"In this sharp and subtle book, Coovadia demonstrates that V.S. Naipaul s authority as an interpreter of non-Western societies is built on a set of literary devices, such as the cold joke, that pre-empt humanitarian fellow-feeling and help the reader laugh along with Naipaul at post-colonial suffering. In a series of brilliant close readings of his books on the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, India, and the Muslim world, Coovadia helps us understand one of the great rhetorical achievements of contemporary literature: Naipaul s success in making his anti-liberal prejudices seem not just plausible, but prescient in a cold-eyed way." - Mukul Kesavan, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi and author of Looking Through Glass "What s so satisfying about this study is its clear and precise identification of Naipaul s mechanisms of pillory. This is a long-awaited reading of the classical allusions and gamesmanship that cuts to the heart of Naipaul s own canonically traditionalist, colonial erudition - the intertextuality of his allusive depth, and the elitist stronghold from which he is able to, albeit correctly, trip the less erudite, among both his characters and his readers. Coovadia s application of the phenomenon of the cold joke is brilliantly apposite in illuminating the joke knowledge that underwrites the writerly Naipaul and his entanglement in the discourse of race. " - Fawzia Mustafa, Fordham University
