A Bend In The River

 

"A Bend In the River" by V. S. Naipaul changed Ha Jin's life("The Writer

as Migrant"). The opening paragraph of book 2 where the stragglers from a

column of ants lose their way and die while the horde carry on oblivious, for

Jin, captures the "true relationship between the individual and the

collective" and thereby enabled him to see through his self-deceptive

aspiration of speaking for the unfortunate Chinese.

 

I'm not young anymore and have long given up speaking for anyone but myself.

My quest for freedom blesses me with no nostalgia whatsoever and wherever. In

pursuing truth and trying to understand the whole, I am no migrant. I read for

knowledge (which I have an incurable desire to acquire) and fun.

 

I borrowed the large-print version and thought it would be easier on my eyes.

Instead, the change in font size made words less certain and one glance felt

no longer enough to capture the meaning of a sentence. As a habit formed in

the exam-passing days, I kept double-checking to see if I misread and

frequently I did.

 

"A Bend in the River" was a slow read, about 100 pages a day. There were not

many new words but its contemplative narration commanded concentration and

thoughts. The author employs flashbacks often and has a way of repeating key

phrases and their reappearances can feel deep and funny at the same time. But

he does not overplay it. That is his style.

 

It is all very quotable but I was particularly impressed by the following

paragraph where Salim, who moved from the east coast to a post-colonial

central African republic, met father Huismans who explained a Latin motto

carved on a fallen monument.

    Miscerique probat populos et foedera jungi. "He approves of the mingling

    of the peoples and their bonds of union": that was what the words meant,

    and again they were very old words, from the days of ancient Rome. They

    came from a poem about the founding of Rome. The very first Roman hero,

    travelling to Italy to found his city, lands on the coast of Africa. The

    local queen falls in love with him, and it seems that the journey to Italy

    might be called off. But then the watching gods take a hand; and one of

    them says that the great Roman god might not approve of a settlement in

    Africa, of a mingling of peoples there, of treaties of union between

    Africans and Romans. That was how the words occurred in the old Latin

    poem. In the motto, though, three words were altered to reverse the

    meaning. According to the motto, the word carved in granite outside our

    dock gates, a settlement in Africa raises no doubts: the great Roman god

    approves of the mingling of peoples and making of treaties in Africa.

    Miscerique probat populos et foedera jungi.

 

    I was staggered. Twisting two-thousand-year-old words to celebrate sixty

    years of the steamer service from the capital!

 

A nice recap of the Aeneid and sounds both funny and at the same time insightful!

 

In addition, I learned some refreshing perspectives:

- Europeans are bored with machines and factories. Asian people love them;

  they secretly prefer factories to their family life.

- Americans: They are not a tribe, as you might think from the outside.

  They're all individuals fighting to make their way, trying as hard as you or

  me not to sink.