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I know VS Naipaul is one of the most highly regarded authors of the 20th century and that he won a Nobel Prize for literature. I had read his book, "A Bend in the River", also about Colonial Africa and found it extraordinary and memorable.... This one even more so.

This is a deeply affecting, fictional (apparently semi-autobiographical) narrative about an Indian man who cannot find himself. Having been raised in the conflicted world of a hindu father who intentionally wed a very very low caste woman, just to throw spite on his social status. The father then, absolutely loathing this 'piece of the gutter' he has married to belittle his our person (this is the pervasive attitude he conveys) totally and utterly belittles and disregards her throughout his children's lives. This leaves his son without any clear sense of worth - of his father, of himself, of his sister. His mother has no worth. Period. It is a devastating family identity. (this woman, his wife is so lowly regarded that even the most destitute and dire of the poor - the man who gives water to the elementary students in a tin cup, is so revolted by her low caste that he refuses to give her any water.)

As a young man, the boy goes off to school in England and searches for self-meaning. He ends up in an unnamed Portuguese Colonial in east Africa, married to another 'half-caste' as t'were.... This is an aspect of Colonial Africa I have never before visited, in any way. And I found it very fascinating.

It is a deeply hypocritical world, this colonialism, and the post-colonialism from which he comes. He observes and feels the contradictions and conflicts in those around him and in himself. Never fully able to feel connected with Ana or himself, he concludes he is living the life of another.... a life that does not belong to him.

I believe this is an inner conflict and outer reality that many displaced persons in this world must feel: always somehow at loose ends, never quite 'belonging' - in ones own mind or in the minds of those around you but about you, never fully at ease, never fully comfortable.... never 'home'. A compelling and difficult world to inhabit, I imagine.

I can understand why Naipaul won the Nobel Prize..... He is an amazingly powerful writer.