Shiva Naipaul

Follows the life of a strong Hindu woman who must adjust to an arranged marriage to a foolish man

In the 1970s Shiva Naipaul travelled to Africa, visiting Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia for several months. Through his experiences, the places he visited and his various encounters, he aimed to discover what 'liberation', 'revolution' and 'socialism' meant to the ordinary people. His journey of discovery is brilliantly documented in this intimate, comic and controversial portrayal of a continent on the brink of change.

The author brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters set in a tightly knit Hindu community in Trinidad, against a backdrop of the idiosyncrasies of a particular culture and the sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant truths about human society. "A compelling, tragic, painfully comic masterpiece." THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT.

Cuyama, a small country in South America, its spirit robbed by centuries of conquerors and colonizers, is poised on the brink of crisis. Shiva Naipaul's passionate and evocative novel focuses on two casualties of Cuyama's post-Independence malaise, Aubrey St Pierre, dedicated to redeeming the sins of his slave-owning ancestors, and his wife, Dina. While Aubrey sits in his highbrow bookshop composing protest letters to The Times in London and New York, Dina stands aloof and passive in the face of an impending tragedy that seems to her more personal than political. The fate of their marriage comes obliquely to reflect the fate of a nation, portrayed by Naipaul with intense sympathy, vision and eloquence.

Rarely does a book come along which so transcends its apparent subject that the reader is ultimately given something larger, richer, and more revealing than he might initially have imagined. Already published in England to overwhelming acclaim, Shiva Naipaul's Journey to Nowhere is such a book – a “powerful, lucid, and beautifully written book” (The Spectator) that is destined to be one of the most controversial works of 1981.In it, this major writer takes us beyond the events and surface details surrounding the tragedy of Jonestown and the People's Temple – and gives us his remarkable, unique perspective on the deadly drama of ideas, environments, and unholy alliances that shaped those events both in Guyana and, even more significantly, in America.Journey to Nowhere is, on one level, a “brilliantly edgy safari” (New Statesman) inside the Third World itself – a place of increasing importance in our lives – and on another, a book about America, about the corrupt and corrupting ideologies and chi-chi politics of the past twenty years that enabled the Reverend Jim Jones and the Temple to flourish and grow powerful in California and Guyana,Drawing on interviews – with former members of the Temple, various officials, and such people as Buckminster Fuller, Huey Newton, Clark Kerr, and others – on documents, and most importantly, on his own strong, clear reactions on what he observed, Naipaul examines the Guyana of Forbes Burnham, the CIA stooge turned Third World socialist leader, whose stated ideals of socialism, racial brotherhood, and cooperative agricultural enterprise coincided so neatly, we learn for the first time, with those of the People's Temple – ideals that led all too easily to violence and death. “In life,” Naipaul writes, “they had been hailed by the Guyanese government as socialist heroes; in death, they had become hopelessly American.”In California, he traces the ideas generated in the 1960s in the white radical and Black Power movements – and the evolution of those ideas in the 1970s into the preoccupation with “self-realization,” ecology, and “life-style.” We learn of the Temple's formation and of its respected place in the San Francisco community; of Jim Jones and his life, from his small-town Indiana background to his coming West; of the Concerned Relatives and their attempts to totally discredit the Temple and extricate their family members from it. But above all, Naipaul relentlessly explores the American society that produced and nurtured Jones and his followers: the politicians and social workers, the Zen Buddhists and the poor – the junk people whom America professes to care about, but prefers to forget.Absolutely convincing, timely in its message, and written with “the sardonic humor which has become his trademark” (The Times), Journey to Nowhere is “a brilliant achievement” (The Sunday Times). It is certain to be talked about – and argued about – for years to come.

Cover has mild wear. Previous owner's name on ffep, ink has transferred to inside cover. Light age-toning throughout, more so on inside covers, the back has short notation. Otherwise, pages are very clean and unmarked. Ships fast from California.

Black and White

Contains articles about the Third World, the India of the Nehrus, the aborigines of Australia, Sri Lanka, and the author's relationship with his brother, V.S. Naipaul

Sharply observed, wryly comic yet touched with sadness, these eight stories were written between 1969 and 1974. 'A Man of Mystery' charts the tragic downfall of Mr Green, a shoemaker overtaken by commercialization. Other stories range from the hilarious rivalry of a group of competitors in 'The Beauty Contest' to the heartbreaking disintegration of a marriage in 'The Dolly House'. Masterpieces of storytelling, they successfully capture the absurdities and pathos of human behaviour.

En 1977, le révérend Jim Jones quitte San Francisco pour s'installer avec sa secte dams la jungle guyanaise. Une alarmante rumeur se propage bientôt tout autour de la baie de San Fransisco : Jones aurait viré au dictateur et envouté ses fidèles qu'il aurait réduits à l'esclavage. Le 18 novembre 1978, Jonestown, la communauté de disciples sur laquelle il règne est le théâtre d'une tragédie dont la réalité macabre glace le monde entier. Quelques heures après les meurtres d'un membre du Congrès américain et de trois journalistes envoyés en délégation officielle, les quelque neuf cents membres de la secte du Temple du Peuple entendent le message de Jones diffusé par les haut-parleurs du camp : " Alerte ! alerte ! rassemblement général ! le moment est venu pour nous tous de mourir ! si vous m'aimez autant que je vous aime, nous devons mourir maintenant sinon nous serons détruits par le monde extérieure ! " Sous la menace des gardes armés du camp, les adeptes du Temple du Peuple sont forcés de boire la potion mortelle de cyanure. Au lendemain du massacre, Shiva Naipaul part enquêter sur les lieux et tente de faire toute la lumière sur l'histoire du Temple du Peuple, " paradis du socialisme sur terre. " En remontant jusqu'aux idées prônées dans les années 1960 par les radicaux blancs et le mouvement des Panthères noires, Shiva Naipaul explore la société qui a engendré et forméJim Jones, et ses adeptes : les politiciens et les assistants sociaux, les lesbiennes radicales et les clochards, les boudhistes zen et les chrétiens régénérés, et, bien sur, les pauvres - les laissés-pour-compte que la société américaine préfère oublier.