"A model blend of close readings and theoretical subtlety. It is the definitive study of V. A. Naipaul."—Henry Louis Gates Jr.

"This may be the first book-length study of the works of V. S. Naipaul to both appreciate the writer's many merits and criticize his severe limitations. Bringing significant insights from contemporary psychoanalytic and literary theories to bear on Naipaul's work, and situating the writer within the West Indian cultural context that he first absorbed, then rejected, Cudjoe shows how Naipaul's work evolved from honest and fruitful investigation of the questions of identity in post-colonial society to an obsession with obliterating the value, even the integrity of Third World peoples. . . . This is a good book, a much-needed book. One hopes that it will help Westerners reexamine the values we have brought to our admiration of Naipaul's work."—Choice

"A penetrating materialist critique which insists that Naipaul's work comes from the womb of the Caribbean and so its self-proportion must be judged within the socio-political context of this society."—Caribbean Contact

"Given a writer as divisive as Naipaul, Cudjoe offers thoroughly documented, engaged analysis. If the scholar accepts the specter of a monolithic school of Western thought, his is a healthy antidote."—Caribbean Review