V.S. Naipaul has died (opens in new tab)

I got interested in V.S. Naipaul after reading this essay-- well technically a book review of a Naipaul biography-- by Christopher Hitchens-- Cruel and Unusual [0]. It explains and summarizes Naipaul's literary significance as well as the fascinating fact that he acted very badly in his personal life. I read his Middle Passage travelogue after that after I read that and it did not disappoint as far as callousness goes. Although I wouldn't exactly say that it is what we should aspire to I did like it in its own way.

[0] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/cruel-a...

Another article today (although actually an interview from 1998) with more focus on his work & what it's about:

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2018/08/vs-naipau...

A sad day. It seems to me that his themes of displacement, and cultural mismatches & how they affect people, keep becoming more important. We do a lot of shouting about these issues now, in the Western world in 2018 I mean; but he was never shouting, just digging into people's varied stories, and especially their disappointments, and trying to make sense of them.

Fun fact: A song from a musical adaptation of Naipaul's novel "A House for Mr. Biswas" was re-adapted and used as the theme for James Bond movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6EuzGhIyRQ

Does anyone else feel that V.S. Naipaul dropped off the radar as soon as he won the Nobel Prize? I heard his name constantly in the 1990s and very early millennium, but after he won the Nobel it feels like there was not only a decline in his output, but in his cultural presence in general.

"The Nightwatchman's Occurrence Book" remains one of my favourite short stories ever since I read it in high school lit class. A truly curious author.

Naipual=Nepal. He found out where his ancestors originated from and mentioned that during his speech.