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Magic Seeds: A Novelby Naipaul, V.S
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Book DescriptionNew York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. First American Edition. Hard Cover. As New/As New. ISBN: 0-375-40736-7. Book summaryV. S. Naipaul continues the semi-autobiographical story he began in HALF A LIFE (2001). Willie Chandran, born in India but living in Berlin, returns to his homeland as an activist, working on behalf of India's poor and lower-caste until he lands in prison. Released because he is a famous and valuable writer, Willie travels to England, gets involved in a ménage-à-trois, finds a job, but becomes increasingly disillusioned with the state of the Western world. A New York Times Notable Book for 2004.Media Reviews"This great writer's rhetorical and constructive mastery remain unimpaired." -- Kirkus "[Naipaul] is a modern master of the multiple ironies of resentment, the claustrophobia of the margins. In a world in which terrorism continually haunts the headlines, Naipaul's work is indispensable." -- Publishers Weekly "The sequel to HALF A LIFE..., it is a subtle if slender production, a novel that revisits the themes--exile, identity, the precariousness of civilization--that he's been grappling with over the past five decades....If Naipaul is earnest about his assertion that he's retiring from the enterprise of fiction...it would be a pity." -- James Atlas, New York Times Book Review Publisher NotesA stunning novel of the present moment that takes us into the hearts and minds of those who use terrorism as an ideal and a way of life, and those who aspire to the frightening power of wealth. Abandoning a life he felt was not his own, Willie Chandran (the hero of Half a Life) moves to Berlin where his sister’s radical political awakening inspires him to join a liberation movement in India. There, in the jungles and dirt-poor small villages, through months of secrecy and night marches, Willie — a solitary, inward man — discovers both the idealism and brutality of guerilla warfare. When he finally escapes the movement, he is imprisoned for the murder of three policemen. Released unexpectedly on condition he return to England, he attempts to climb back into life in the West, but his experience of wealth, love and despair in London only bedevils him further. Magic Seeds is a moving tale of a man searching for his life and fearing he has wasted it, and a testing study of the conflicts between the rich and the poor, and the struggles within each. Its spare, elegant prose sizzles with devastating psychological analysis, bleak humour and astonishing characters. Only V. S. Naipaul could have written a novel so attuned to the world and so much a challenge to it. Other Recommended Books
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