ABSTRACT
Amitava Kumar's book is a formally and conceptually bold blend of word and image, memoir and critique. Its achievements are both provocative and substantial. Perhaps most notably, Kumar compels contemporary critics to reassess the work of V. S. Naipaul with less jaundiced eyes, even as he surpasses Naipaul in the breadth and generosity of his vision. Kumar's impatience with conventional scholarly modes sometimes means that he cedes too much ground to business as usual. Yet ultimately he enacts an important challenge to academic work to more satisfactorily bear witness to subjects—diaspora, migration, exile—that often escape its grasp.
