The World Is What It Is

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 a quotation 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 life up until his second marriage in 1996.[1]

Reception

The biography has been extensively reviewed:[2][3][4][5] the reviewers include Paul Theroux, who wrote an earlier book about Naipaul.[6]

Awards

The biography was selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as one of the Times' "10 Best Books of 2008".[7] It won the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, and the British literary award the Hawthornden Prize.

References

  1. ↑ French suggests that there may be a sequel.
  2. ↑ Packer, George (21 November 2008). "A Life Split in Two". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  3. ↑ Massie, Allan. "Living for Literature". Literary Review. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  4. ↑ Hussein, Aamer (4 April 2008). "The enigma of survival". The Independent. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  5. ↑ Carey, John (30 March 2008). "The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of VS Naipaul by Patrick French". Times Online. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  6. ↑ Paul Theroux (April 6, 2008). "Paul Theroux claims new biography reveals the true monster in V S Naipaul". Times Online. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  7. ↑ "The 10 Best Books of 2008". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 December 2008.


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