Naipaul is certainly a unique case in contemporary prose, as he connects the great tradition of the English language with the "native" thought and writing of a small place. He thus becomes an intermediary between the small and the large (and the large is no longer only English, but by extension, world literature), enriching both sides with the messages he conveys from one to the other.

Leaving the boundaries of his homeland, Trinidad, he manages to provide an image of the psyche and life of his place with humor, irony, and love. An image that is not at all folkloric, but full of philosophical critical disposition.

Naipaul's effective tool in presenting this image is his personal style. Especially in this book (with the long novella and the short stories), which deals exclusively with the "island" and its people, the style results in an abstraction and a cinematic immediacy, stripping away embellishments and keeping the faces and the forces that drive them to action bare.