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Journey to Nowhere: A New World Tragedy
Rarely does a book come along which so transcends its apparent subject that the reader is ultimately given something larger, richer, and more revealing than he might initially have imagined. Already published in England to overwhelming acclaim, Shiva Naipaul's Journey to Nowhere is such a book – a “powerful, lucid, and beautifully written book” (The Spectator) that is destined to be one of the most controversial works of 1981.
In it, this major writer takes us beyond the events and surface details surrounding the tragedy of Jonestown and the People's Temple – and gives us his remarkable, unique perspective on the deadly drama of ideas, environments, and unholy alliances that shaped those events both in Guyana and, even more significantly, in America.
Journey to Nowhere is, on one level, a “brilliantly edgy safari” (New Statesman) inside the Third World itself – a place of increasing importance in our lives – and on another, a book about America, about the corrupt and corrupting ideologies and chi-chi politics of the past twenty years that enabled the Reverend Jim Jones and the Temple to flourish and grow powerful in California and Guyana,
Drawing on interviews – with former members of the Temple, various officials, and such people as Buckminster Fuller, Huey Newton, Clark Kerr, and others – on documents, and most importantly, on his own strong, clear reactions on what he observed, Naipaul examines the Guyana of Forbes Burnham, the CIA stooge turned Third World socialist leader, whose stated ideals of socialism, racial brotherhood, and cooperative agricultural enterprise coincided so neatly, we learn for the first time, with those of the People's Temple – ideals that led all too easily to violence and death. “In life,” Naipaul writes, “they had been hailed by the Guyanese government as socialist heroes; in death, they had become hopelessly American.”
In California, he traces the ideas generated in the 1960s in the white radical and Black Power movements – and the evolution of those ideas in the 1970s into the preoccupation with “self-realization,” ecology, and “life-style.” We learn of the Temple's formation and of its respected place in the San Francisco community; of Jim Jones and his life, from his small-town Indiana background to his coming West; of the Concerned Relatives and their attempts to totally discredit the Temple and extricate their family members from it. But above all, Naipaul relentlessly explores the American society that produced and nurtured Jones and his followers: the politicians and social workers, the Zen Buddhists and the poor – the junk people whom America professes to care about, but prefers to forget.
Absolutely convincing, timely in its message, and written with “the sardonic humor which has become his trademark” (The Times), Journey to Nowhere is “a brilliant achievement” (The Sunday Times). It is certain to be talked about – and argued about – for years to come.
In it, this major writer takes us beyond the events and surface details surrounding the tragedy of Jonestown and the People's Temple – and gives us his remarkable, unique perspective on the deadly drama of ideas, environments, and unholy alliances that shaped those events both in Guyana and, even more significantly, in America.
Journey to Nowhere is, on one level, a “brilliantly edgy safari” (New Statesman) inside the Third World itself – a place of increasing importance in our lives – and on another, a book about America, about the corrupt and corrupting ideologies and chi-chi politics of the past twenty years that enabled the Reverend Jim Jones and the Temple to flourish and grow powerful in California and Guyana,
Drawing on interviews – with former members of the Temple, various officials, and such people as Buckminster Fuller, Huey Newton, Clark Kerr, and others – on documents, and most importantly, on his own strong, clear reactions on what he observed, Naipaul examines the Guyana of Forbes Burnham, the CIA stooge turned Third World socialist leader, whose stated ideals of socialism, racial brotherhood, and cooperative agricultural enterprise coincided so neatly, we learn for the first time, with those of the People's Temple – ideals that led all too easily to violence and death. “In life,” Naipaul writes, “they had been hailed by the Guyanese government as socialist heroes; in death, they had become hopelessly American.”
In California, he traces the ideas generated in the 1960s in the white radical and Black Power movements – and the evolution of those ideas in the 1970s into the preoccupation with “self-realization,” ecology, and “life-style.” We learn of the Temple's formation and of its respected place in the San Francisco community; of Jim Jones and his life, from his small-town Indiana background to his coming West; of the Concerned Relatives and their attempts to totally discredit the Temple and extricate their family members from it. But above all, Naipaul relentlessly explores the American society that produced and nurtured Jones and his followers: the politicians and social workers, the Zen Buddhists and the poor – the junk people whom America professes to care about, but prefers to forget.
