The World Is What It Is Explained

The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul
Author:Patrick French
Language:English
Genre:Biography
Pub Date:January 1, 2008
Pages:554
Isbn:9781400044054
Isbn Note:Hardcover
Subject:V. S. Naipaul

The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul is a biography of the Nobel Prize-winning author V. S. Naipaul by Patrick French. It was published in 2008 (by Picador in the UK and Knopf in the USA). The title is the opening sentence from Naipaul's book A Bend in the River:

The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.
French deals with Naipaul's family background and his life from his birth in 1932 until his second marriage in 1996.[1]

Reception

The biography has been reviewed by The New York Times,[2] Literary Review,[3] The Independent,[4] and The Times,[5] among others. The reviewers include Paul Theroux, who wrote an earlier book about Naipaul.[6]

The biography won unanimous praise from all quarters including Naipaul experts Teju Cole and James Wood in the New Yorker.[7]

Awards and honors

The biography was selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as one of the Times "10 Best Books of 2008."[8] It won the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography,[9] and the British literary award the Hawthornden Prize.

Notes and References

  1. French suggests that there may be a sequel.
  2. Web site: Packer . George . 21 November 2008 . A Life Split in Two . 23 November 2008 . . 9 December 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081209050644/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/books/review/Packer-t.html . live .
  3. Web site: Massie . Allan . Living for Literature . 23 November 2008 . . 20 August 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080820130930/http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/massie_04_08.html . live .
  4. Web site: Hussein . Aamer . 4 April 2008 . The enigma of survival . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080408183936/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-world-is-what-it-is-by-patrick-french-804342.html . April 8, 2008 . 23 November 2008 . .
  5. Web site: Carey . John . 30 March 2008 . The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of VS Naipaul by Patrick French . 23 November 2008 . . 16 June 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110616121226/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article3626703.ece . live .
  6. Web site: Theroux . Paul . Paul Theroux . April 6, 2008 . Paul Theroux claims new biography reveals the true monster in V S Naipaul . February 25, 2011 . . June 24, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110624112207/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3688422.ece . live .
  7. Web site: Wood . James . James Wood (critic) . 2008-11-24 . Wounder And Wounded . 2023-03-13 . . en-US . 2023-01-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230103125041/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/12/01/wounder-and-wounded . live .
  8. News: 3 December 2008 . The 10 Best Books of 2008 . . 5 December 2008 . 22 September 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110922043653/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/books/review/10Best-t.html?_r=1 . live .
  9. Web site: 2008 . 2022-01-25 . National Book Critics Circle . en-US . 2022-01-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220125012406/https://www.bookcritics.org/past-awards/2008/ . live .

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