V. S. Naipaul, Man and Writer

"Naipaul's work, like the man, is formidable, often intimidating. Gillian Dooley, surmising that 'understanding Naipaul is a matter of empathizing, not theorizing,' stays clear of the demons that have long haunted the assessment of this Nobel laureate, an enigma of our times. Unwilling to hide behind thickets of jargon, Dooley delights the reader with honest insights and clear statements. Judicious and incisive, Dooley's volume is a rare combination of scholarly essay and pleasurable reading experience."—Pradyumna S. Chauhan, Arcadia University, and editor of Salman Rushdie Interviews: A Sourcebook of His Ideas

"Gillian Dooley brings us a refreshingly balanced and ideology-free survey of a formidable half century of Naipaul's work. Where many critics enlist his uncompromising, take-no-prisoners writing in an attack on the man, Dooley's sympathetic but penetrating scrutiny enables the writer and the work to brilliantly illuminate each other. Students and specialists alike will learn much from this comprehensive study, which introduces us, finally, to Naipaul as he might wish us to read him."—John Clement Ball, University of New Brunswick, and author of Satire and the Postcolonial Novel: V.S. Naipaul, Chinua Achebe, Salman Rushdie