SOURCE: Wheatcroft, Geoffrey. “Writers and Comparisons: Salman Rushdie and Shiva Naipaul.” Encounter 75 (September 1990): 38-40.

In the following essay, Wheatcroft draws comparisons and contrasts between Rushdie and Naipaul, positing a favorable assessment of Naipaul's work.

In the 1960s, two young men settled in England. They were of much the same age; they came from comparable backgrounds; they both had the ambition to write. Become writers they both did, acclaimed and prize-winning novelists. Salman Rushdie has discovered not only acclaim but fame, to a degree and for reasons he could never have wished. He is now, I dare say, the best-known rather than the best-read novelist of the century, a curious and frightening example of extraneous literary celebrity. Although there is no danger that the name of Shiva Naipaul will be forgotten as long as people read (however long that is), he is less than an internationally famous name, which...