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Sir Vidia's shadow : a friendship across five continents

Theroux, Paul, 1941-2011

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This is both unputdownable and utterly engaging. I started reading Theroux's Sir Vidia's Shadow, the story of his friendship with V. S. Naipaul over thirty years and five continents - its origins, development, and sad, enigmatic termination. I could not, as they say, put it down. We can call it a memoir, or a biographical sketch, but it has more candour, more intensity, more angry puzzlement, than we would normally expect from either of these genres. The portrait of Naipaul that emerges is uproariously believable. Most people are damaged human beings. What distinguishes writers is that they can turn their damage into something life-enhancing. That is what this book resplendently does.