African journey: The long title piece in In a Free State

The title piece in V.S. Naipaul's In a Free State (1971) - whether it's a chapter in a novel, a short novel (aka novella) in itself, or a long short story (is such a thing possible?) is for the most part a road trip: a 30ish, English aid worker in an unnamed, formerly English-dominated, central African country recently independent travels from the capital to his outpost in the southern state in the country, and takes along a passenger, the English wife of another aid worker or perhaps civil servant.He actually doesn't like her at all, finds her insufferable, but he's obligated to bring her along on this day-long (at least) journey. As w/ most road-trip novels, there are adventures, unexpected encounters, and big reveals along the way. The journey occurs before a backdrop of revolution and insurrection: two rival factors/tribes are struggling for control of the country, and the kind, head of one of the factors, is heading off into exile. Along the route, therefore, the two encounter a # of roadblocks and documents checks - along w/ the usual hazards of driving in a remote stretch of a 3rd-world country: sudden rain squalls, shaky food and gas supplies, two men whom they pick up turn out to be a threat, a station attendant (inadvertently?) damages the car's windows, darkness falls, and so forth. Aside from extensive discussion about what brings them to serve in Africa and much gossip about mutual acquaintances the political situation in the land, a big moment occurs when the driver tells his passenger that he's homosexual - not as big a deal today as it would have been in 1971 - and she's rather surprised: She's known as a "fast woman" and perhaps had an interest in a quick affair w/ the man. This is by no means an action-packed novel - at times the drive accurately (inadvertently?) mirrors the boredom of the vast, empty landscape - but it does build slowly and carefully and we'll see how Naipaul pulls the strands together for a payoff. 

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