Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on V. S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.
A Bend in the River: Introduction
A Bend in the River: Plot Summary
A Bend in the River: Detailed Summary & Analysis
A Bend in the River: Themes
A Bend in the River: Quotes
A Bend in the River: Characters
A Bend in the River: Terms
A Bend in the River: Symbols
A Bend in the River: Theme Wheel
Brief Biography of V. S. Naipaul
Historical Context of A Bend in the River
Other Books Related to A Bend in the River
- Full Title: A Bend in the River
- When Written: 1979
- Where Written: England; Trinidad and Tobago
- When Published: 1979
- Literary Period: Postcolonialism
- Genre: Novel
- Setting: An unnamed African country
- Climax: Salim’s shop is seized under new Nationalization laws.
- Antagonist: The Big Man
- Point of View: First Person
Extra Credit for A Bend in the River
An Affair of his Own. Not unlike the awakening and illuminating nature of Yvette and Salim’s affair in the novel, V.S. Naipaul was notably involved in an extra-marital affair with an Anglo-Argentine woman named Margaret Gooding. Naipaul cites their relationship as lending his later works a greater internal depth of character and fluidity, though much like Salim and Yvette in the novel, their affair was also characterized by intense domestic abuse from Naipaul toward Gooding.
Tolkien Co-Sign. When Naipaul graduated from Oxford in 1953 with a degree in English, he received only second marks on his undergraduate thesis. However, it was later revealed that one of his readers had been none other than J.R.R. Tolkien, writer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, who had vouched for his thesis as the best in the program.