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A grouse for Mr Naipaul
Everyone has opinions ? some even having the courage to have a view on Mr Naipaul?s writings. But when it comes to launching a verbal assault on others plying his trade, Sir Vidia is the best.
Show us a writer whom V.S. Naipaul doesn’t dislike and we’ll show you someone who thinks that Sir Vidia is a funny guy. Before someone in the back of the class does raise his hand stating how great a work of comic fiction A House of Mr Biswas is, let it also be known that Mr Naipaul is an ardent admirer of Joseph Conrad. But the litany of writers who don’t make the grade is long, and the reasons for them not making it colourful. In a recent conversation with the Literary Review — that could have been titled, ‘Damn these people who make me suffer from a complex’ — Charles Dickens is derided by Sir Vidia as the author of “terrible books”, simply because they are full of “self-parody”. Pity, for that’s the one weapon that is lacking in his arsenal.
James Joyce — always a name that divides the literature-reading public — is flung aside because unlike Mr Naipaul, he is “not interested in the world” and instead writes obsessively about himself. Most curious, though, is his remark about Joyce being unreadable because his was the work of a “blind writer”. Surely, Mr Naipaul, your physical prowess allows you to give John Milton a chance. So why not the old Dubliner?
Jane Austen is “vapid”, Henry James “the worst writer in the world”, Thomas Hardy “an unbearable writer”. The decks are cleared for Sir Vidia to breathe a little more easily. Everyone has opinions — some even having the courage to have a view on Mr Naipaul’s writings. But when it comes to launching a verbal assault on others plying his trade, Sir Vidia is the best. Maybe our books editor should consider having him on board as a regular reviewer. What fun it will be! But then, Mr Naipaul probably hates this paper too.
