Choice Review

Barnouw (German and comparative literature, Univ. of Southern California) has produced a well-written, thought-provoking book. It is worth reading whether one tends to see Naipaul as a racist, a man who has betrayed his "native" identity, or as a figure of "mobile social intelligence," someone committed to "redefining himself as a writer by charting changing worlds," drawing them closer, making them more one's concern. Naipaul the "inquiline"--the animal that resides in another animal's nest--sees both the problems and benefits of colonial rule, the problems and benefits of postcolonialism. Naipaul's empathetic connection to other perspectives is deeply personal; it is what remains after the blunt force of history's dislocations. Barnouw links Naipaul's way of seeing, the acknowledged hybridity and limits of an individual's perspective, to the Enlightenment intellectual and "philosophical traveler" Georg Forster. He takes on Naipaul's postcolonialist critics (Said, Homi K. Bhabha, Derek Walcott) in some detail. He also provides a profound synthesis of a range of Naipaul's documentary and novelistic writings, giving Finding the Centre (1984) its due weight throughout his analysis. Barnouw reads with complexity and sensitivity. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. E. M. Huergo Montgomery College--Rockville Campus