Absolutely convincing, timely in its message, and written with “the sardonic humor which has become his trademark” (The Times), Journey to Nowhere is “a brilliant achievement” (The Sunday Times). It is certain to be talked about – and argued about – for years to come.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published May 22, 1981
About the author
Shiva Naipaul
18 books42 followersShiva Naipaul was a Trinidadian-born British novelist and journalist, known for his incisive fiction and travel writing. The younger brother of V. S. Naipaul, he studied at University College, Oxford, before publishing his debut novel, Fireflies (1970), which won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. He followed with The Chip-Chip Gatherers (1973) before turning to non-fiction with North of South (1978) and Black & White (1980), exploring postcolonial societies. His final novel, A Hot Country (1983), marked a shift in his literary style. Despite mixed critical reception during his lifetime, his work has since been reassessed for its sharp prose and unique perspective.
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August 6, 2026life lately
(thanks to the publisher for the copy)
(thanks to the publisher for the copy)
August 8, 2026
If I were choosing a tone for my book about the murder of over 900 people, I would not go with "withering contempt." But I'm not Shiva Naipaul.
The less-famous brother of (somehow) Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul, Shiva Naipaul shares his sibling's anti-Black racism and tendency to (somehow) join the war on colonialism on the side of colonialism. He also really, really hates feminists. And "radical lesbians." (Note: there are no regular, garden variety lesbians in this book -- only ever "radical lesbians," which can start to become charming if you picture it being said in a Bill & Ted Valley Boy voice: "radical lesbians!")
The only times I felt a vague interest -- or sense of reliability -- in his reporting was when he was commenting on his fellow journalists, who, like him, came to pick over the still fresh bones of the Peoples Temple in Guyana with a book deal on their minds. He provides some chilling details of a government tour of the site while it's still being cleaned of everything but the bodies. But other than that, this book is just generally kind of bad: incredibly poorly organized and not very insightful. I realize that most contemporary accounts were still viewing the massacre as a mass suicide, and revelations that most Temple members were either forced at gunpoint to consume the cyanide or shot had not then come to light, but Naipaul doesn't even seem that interested in the members' motivations, outside of being like: clearly this was some woke shit. This is just what socialists do -- and Naipaul goes on to tar all of the contemporary left, particularly any parts of it that were residing in California, with the same brush. Progressive desires, Naipaul implies, are a doomed endeavor -- intellectual suicide even if you never (are forced) to drink the Fla-Vor-Aid.
My favorite part (aside from all the radical lesbians, dude!) was when Naipaul suggests it's ridiculous claim that Black people were experiencing racism in 1977, by making a snarky aside about it: racism "(in 1977!)" He also laughs at the possibility of fascism gaining hold in America.
(So this aged well!)
The less-famous brother of (somehow) Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul, Shiva Naipaul shares his sibling's anti-Black racism and tendency to (somehow) join the war on colonialism on the side of colonialism. He also really, really hates feminists. And "radical lesbians." (Note: there are no regular, garden variety lesbians in this book -- only ever "radical lesbians," which can start to become charming if you picture it being said in a Bill & Ted Valley Boy voice: "radical lesbians!")
The only times I felt a vague interest -- or sense of reliability -- in his reporting was when he was commenting on his fellow journalists, who, like him, came to pick over the still fresh bones of the Peoples Temple in Guyana with a book deal on their minds. He provides some chilling details of a government tour of the site while it's still being cleaned of everything but the bodies. But other than that, this book is just generally kind of bad: incredibly poorly organized and not very insightful. I realize that most contemporary accounts were still viewing the massacre as a mass suicide, and revelations that most Temple members were either forced at gunpoint to consume the cyanide or shot had not then come to light, but Naipaul doesn't even seem that interested in the members' motivations, outside of being like: clearly this was some woke shit. This is just what socialists do -- and Naipaul goes on to tar all of the contemporary left, particularly any parts of it that were residing in California, with the same brush. Progressive desires, Naipaul implies, are a doomed endeavor -- intellectual suicide even if you never (are forced) to drink the Fla-Vor-Aid.
My favorite part (aside from all the radical lesbians, dude!) was when Naipaul suggests it's ridiculous claim that Black people were experiencing racism in 1977, by making a snarky aside about it: racism "(in 1977!)" He also laughs at the possibility of fascism gaining hold in America.
(So this aged well!)
