V. S. Naipaul
An Anthology of recent Criticism
Edited by: Purabi Panwar
ISBN: 81-85753-54-7
Year of Pub: 2004
Price: Rs.400.00

The Book : This volume brings together some of the most recent revaluations of the multifaceted oeuvre of V.S. Naipaul, comprising his novels, short stories, travel writing, historical accounts, and varied essays. Focussed on the author's creative anxieties and strategies as much as on his provocative discourses on diverse nations, cultures, histories and communities across the globe, it closely critiques most of his major texts. The anthology also explores the extent of fixities and ambivalences in Naipaul's much talked about Eurocentrism, his insights into and distortions of the past, and his assimilations/appropriations through the deployment of the telling detail and the brilliant prose. At once exciting and instructive, the volume richly investigates the author's ceaseless endeavour to come to terms with the modern man's predicament in today's highly tangled scenario.

The Contributors : Amit Chaudhuri, Richard Allen, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Dileep Padgaonkar, Meenakshi Bharat, Sudha Rai, Kanika Batra, Fukrul Alam, et al

The Editor : Purabi Panwar holds a Ph.D degree in English from Delhi University, and is a Reader in English at the College of Vocational Studies, Dellhi University, Delhi. Her publications include a book-length study India in the Works of Kiping, Forster and Naipaul and several scholarly articles. Her English translations of major Hindi poets have appeared in various literary journals including Indian Literature of the National Academy of Letters, new Delhi. She frequently contributes articles, interviews and book reviews to various national dailies.


Review
:
An eminently readable and useful collection of essays that are insightful, analytical and sensitive to the larger themes of Naipaul's work and of post-colonial writing.
The Pioneer