SIR VIDIA'S SHADOW: A Friendship Across Five Continents

This volume is best appreciated by literary enthusiasts. For one thing, few besides bibliophiles will find interesting a memoir--however fine--about novelist/travel writer Theroux's long intimacy with the celebrated novelist and political journalist V. S. Naipaul. For another, Birney's reading is dull. On the other hand, if you've ever enjoyed one of Naipaul's unflaggingly thoughtprovoking works and/or admired Theroux's authorial grace, you'll willingly endure Birney's lack of color. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 99]