V.S. Naipaul's Fiction In Quest of the Enemy by Anthony Boxhill (review)

438 LEITERS IN CANADA 1983 arguably more important critical function of explication and analysis. Thus parts of these essays betray their origins in the review-essay format and necessarily fall short of fully illuminating difficulties and subtly treating thematic concerns. The commentaries, however, are informed and convincingly argued, although one longs for a greater critical adventurousness - a willingness to diverge from a too confining aim and method. In a sense, there is too little to disagree with here, and the dialogue between critic and reader is excessively tame. Rarely do the evaluations differ from received opinion, an exception being the judgment of Wilson's Setting the World on Fire as different in kind from his other novels, whereas most reviewers (I think, rightly) saw it as an ineffective rehash of themes and character types that had already been completely explored. Some critical boldness is shown in the decision to examine Brian Moore's work in the context of better-known and more accomplished writers, but the discussion of his limited thematic range and problem in character drawing is apt to leave the reader sceptical about the claims made for him as 'an exceptionallyinteresting, affecting, and accomplished novelist: The essay on John Fowles - the book's longest - succeeds best in making the careful distinctions that readers will find useful in their own reading of Fowles's work. Here McSweeney has the scope in which careful, close readings support evaluation. (Indeed, some of the stories of The Ebony Tower are allotted more space than discussions of novels by Wilson and Moore.) Equally valuable is the introductory section on Naipaul, which traces the development of his imagination and sensibility through his critical writings. On balance, Four Contemporary Novelists is a solid and worthwhile introduction to the writers considered, but the experienced reader is likely to miss a more arduous battle with complexities that mightrightlybe expected of a critic who has so clearly mastered the background and has such decided views on the importance of certain kinds of fiction and critical approaches. One might wish, too, for a more passionate, even tendentious engagement with these writers and their concerns; while avoiding critical modishness, what McSweeney misses on the other hand is the trick - the magic - of communicating 'the pleasure of the text: which, it mightbe argued, is the job ofany criticism that seeks to enlighten or involve its audience. (J.R. STAPE) Anthony Boxhill. V.S. Naipau/'s Fiction In Quest of the Enemy York Press. 87. $12.95 paper Critics reading a novel of V.S. Naipaul should on occasion remind themselves that the people and places Naipaul describes are actually like HUMANITIES 439 that. After all, Naipaul is a journalist as well as a novelist. Anthony Boxhill has produced a short but judicious criticism of Naipaul's fiction keeping this important fact in mind. As the brief opening chapter indicates, the study is firmly controlled by a specific thematic approach, but the choice of approach, modestly described as 'a very useful pathway into Naipaul's works: lives up to its promise. V.S. Naipaul is an acute observer of himself and others; he is also one of the great prose writers of recent times. And, for a reader of Naipaul, no doubt exists that he has been in quest of the enemy down Miguel Street; through Fuente Grove, Elmira, Trinidad to England, London, Europe, Africa and Asia. In this quest he has explored life on several continents. What is remarkable is the unrelenting perSistence with which he pursues it. Boxhill supplies enough biographical information to establish a physical and intellectual context that explains the origins of Naipaul's pursuit in a credible way. Every critic eventually faces the difficulty of divining an author's precise intention in the possible randomness of his use of allusion. But when Boxhill discusses this difficulty, his own judicious critical ability makes its presence felt. He picks his way through several approaches to Naipaul's use of sources wisely, and his conclusions ring true. But the main focus of the book is on the significance of a recurring cluster of images (prison, enemy, internal and external freedom, and politics). As the relationship develops and varies between elements...