The Story Archive

A Way in the World

V. S. Naipaul · 1994 CE · Novel · Caribbean · Contemporary

Nine narratives cut between a clerk's Trinidad in the 1940s, Walter Raleigh dictating an account of the Orinoco that he cannot make true, and Francisco de Miranda waiting in Port of Spain for a revolution in Venezuela to want him. The same few hundred miles of coast take in every arrival and hold none of them. Naipaul's most formally restless book, part history and part recollection.

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Attributes

Genre
HistoricalPoliticalPsychological
Theme
ColonialismMemory & TimeIdentity & SelfAmbition & Hubris
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
WandererExplorerAnti-Hero
Plot structure
Frame NarrativeNonlinear / FracturedEpisodic
Symbol / motif
The SeaThe RiverThe Ship / Boat
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
ElegiacIronic
Culture / tradition
Caribbean

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