- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (6 Sep 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330487159
- ISBN-13: 978-0330487153
- Product Dimensions: 19.5 x 13.2 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 113,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Enigma of Arrival
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Product Description
Review
'A wonderful book... a magical book' Jan Morris, Independent
Product Description
A moving and beautiful novel of the transformation of rural England. Taking its title from the strangely frozen picture by surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico, the Enigma of Arrival is the story of a young Indian from the Crown Colony of Trinidad who arrives in post-imperial England and consciously, over many years, finds himself as a writer. As he does so, he also observes the gradual but profound and permanent changes wrought on the English landscape by the march of "progress", as an old world is lost to the relentless drift of people and things over the face of the earth. But while this is a novel of dignity, compassion and candour it is also, perhaps surprisingly, a work of celebration.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As with an earlier reviewer, I couldn't get on with this book the first time I took it up. In fact, I detested what I percieved as a deliberately obscure use of language. But when I took it up again, I managed to relax and to accept the layers of ambiguity on display from the first paragraph, and so entered the author's world. Perhaps Naipual is as egotistical a man as portrayed in the biography of him written by his one-time friend, Paul Theroux. But, as a writer, Naipaul does manage to communicate - unusually successfully - that he is alive, albeit in an uncaring universe. And that as Naipaul (the book's protagonist as well as its author) studies that tiny bit of the universe that is accessible to him (to begin with its just the view from a rented cottage in Wiltshire) the universe becomes a little less foreign and unfriendly a place.
Format:Paperback
I bought this book because so many people I know rave about Naipaul. I just could not get into the book and gave up early on. I am not sure why and will, at some point, have another go. I have a suspicion that I didn't like the central character and when that happens it is rare that I enjoy a book.
20 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was surprised that this magnificient book had not been reviewed.It is a long time since I read this novel, but I still remember the plaintive intelligence of the prose and the haunting landscapes.I recognise some of the stranger's emotions, and there were sections that were almost too painful to read.
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