A Way in the World by V.S. Naipaul
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I admire Naipaul's writing. He may be the best living writer in the English language. But I did not enjoy this particular novel. It is a series of autobiographical reflections on revolutions from colonialism experienced in his native Trinidad and Africa and also a series of sketches of different figures from the histories of those revolutions and further back in history--particularly Sir Walter Raleigh and Francicso de Miranda. The sections set in Trinidad and Venezuela are a haunting picture of centuries of their history. But the novel as a whole is not clear and individual pieces vary widely in worth. I believe Naipaul was trying something new with the book, but it did not succeed, proving that literary genius can fail grandly.

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