nation, the Big Man is hidden, knownnonly at second hand through his publicnactions and the stories that circulatenabout him.nMuch of the second half of the novelndescribes an affair between Salim andnYvette, the Belgian wife of a professornat the new “university city and researchncenter.” Through this affair, Naipaulnexposes the way in which the new Africanpoisons not only public life, but evennthe most private relationships. As thenaffair starts to sour, Salim understandsnthat what he took at first for a grandnpassion in fact reflects the twisted worldnaround him. For Yvette, the affair representsnan escape from the hypocrisiesnand tensions of a university dependentnupon the regime: her husband, knownnas “the Big Man’s white man,” abandonsnhis historical research in order to editnthe president’s speeches. Salim is neithernthe first nor the last of the loversnthrough whom she tries to escape. Fornhimself, Salim recognizes in disgust,nYvette is a conquest that connects himnwith the corrupt powers of the newnAfrica. In a memorably nasty scene henbreaks with her and, symbolically, withnthe hopes that brought him to the newnAfrica in the first place. He still intendsnto make something of himself,nbut where he should go remains uncertain.nAfter a final series of machinationsnand adventures, which portraynthe regime’s degeneration into openntyranny, Salim extricates himself andnleaves on the steamer. Civil war hasnbroken out again. A night attack onnthe steamer fails, but a passenger bargenfor common Africans breaks loose andndrifts away:n”At the time what we saw was thensteamer searchlight, playing on thenriverbank, playing on the passengernbarge, which had snapped loose andnwas drifting at an angle through thenwater hyacinths at the edge of thenriver. The searchlight lit up the bargenpassengers, who, behind bars and wirenguards, as yet scarcely seemed tonunderstand that they were adrift.nThen there were gunshots. Thensearchlight was turned off; the bargenwas no longer to be seen. The steamernstarted up again and moved withoutnlights down the river, away fromnthe arena of battle. The air wouldnhave been full of moths and flyingninsects. The searchlight, while it wasnon, had shown thousands, white in thenwhite light.”nWith this passage, the novel concludes.nA helplessly drifting barge, uncomprehendingnmen and women behind barsnand wire guards, insects swarming innthe harsh light, or in the darkness—nthese are the images that epitomizenNaipaul’s Africa.n* * *nA Bend in the River presents annunfashionable message with an art thatncompels respect even from those whondisagree. In contrast, Vonnegut’s Jailbirdnseems to rely on ready acceptancenof its ideas; it aims consistently at theneasy, unearned response. The messagencan be stated in the following, not en-nconcentration camps, and then destroysnhis own career by inadvertently betrayingna friend to Congressman RichardnNixon during the investigations of thenMcCarthy era. That it is Richard Nixonnwho, as president, gives Starbuck anotherngovernment job illustrates thenabsurdity of things. A further absurditynsends the wholly innocent Starbuck tonjail during the Watergate scandal. Freednat last, a happy chance reunites him withnMary Kathleen in New York. She is nownthe fabulously rich Mrs. Jack Graham,nalthough she goes about in rags andnlives in an abandoned section of thensubway. As owner of the RAMJACncorporation, which controls 19 percentnof the United States, she makes Starbucknand some of his acquaintances vicenpresidents, thus fulfilling the Sermonnon the Mount’s prophecy that the meeknshall inherit the earth. A final meaninglessnaccident occurs: Mary Kathleennis killed by a taxi. Discovered tryingnto conceal both her death and her will,nStarbuck is sent to jail again. The lastnscene describes his farewell party; hisn”Superb, zany satire, establishing Vonnegut as a modern-day Swift…”n—Christian Science Monitorn”His dislikes … are impeccable …”ntirely harmonious, set of propositions:nlife is absurd; the American politicalnand economic system is unjust; the Sermonnon the Mount teaches us how tonlive; the highest duty is to be kind andnloving. The novel tells the story of WalternF. Starbuck, ne Stankiewicz, the sonnof immigrant servants, but taken innhand and sent to Harvard by AlexandernHamilton McCone, multimillionaire ofnCleveland. At Harvard, Starbuck beginsnto perceive the iniquities of Americanncapitalism: he joins the CommunistnParty, is outraged by the story of Sacconand Vanzetti, and has an affair withnMary Kathleen O’Looney, a fiery youngnwoman with radical views. After Harvardnand Oxford, he works for the NewnDeal, marries a survivor of the nazinnn—Nationnlast sentences remind us of the Sermonnon the Mount.nVonnegut’s tendency to sacrifice artnto political doctrine can be illustratednin a number of ways. The haphazardnplot, for example, seems dictated by andesire to mirror the meaninglessnessnof experience. However, Vonnegut’snbetters in the literature of the absurdn—Beckett, Camus, or Sartre—couldnteach him that a subtle twi&t often expressesnthe irrationality of things moreneffectively than gross improbabilities.nThe multiplying absurdities of Jailbirdnwear thin once we perceive the rathernoverworked idea behind them. Moreover,nin spite of the plot’s flabbiness,nVonnegut does not manage to make itnhold all the political commentary innmmmmmmmmmmm^^XbnJanuary/February 1980n