V.S. can be a bit of a pain (pedantic) in his writing style. Nevertheless, he is highly observant and this was a great read.

I haven’t read much of V S Naipaul, but if I do so in the future this is definitely a book I will want to have by my side. It’s an academic work, primarily for Naipaul scholars and serious readers, but written in an accessible and readable way so that even the uninitiated will be able to gain much from it. It’s an insightful and intelligent exploration and analysis, looking at all Naipaul’s books and delving into them in great detail. The author divides the writing into three phases, from the early work set mainly in Trinidad, to the second phase when Naipaul set off on his extensive travels and chronicled his thoughts and impressions, and the final phase when his books tend more to blend autobiography and fiction. It’s by no means a light read and probably not one to plough all the way through in one go (unless you are an avid Naipaul fan) but is an important reference work and a worthy addition to Naipaul scholarship.

Sanjay Krishnan never set out to destroy what some refer to as the Naipaul myth, and we should be grateful for that. Instead of engaging in punditry, he close-reads Naipaul's works, fiction and nonfiction alike, to show how they belong to a specific time and place. Naipaul himself, of course, is an amalgam of various political and cultural forces, and it only makes sense that his work would be both uneven and controversial. As Krishnan argues, while Naipaul's "observations and substantive claims about the postcolonial world are of great interest, it is crucial to pay attention to the way that such claims emerge from Naipaul's reflections on his own historically disorienting formation." This excellent study doesn't make Naipaul less controversial as an author or person, but it stands as proof that he never ceased to try to understand how he came to be who he was.

If you’re familiar with postcolonial literature, then Trinidadian born/British writer VS Naipaul should ring a bell. Throughout his career, Naipaul has divided a lot of critics: some love him; others love to hate him. However, Sanjay Krishnan decides to look beyond the man and critically examine his writing instead. VS Naipaul: Journeys offers an in-depth look at the context in which Naipaul wrote throughout each era of his writing career as well as how his writing evolved over the decades. Krishnan divides the Nobel Prize winner’s oeuvre into three parts: 1955-1961, 1962-1980, and 1981-2010. This is a great read for anyone who has read Naipaul’s work and would like to understand where his ideas come from.