reader of Naipaul's work, and both benefited from the relationship, at least at first.
From 1967 - 1977, Theroux published ten successful novels and short story collections, all of which Theroux describes in this book, and all were praised, at least privately, by Naipaul. Somewhat less attention is paid to the almost equal number of works published by Naipaul, some of which Theroux read and helped proofread. A crusty, critical, and often cruel man, full of contradictions, Naipaul was a difficult "friend," and when he decided that he did not like someone, there was no turning back, no forgiveness for human failings. Theroux managed to navigate that minefield of hostility for thirty years.
In fact, shortly before the first of Naipaul's novels was published in the United States, Theroux (in 1972) wrote an introductory biography and critical assessment of Naipaul's work, full of praise for Naipaul, and helped to create an audience for Naipaul's work in the United States. After this somewhat effusive work was published, however, Theroux refused further interviews or commentary about Naipaul, insisting that "I will never [again] write about Naipaul. He is my friend." That declaration is belied by the publication of this book, the last twenty-percent of which is an uninterrupted excoriation of Naipaul and his second wife at the end of the friendship with Theroux. Here Theroux shows that he is at least as unforgiving as Naipaul, with a mean streak of his own.
In time Theroux would become a literary star with over forty novels and books of non-fiction. Naipaul, a painstaking, often philosophical writer who avoids long descriptions and emotionalism in his books, eventually won the Nobel Prize in 2001, and was knighted. Though this book is fascinating for its picture of the mentoring process and of a friendship which managed to survive despite the pettiness and frequent mean-spiritedness of Naipaul, it is also a portrait of Theroux, who chose to put his own payback into print. Mary Whipple
From 1967 - 1977, Theroux published ten successful novels and short story collections, all of which Theroux describes in this book, and all were praised, at least privately, by Naipaul. Somewhat less attention is paid to the almost equal number of works published by Naipaul, some of which Theroux read and helped proofread. A crusty, critical, and often cruel man, full of contradictions, Naipaul was a difficult "friend," and when he decided that he did not like someone, there was no turning back, no forgiveness for human failings. Theroux managed to navigate that minefield of hostility for thirty years.
In fact, shortly before the first of Naipaul's novels was published in the United States, Theroux (in 1972) wrote an introductory biography and critical assessment of Naipaul's work, full of praise for Naipaul, and helped to create an audience for Naipaul's work in the United States. After this somewhat effusive work was published, however, Theroux refused further interviews or commentary about Naipaul, insisting that "I will never [again] write about Naipaul. He is my friend." That declaration is belied by the publication of this book, the last twenty-percent of which is an uninterrupted excoriation of Naipaul and his second wife at the end of the friendship with Theroux. Here Theroux shows that he is at least as unforgiving as Naipaul, with a mean streak of his own.
In time Theroux would become a literary star with over forty novels and books of non-fiction. Naipaul, a painstaking, often philosophical writer who avoids long descriptions and emotionalism in his books, eventually won the Nobel Prize in 2001, and was knighted. Though this book is fascinating for its picture of the mentoring process and of a friendship which managed to survive despite the pettiness and frequent mean-spiritedness of Naipaul, it is also a portrait of Theroux, who chose to put his own payback into print. Mary Whipple
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the story of Paul Theroux's thirty-year friendship with his fellow-novelist V. S. Naipaul. Part social history, part biography, part autobiography, it is above all a beautifully written and fascinating study of a writer's craft and life.
Both men are prolific and accomplished writers. Naipaul has written novels set in all five continents. His novels include 'Guerrillas', 'In a Free State' and 'A House for Mr Biswas'. He has also written a history of Trinidad, 'The Loss of El Dorado'. Theroux is the author of 'The Mosquito Coast', 'The Great Railway Bazaar' and many other stories, novels and travel books.
Both men are remarkably self-contained; both are wandering scholars. Naipaul is famously rude and difficult. As a visiting professor in New York, he refused to give any classes. He once boasted, "I hate all music." He appears to disparage all contemporary novelists, and most past ones: he said that he hated Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and Henry James. (He did at least admit to admiring Thomas Mann's 'Death in Venice' and Rudyard Kipling's 'Plain Tales from the Hills', and he does have a justified contempt for George Orwell.)
