Sir Vidia's Shadow: A Friendship Across Five Continents - Softcover

Theroux, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241950546 ISBN 13: 9780241950548

Publisher: Penguin, 2011

Synopsis

Sir Vidia's Shadow is a book that chronicles bestselling author Paul Theroux's long friendship with writer V.S Naipaul from its beginning to untimely end with both funny and moving moments and stark honesty.

'Both unputdownable and utterly engaging' Jonathan Raban, The Times Literary Supplement

'I started reading Theroux Sir Vidia's Shadow, the story of his friendship with V.S. Naipaul over thirty years and five continents. I couldn't, as they say, put it down. I don't know of a more revealing study of the peculiar nature of friendship between professional writers, an unstable compound of empathy, solidarity and rivalry' David Lodge, Guardian Books of the Year

'Thoroughly compelling. We can call it a memoir, or a biographical sketch, but it has more in it - more candour, more intensity, more angry puzzlement - than we would normally expect from either of these genres' Sunday Telegraph

'The portrait of Naipaul that emerged is uproariously believable. . . most people are damaged human beings. What distinguishes writers is that can turn their damage into something life-enhancing. That is what Sir Vidia's Shadow resplendently does' John Carey, Sunday Times

American travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his other non-fiction titles, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Happy Isles of Oceania, Sunrise with Seamonsters, The Kingdom by the Sea, The Tao of Travel, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, The Old Patagonian Express, The Great Railway Bazaar, Dark Star Safari, Fresh-air Fiend, The Pillars of Hercules, and his novels and collections of short stories, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize winner The Mosquito Coast are available from Penguin.

About this title

Review:

Paul Theroux first met V.S. Naipaul, or Vidia to his friends, in Uganda in 1966. Theroux was an unknown writer, while the older Naipaul had already established a name for himself as the author of such classic novels as A House for Mr. Biswas. Their unlikely subsequent friendship stretched for more than 30 years and spanned five continents, as Theroux grew in literary stature, with novels such as The Mosquito Coast and travelogues including Riding the Iron Rooster, and Naipaul went on to secure, among other plaudits, the 1971 Booker Prize for his extraordinary collection In a Free State.

But then, in 1997, their friendship ended. Snubbed by Naipaul following a chance meeting on a London street, Theroux immediately realised that "his rejection of me meant I was on my own. He had freed me, he had opened my eyes, he had given me a subject." The result was Sir Vidia's Shadow, a humorous but often elegiac account of the cantankerous Naipaul, which often reads as much as an account of Theroux's own rise to artistic maturity as a literary memoir of Naipaul. Some of the finest sections of the book deal with Theroux's contrasting experiences to Africa compared with the patrician attitude of Naipaul, and his emergence as a literary figure in London--with the help of Naipaul.

At times, Sir Vidia's Shadow offers hilarious insights into Naipaul's bizarre and often offensive musings on politics, race and sex, and his selfish and single-minded belief that writing is the only thing that really matters. This is a fascinating book, made all the more intriguing by the nagging feeling that a deeper level of recrimination lies behind Theroux's account than he actually concedes. If Naipaul's rejection of Theroux allows him to become just another "subject", then how much difference is there in the end between the two writers? In the end, is this really a book about killing the literary father? Only time, and perhaps Naipaul's response, will tell. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

"A compact, provocative gem of a novel." Boston Globe"Vigorous and evocative . . . the kind of story you force yourself to savor slowly though you're dying to find out what happens next." The Washington Post"Both unputdownable and utterly engaging."Times Literary Supplement

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0241950546
• ISBN 13: 9780241950548
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400