In a Free State: A Novel (Vintage International)
Through five linked tales, V. S. Naipaul traces alienation, disruption, and racial tension in an unstable postcolonial world. The central African journey turns freedom and movement into something closer to displacement, making the book feel both sharply observed and deeply unsettled.
Work Information
Under the name of freedom, the feeling of not belonging only grows stronger.
Best known as the 1971 Booker Prize winner, the book is made up of five linked pieces. Set against the unstable atmosphere of a postcolonial world, it follows characters whose movements increasingly expose how little ground they have to stand on. Political violence and private estrangement are closely entwined, and the hybrid form between story cycle and novel is part of what makes the book distinctive.
Review Summaries
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Readers tend to praise the lucid prose and the structure that emerges when the book is read as a linked sequence, though some are unsettled by its allegorical weight and unevenness between sections. The central African story is often the part that leaves the strongest impression.
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The review praises the way the book depicts displaced characters stranded between custom and misunderstanding, while also suggesting that the travel-journal frame feels somewhat arbitrary.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Published
- 2002-02-12
- Pages
- 256 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.18 x 1.47 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781400030552
- ISBN-10
- 1400030552
- Price
- 3857 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Historical
From the Nobel Prize-winning author comes a riveting tour de force that examines emigration, dislocation, and dread. “The coolest literary eye and the most lucid prose we have.” — The New York Times Book Review No writer has rendered our boundariless, post-colonial world more acutely or prophetically than V. S. Naipaul, or given its upheavals such a hauntingly human face. In the beginning it is just a car trip through Africa. Two English people—Bobby, a civil servant with a guilty appetite for African boys, and Linda, a supercilious “compound wife”—are driving back to their enclave after a stay in the capital. But in between lies the landscape of an unnamed country whose squalor and ethnic bloodletting suggest Idi Amin’s Uganda. And the farther Naipaul’s protagonists travel into it, the more they find themselves crossing the line that separates privileged outsiders from horrified victims. Alongside this Conradian tour de force are four incisive portraits of men seeking liberation far from home. By turns funny and terrifying, sorrowful and unsparing, In A Free State is Naipaul at his best.
V.S. NAIPAUL was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession. His novels include A House for Mr Biswas , The Mimic Men , Guerrillas , A Bend in the River , and The Enigma of Arrival . In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for In a Free State . His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include Among the Believers , Beyond Belief , The Masque of Africa , and a trio of books about India: An Area of Darkness , India: A Wounded Civilization and India: A Million Mutinies Now . In 1990, V.S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He died in 2018.
Reviews
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ナイポールで一番面白く読めた
この小説はそれぞれディアスポラを主人公にした、３つの独立したストーリーで構成されている。植民地支配がどのような遺弊を残しているかが、それぞれ異なる視点・手法により丁寧に描かれている。 具体的には、第一部"One Out of Many"はアメリカに移住したインド人、第二部"Tell Me Who To Kill"は（作者と同じ）イギリスに移住したインド系トリニダード人の話が一人称で述べられ、表題作の第三部"In A Free State"では、イディ・アミン政権下のウガンダを髣髴させるアフリカの小国に住む二人のイギリス人が三人称で描かれる。 最初の二部は、語り手が非・知識人という設定なので言葉も簡単、更に第一部は喜劇、第二部は悲劇、と明快で読みやすい。第三部は、ナイポールっぽい殆ど起伏のない、さながらロードムービーのプロットが続くが、ラストに意表をつく急展開がある。いずれも非常に丹念かつ巧緻に組み立てられたストーリーで、とりわけアフリカを舞台にした第三部はとても美しい。主人公の駄目っぷりも素敵だ。 私は、他に"The Mimic Men"と"A House for Mr.Bisawas"を読んだだけだが、この作品が最も面白く、完成度も高いと感じた。オススメ。
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喪失感
またnaipaulを読みましたが、本当に難しいね。この中には３篇いや４篇それとも５編かな、複数の作品が収められています。不思議なのはこのプロローグとエピローグです。そしてもっとも難解なのが、表題作でもあるin a free stateです。自分の英語力に疑念を抱かせてしまうほどの難解な作品です。英語自体はそれほどの難しさはないのですが、とうとう最後までしっくりこないままでした。ある部分は理解できるのですが、また次に展開されるシーンは理解不能という連続の繰り返しです。それに比べて第２編と第３篇は、私にとっては、はるかにとっつきやすい作品でした。これは両方ともにインド人が主人公となっているせいでしょうか。主人公のインド人が、故郷から切り離されて、新しい環境の中で、近代の流儀に目覚めて生きながらも、そこに漂うどうしようもない喪失感は私がnaipaulの作品にいつも求めるものだからでしょうか？決してnaipaulはそれだけではないのでしょうけど。
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Awesome Book
This is a VS Naipaul book. Enough said.
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A Powerful and Unflinching Exploration of Freedom and Exile
“In a Free State” by V.S. Naipaul is an extraordinary and thought-provoking work that examines the human condition in moments of political upheaval and personal displacement. Composed of interconnected stories, the book masterfully captures the tension between freedom and alienation, belonging and exile. Naipaul’s writing is sharp, elegant, and deeply insightful, drawing readers into the emotional and moral complexities of each character’s journey. It’s a bold and haunting reflection on identity, power, and survival — a true testament to Naipaul’s literary brilliance and his ability to confront uncomfortable truths with honesty and grace.
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Amazing Book
Love V.S Naipaul work. He merited his Nobel Prize.
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A powerful novella
This version of "In a free state" contains only the central novella, but what an interesting read it is. The central characters are vividly drawn, with great insight into human nature and cultural differences. I couldn't wait to learn more about them (as they drive each other up the wall!) and to see how the story of their journey through a war torn African state unfolded. As ever with Naipaul this is beautifully written. Powerful stuff, it certainly doesn't pull any punches.
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Ce livre est très intéressant
J'aime lire en Anglais et ce livre m'a enchantée. Il n'était pas trop dur à lire. Il y a une bonne ambiance.
Related Literary Awards
- Booker Prize Edition 3 (1971) ・Winner