The Enigma of Arrival by V.S. Naipaul

The Enigma of Arrival by De Chirico

The Enigma of Arrival by V.S. Naipaul

I love Naipaul’s elegaic style in his nostalgic book, overwrought with sadness, melancholy and exquisite prose
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Does one ever really arrive in a population with centuries old indigenous traditions? Naipaul explores the Enigma of Arrival. While wealth and success can buy you a form of arrival– a beautiful house in a beautiful part  of the country, interviews, “friends”, literary acceptance, prizes, praise and adulation–there is another form of arrival which proves more elusive. Arriving as in being accepted for who one is. When one is different, radically different, this kind of acceptance requires a lot of explaining, and mutual adjustments and understanding, and so may prove more elusive. You are not accepted as one of them precisely because you are not one of them, and never will be. (And the sooner one comes to terms with this fact, the better.)

His sad, elegaic prose is beautiful and luscious.