Author : V.S.Naipaul
What is it about : A fictionalised account of a true story set in the heady days of "Black Power", "Civil Radicals" and "Liberation" - the story of a British girl in her late twenties in search of life's meaning and spiritual adventures, landed into a "commune" on a Caribbean island and mixed company with her radical boyfriend's circle and her fateful encounters with the island's activist leader. Her personal journey was set against the backdrop of an island in turmoil (poverty, near anarchy and feeble governance), in an ex-pat community broiled in uncertainty where they "rum-punched" the day away and the book detailed the emotional interplays between the British girl and a whole cast of ideological figure heads.
Some thoughts after having read the book : Quite a struggle at first to get stuck into the book and to make heads and tails about the settings and characters as the story line appeared veiled and fogged out - hallmarks of another Nobel Prize Winner, may be ? Good thing the Author wrote a Preface and I did a bit of research half way through the book of Gail Anne Benson and her association with Michael X and the story of her eventual horrendous murder. Straight away, the story was illuminated and I followed with clarity of where the Author was taking the readers. The build-up to the climax and anti-climax towards the end was absolutely riveting and a master stroke as the disillusioned Brit approached her fatal fall and the subsequent simultaneous denial and acknowledgment of her existence and disappearance.
Would I recommend this book to you : Full of un-fathomable dialogues and drawn out accounts of ex-pat lives on a Caribbean island - rum-punching, strolling on a beach, being served dinner and generally lying around on Mexican hammocks in Bermuda shorts ... Exciting, interesting the book was not but the last 50 pages saved the day - the pace quickened, the plot focused and the story zero-ed in on the tragic end. It was a bit like having watched the first 2 hours of a lousy West-End Play but the scenes, actors and directors in the Final Act came together Big-Time and you walked out of the theatre thankfully satisfied - phew, not a waste of time after all.
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