FINDING THE CENTER

Rating:
Summary: Finding the Center by V.S. Naipaul
Review: It is a rear book of two essays that dealt with the author's own personal experiences in two entirely different worlds. Prolouge to an Autobiography, the first one was more personal than the second one and it was related to his background in Trinidad and Indian ancestry. I enjoyed reading it mainly because of my Indian background, and if there was something intrinsic I might have missed it because of the same reason. I need to read it over.

However I found something remarkably valuable in the second essay, The Crocodiles of Yamaoussoukro. It was more of a travel type dealing with foriegn (African) culture with certain intrinsic revelations about the human nature itself. It showed presence of spirituality behind the primitiveness. Acceptance of the way things happen was delicately brought out through people from Ghana when they say "Yesterday we were all right. Today we are poor. That is the way it is. Tomorrow we may be all right again. Or we my not. That is the way it is." ; and throuh Arlette when she says thing like "But the world is sand. Life is sand" when she tries to explain the unstability of Life. Nailpaul draws the parallel themes between this practical acceptance of Africa and that of the Hindu doctrine of Karma.

Naipaul is probably the most focused writer of our times. Only he could have written such observational essays. I highly recommend them to any one with an open mind and a desire to finding one's own center.