Paul Theroux, V.S. Naipaul and the End of a Feud

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  06.07.11 | 4:00 PM ET

Paul Theroux’s long-running feud with Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul has apparently come to an end. The two authors shook hands in the green room at the Hey Festival late last month in Wales. Writer Reza Aslan was there. He not only posted a message on Twitter about it—“Holy Cow! I caught first face to face reconciliation of Paul Theroux & VS Naipaul. Magical moment.”—but he just happened to capture it on video:

What caused the feud? Accounts vary. According to The Telegraph, Naipaul suspected that Theroux had seduced his first wife. A New York Times report, however, emphasized Theroux’s anger over a book he’d signed: “His decades-long friendship with Mr. Naipaul imploded some 15 years ago when he discovered that a copy of one of his novels, lovingly inscribed to Mr. Naipaul, had been put up for sale.”

Whatever the cause, Theroux went on to write a great book exploring their friendship and its demise, Sir Vidia’s Shadow.

Amazingly, Naipaul was back in the headlines days after the handshake, offending countless people, when he told the Royal Geographic Society that he doesn’t think much of women writers: “I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not. I think [it is] unequal to me.”

Tags: Literature, Paul Theroux, Travel Writing, News and Briefs


2 Comments for Paul Theroux, V.S. Naipaul and the End of a Feud

V. Ramsamooj Gosine 06.07.11 | 6:09 PM ET

Early in my career and I am still not a very good writer, I wrote a book for a publishing company. I spent two years on the text, which incidentally was a language text. My London editor wrote on the pages, ‘Rubbish. Utter rubbish.’ I was a little down but heeded his advice. Now I am six books away from that ‘Rubbish’ talk.

Perhaps some people need to pause, think and then move on.  Even Vidia said many years ago, ‘Take it on your cheek and move one.’ To me in my simple Trinidad world, it is a good advice. I would not erupt my spleen over the negative things people told me. I will look for the grain of truth. Surely there is something I can gain from it.

V. Ramsamooj Gosine 06.07.11 | 6:13 PM ET

I hope people see my point of view. It is always good to kiss and make up. Why carry on an endless feud? It makes no sense.

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