The lives of writers are a legitimate subject of inquiry; and the truth should not be skimped. It may well be, in fact, that a full account of a writer’s life might in the end be more a work of literature and more illuminating—of a cultural or historical moment—than the writer’s books. [–VS Naipaul]

Ian Buruma has written an engaging review of Patrick French’s biography of Naipaul, The World is What It Is. From this and other reviews (1, 2, 3), it seems to me that French has created a masterpiece of the genre. Besides shedding light on what makes this complex man, it suggests that Naipaul’s intense artistic drive and vision may have exacted a pound of flesh from his humanity, and that even great artists, for all their powers of perception and empathy, can be monstrous with those closest to them.