Talk:A Bend in the River

Setting
I've corrected the ID of the country as Uganda, as I think Congo is a much more common interpretation. See, for instance: 1, 2, 3, or the Amazon.com reviews. --Dvyost 14:15, 19 July 2005 (UTC)


 * People see what they want in this book, and it's kind of a Rorschach in that way, reflecting what history a particular person knows. Enough people have consistently noted similarities to Idi Amin's Uganda, or to a country "very like Congo or Uganda," to merit mention. Naipaul certainly intended ambiguity, and we should respect that.


 * Are we allowed to say that it is among Naipaul's most famous and celebrated works? I think it's a masterpiece, but to say so surely violates NPOV. Sandover 06:41, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

While I am not going to say this is Congo - I can say that it is not Uganda. In the book Uganda is the place that Nazruddin first goes to. A quote (from The Big Man - 13.  "Things were bad in Uganda, Nazruddin wrote.  The army people...Uganda was Beautiful, fertile, easy, without poverty..."  This excerpt is just one of multiple examples in the book of Uganda being referred to as being away.

--

The setting is definitely intended to evoke Zaire. For one thing, there are shadows of Heart of Darkness, which takes place in Stanleyville/Kisangani, throughout. For another, the river in the book flows toward the Atlantic, which definitely means we're not in the Great Lakes watershed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.34.209.48 (talk) 01:41, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm currently working on a project in Kisangani, Dem Rep of Congo and a former US ambassador suggested I read this book to get some additional perspective on the place. There are many strong parallels to Kisangani and the area in the book. The descriptions of the buildings, the location of the fishing village near the falls, the vague reference to Patrice Lumumba (he spent a lot of time in Kisangani), the reference to the language along the river (Lingala), the hydroelectric plant next to the falls (which is in reality on the nearby Tshopo River), and the physical description of the people. If one assumes the book to be based on reality in Kisangani, it is remarkable to see the current city (2009) has not changed a great deal from the description of the book. Another item supporting the thought that the country in the book is not Uganda is that Uganda is not a former French colony and it is highly unlikely that French would be a common language as used in the book if it were set in Uganda. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dukematthews (talk • contribs) 09:06, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Name of protagonist
The first sentence says the protagonist is unnamed, but the article also calls him Salim. I just finished the book yesterday, and certainly characters such as Metty called him Salim throughout. I'm not sure if this was his name or just a nickname, though. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.167.223.0 (talk) 23:43, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

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