The title story in Naipaul's In a Free State is a great portrayal of a country in turmoil

The title chapter/selection/story/novella in V.S. Naipaul's novel In a Free State (1971) is a great piece of fiction writing. The story (let's call it that, though it checks in at +100 pp) holds to the classic close to unity of time - takes place in not much more than 24 hours and though the "unity of place" is more than one specific setting it has the feeling of unity in that it is essentially a road story, a journey across an unnamed Central African country recently independent from British rule (possibly Rhodesia/Zimbabwe?). The 2 central characters, Bobby and Linda, are English, about mid-30s, working either in aid agencies or w/ the government in some advisory capacity, none of that is made clear nor does it have to be. Over the course of their journey, Naipaul givess not only a fantastically detailed account of the beauty and terror of the passing landscape and the difficult of 3rd-world travel in re road conditions, scarcity of supplies, danger of kidnapping and attack, but provides in miniature a great portrait of a country in turmoil and of two minds in confusion and doubt. The country is in the process of a revolution - one factor, led by the president, has overthrown another factor, led by the king - which poses a great deal of danger and uncertainty for the two travelers, and to some tense moments in the story, in fact every time they encounter a roadblock or pass a team of army "lorries" their lives are in danger. In a climactic scene when Bobbby's life is in danger as he confronts some soldiers loyal to the new government, Bobby tries to pull rank, asking to see the "boss man" and asserting that he's with the government, a pathetic exaggeration of his stature - but they again he realizes that being what accords him a certain statue and deference. Both of them have come to work in Africa as a noble, brave calling - but they are coming to terms w/ the futility of their work. Yet they haven't gone so far as one of the characters they meet en route, an elderly ex-Colonel who runs a small hotel and restaurant and is completely bitter, old-school, and racist, and still for some reason hanging on: This could be their future, if they stay. The title of course is ironic to say the least, and it's obvious that Naipaul is a bitter, even cynical observer of power politics and of colonialism - yet he never makes the two lead characters into buffoons or objects of ridicule. Each suffers in his or her way, as we learn over the course of the story - and as they learn from each other. Though it would be difficult to film this story and though there might well be political fallout for anyone who tried, it would make a good road movie, I think - the anti Out of Africa. 

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