《大河灣》书评

I has spent totally a month in the summer holiday to finish the book -a bend in the river. It is a story that happened in a remote African country, but a lack of my knowledge of different culture and history make the book a little hard for me to understand. But treating it as one of my loved book, I still want to share something with you.Firstly, I would like to retell the story in my words shortly. In the beginning of the story, Salim-the dramatis personae of the story left his home on the east coast and driven to the centre of Africa to manage a small shop in a new village at the bend in the river. It is a new country and the local residents treated Salim as a foreigner, which always made Salim solitary. Then he met a couple who escaped from their home-country because of their free love was not allowed in their families. The similar situation in which they were all being treated as outsiders made them be friends. Metty-a little servant of Salim's family came to and lived with him because the servant policies had been abolished. During the period when they were together, they had developed a new relationship in which Metty was either Salim's servant and friend. Then a good consumer-Zabeth- came to Salim's shop and asked him to help to look after her son who would study in the village. The boy was called Ferdinand, but there were some collision between Ferdinand and Salim. It may be a result of the fact that Ferdinand wanted to show up his European-style education learnt in the school to Salim but Salim did not like it and always wanted to show something different to Ferdinand. Sometimes later, the boy's study was ended when the school manager -Father Huismans- was killed in a war. Then it was the president's order to build a new modern Domain near the village. The bend in the river seemed to be in a boom and developed quickly as the building of the new Domain. Indar who was a good friend of Salim since Salim was a little child came back from London and became an official in the new Domain. In Salim's little shop, they met and Indar invented Salim to visit the new Domain. At a party in the new Domain, Salim met a woman called Yvette and felt in love with her. Yvette had married Raymond who was "the white teacher of the President " and much older than her. Raymond was determined to write a book about the true history of Africa, but even in the end of the book, he was not able to finish it. In the eyes of Salim, it may be impossible to finish the book since the books of African history you could found were all written by European. When the new Domain existed, Yvette came to Salim's flat and they fell into love with each other, but as the new Domain was coming to an end, their love ended and Yvette left with Raymond. Next, Salim went to London to meet with Nazouddin who sold the small shop to Salim in the beginning. In his six-week stay in London, Salim realized the solitude of people like him and Nazouddin who left home and went to a new different European country. When Salim returned the bend in the river, conditions were becoming worse and worse. Nationalization made him lose his shop and a greedy official sent Salim to the jail in order to get money from him. Luckily, Ferdinand who had been an official of the government helped Salim to get out of the jail and asked him to leave the country since foreigners were being killed. At the end of the book, Salim took a steamer and left the bend in the river.What impresses me deeply is the dramatis personae-Salim. No matter in his home, in the country in the bush or in the European country, he is always like square pegs in round holes and in solitude. He did not show much love for any a country and observed the world outside rationally and indifferently all the time. But when I finished the book, I realized the reason why he was used to showing his apartness and indifference is just because he always felt unprotected, unsafe and disappointed. There did not exist a place for him to live a satisfactory life and he found him in a situation that he had nowhere to go. From the background of the author Naipaul, Salim just presents Naipaul himself who was forced to leave his home-country, then lived a poor country in Africa and went to England to struggle for his life finally.What's more, the rule of the Great President makes me think of a similar period in China-Cultural Revolution-when people were radical and mad at developing the country.At last, I think the author is very excellent because both the description of the environment and the description of different people impress me deeply. And I think my biggest gain is to get a new view of the remote Africa which distinguishes from the one I knew in the past and understand how precious peace is. Above all the book is very worthy reading and it can represent the real Africa and makes readers to focus on the place and the people.