A Bend in the River — Vocabulary
V. S. Naipaul
(Auto-generated)

All our contracts are oral, but we deliver what we promise.p.236.8alternate pages14 more

The sun was bright and hot, and I studied the contracting shadows of trees and market stalls and buildings around the square.p.70.4alternate pages14 more

Yet there was something ironical about the whole thing. The action which had drawn that softness from Ferdinand was the simple gesture of a man from the coast whose family had lived close, too close, to their servants, once their slaves, descendants of people snatched from this part of Africa. Ferdinand would have been outraged if he knew.p.83.9alternate pages10 more

"The President is coming this afternoon. Wouldn't you like to see him?" ... I was careful to take all irony out of [my voice]. I said, "I would like to, citizen. But I have to go."p.276.8alternate pages10 more

I took the brazier to the landing of the external staircase at the back of the house, squatted and fanned.†p.26.2alternate pages12 more

There was an officer—his name was Prosper: I knew him.†p.265.2alternate pages14 more

I envied him that indifference; and I thought, after I left him that day, that his Africa, of bush and river, was different from mine.†p.62.1alternate pages9 more

Metty had taken to calling me patron, and in the presence of a third person, could make it sound ironical.p.43.3alternate pages10 more

But more unnerving than anything else was the ruined suburb near the rapids.†p.27.1alternate pages7 more

Like me, they were migrants from the east and refugees from their own community.†p.28.8alternate pages7 more

Most of the people who left our coast went to Arabian homes as domestic servants.p.12.9alternate pages4 more

I remembered the look of contempt and irritation Indar had given me.p.19.9alternate pages6 more

It was headlined "The Ancestors Shriek," and was issued by something called the Liberation Army.†p.211.6alternate pages6 more

They were all in varying ways like Ferdinand, and they were often as young as Ferdinand.†p.91.3alternate pages3 more

Squatters had taken over the downstairs part, cooking on fire stones in the verandah and throwing out their rubbish onto the courtyards and grounds.†p.35.5alternate pages9 more

He bought his newspaper in one shop, read it with morning coffee in a tiny café that also offered old watercolour paintings for sale; took a turn in the park; shopped for delicacies in the various food shops.p.240.3alternate pages1 more

I saw a delicacy in him that I had never seen on the coast.  His manners were like a form of consideration; and however small the occasion, his manners never failed.p.118.6alternate pages1 more

Portraits, maxims, occasional statues of the African madonna —they continued all the way to the hotel.†p.248.2alternate pages3 more

Now, so quickly, they had become abject.†p.76.6alternate pages2 more

The point of the message may be lost in the parody.†p.194.6alternate pages2 more