Theroux writes, "the best writers are the most fanatical." (Perhaps excellence at any work demands a certain fanaticism?) Certainly, Naipaul's uncompromising attention to his craft, his hatred of cant, of poses and affectation, of style, reveal the monomania necessary, but not sufficient, to creativity. The results in his work are uneven, but Theroux believes that Naipaul has produced one undoubted masterpiece, 'A House for Mr Biswas': readers should judge for themselves.
Theroux too is obviously not an easy man: his wanderlust, his unpleasant sexual boasting and his tactless responses to Naipaul's second marriage show how difficult he finds it to form relationships. Consequently this rare long friendship must have meant much to both men: it finished only recently, spurring Theroux to write this account. The book ends in a haunting last encounter, full of confusion, pain and rejection.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read and enjoyed several books by Theroux and Naipaul I looked forward to reading this book. I wasn't disappointed. The book is a compulsively readable account in the characteristically sardonic Theroux voice of his long friendship with Naipaul. I found Naipaul as portrayed in this book a deeply unpleasant character - rascist, snobbish, cruel, mean, full of vanity, excessively fastidious. I doubt if I will be able to read his books in the same light again. Theroux himself doesn't come out of the book too well either and his denunciations of his former friend and some of his work at the end of the book leave a sour taste in the mouth. What does come through however, and leaves me with a grudging admiration is the single-mindedness (selfishness?) with which both Theroux and Naipaul pursued their writing careers. These are men who believe that writing is immensely important and their commitment to their art shines through, even if many of those who came into contact with them suffered as a result.
One aspect of the book however, was deeply problematic for me. Theroux describes the book as a memory not a novel and rejoices in being "free of the constraint of alteration and fictionalizing". He says he remembers everything. And indeed the book is full of detailed accounts of incidents and conversations many of which took place over 30 years ago. But how can Theroux have remembered these things, particularly when, as he tells us, he did not keep a diary or journal? And why should we believe him - particularly when important events described in chapter 10 were recently claimed to be quite false in the London Review of Books? So finally, I recommend this book, read it and enjoy it, but take some of it with a pinch of salt.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Close-Run Thing
Here Theroux acknowledges he already has a fair idea of the response awaiting him, given the news of his celebrated falling-out with V.S. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Tod Hackett
Spiteful, rude and misguided - but what larks, Pip!
In this work Theroux seeks to destroy Naipaul, his one time mentor and friend. This is beyond debate. Read more
Published on 7 July 2003 by "justbell"
not what I expected
After my dissapointment with Millroy the Magician I was anxiously expecting a new release hoping Theroux's power was not washing away; well, this tittle kept me wondering what the... Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2000
It all depends on your perspective on things.
Before I read this book I'd heard of the controversy surrounding it and the accusations of a kind of betrayal. Read more
Published on 16 April 1999
Incisive and Insightful Expose of the 'Real Naipaul'
Knowing what I do of Naipaul's beliefs and character, I found that Theroux has been quite restrained; even though this work is in the nature of an exposé. Read more
Published on 8 Jan 1999
A thoughtful memoir of a valued frienship and its loss
Theroux recounts his long friendship with the award-winning author V.S. Naipaul, from its beginnings in Africa to its sad decline many years later following Naipaul's second... Read more
Published on 15 Dec 1998
An amazingly honest book
I have always found paul Theroux's non fiction more appealing then his fiction. This book as a very honest account of a famous friendship. Read more
Published on 14 Dec 1998
Vain, treacherous and deceitful.
Would you be friends with someone who did this to his teacher and confidant? A thin film of objectivity conceals only ambition and disloyalty. History will decide between the two. Read more
Published on 3 Dec 1998
Vain, treacherous and deceitful.
Would you be friends with someone who did this to his teacher and confidant? A thin film of objectivity conceals only ambition and disloyalty. History will decide between the two. Read more
Published on 3 Dec 1998
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