July 14, 2026
Many thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of Shiva Naipaul’s complicated observations and investigation into the 1978 massacre in Guyana titled Journey to Nowhere: A New World Tragedy. I was not aware of this book, originally published in 1980, that examines the factors that Naipaul claims helped to facilitate the deaths of nearly 1000 followers of Jim Jones. While the book documents the tragedy from an outsider’s perspectives through travels to both Guyana and the Bay Area that served as a home to the People’s Temple, Naipaul’s analysis appears to be biased, engaging in major generalizations about the ways in which Jim Jones’ followers were led from the 1960s countercultural and Civil Rights fights of California to the jungles of Guyana, a post-colonial nation that had recently attained its independence. In the first part of the book, Naipaul, who grew up as an Indo-Trinidadian British subject in colonial Trinidad, travels to post-colonial Guyana to examine the site of the mass suicide. I thought that possibly his own experience as a British subject might influence his views on colonialism, but I almost felt as if Naipaul’s journey through the jungles of Guyana was like reading Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. As Naipaul prepares to visit the site, he encounters other journalists and bureaucrats who all look to take advantage of the tragedy, whether it is capitalizing on the increased interest in the island or looking to sensationalize the story. Although Naipaul highlights letters and testimony from some of the members of the People’s Temple, bringing a sense of humanity to this story, he also seems to dehumanize some of the Guyanese, never giving a voice or any kind of individuality to those who seem to observe from a distance. It would have been interesting to learn more about how these indigenous members of Guayana and some of the oppressed classes felt about the events that transpired there. Rather than interviewing these citizens, Naipaul recounts the political history of post-colonial Guayana and the two opposing factions that battled for power. This was not something I new much about, but basically Forbes Burnham sought to implement a kind of socialism in Guyana by nationalizing some of the industries like bauxite and sugar in the developing nation. While some of Burnham’s policies had the outer sheen of socialism, Naipaul (and Burnham’s opposition, Cheddi Jagan’s People’s Progressive Party) critique the rigged elections and accumulation of wealth that marked Burnham’s true motives in consolidating his power. Further observations of the kind of surveillance that Naipaul observes both in Georgetown and at the People’s Temple site indicate the kind of conspiratorial and paranoid leadership that Burnham engaged in. However, what I found problematic was that for Naipaul, this kind of socialism is seemingly what led Jones’ group to Guyana, promising a socialist paradise with large land plots that they could develop and farm, bringing some much-needed development to the jungle areas. Naipaul also notes that the People’s Temple also investigated moving to Russia and took trips to Brazil and Cuba as sites that were socialist. Nevertheless, it was the shared beliefs in socialism that led the People’s Temple to Guyana and that allowed them to have, more or less, carte blanche to develop the land and commit human rights violations among their followers. There was little oversight or observation as to what was actually happening at the site by the Guyanese government. While I can see how the Burnham government was permissive with Jones, it also seemed like this was more like what happened with Jones across the different places he lived and ministered. Whether it was his own magnetism or his manipulation, Jones seemed to be able to convince others and develop a sense of trust that allowed him to commit atrocities among his followers without any kind of accountability. Even in San Francisco, Jim Jones and the People’s Temple were lauded by politicians, officials, and other institutions, until they were eventually forced out not too long before the tragedy occurred. Naipaul seems to overextend the analysis and criticisms, failing to recognizing the unique situation of the kind of corruption that may have been endemic to Burnham’s leadership and administration. While Naipaul takes some time to recount the political history of post-colonial Guyana, he also seems to suggest that most Caribbean nations experienced similar levels of corruption in their post-colonial independence and search for a national identity, implying that socialism-communism was to blame for much of the ills, including the Jonestown tragedy, in the Caribbean. Nevertheless, readers can tell how much visiting the Jonestown site affected Naipaul; his descriptions of decay and death that remain at the site months after the tragedy are haunting. In fact, his descriptions of all of the surrounding areas are evocative and haunting, creating a sense of degradation and death all around. I was able to see how fitting, at least with this section, the title is. Regardless, Naipaul rarely explores the history of exploitation and terror that were visited on the original inhabitants of these islands and lands, and fails to connect those aspects of history to the events of Jonestown.
The second half of the book finds Naipaul in the United States, primarily in California, investigating the various groups and movements of the early and late 60s that were developing in a response to social issues in America. I found this part of the book to be more biased. I read another review that noted Naipaul’s condescension throughout this section, and I agree. The level of condescension towards groups like feminists, environmentalists, Civil Rights groups, students, and Vietnam protesters made this part of the book feel like Naipaul had some kind of personal animus towards anything progressive. There are some fascinating parts, like when he meets with Huey Newton of the Black Panthers, but Naipaul’s description of Newtown and his twitching legs and laconic speaking are not really journalistic and paint Newton as a kind of faded and false freedom fighter, a flawed remnant from the social unrest of the 60s who was now relegated to backroom hideouts on the margins of a run-down Oakland. In fact, he paints Oakland as a decrepit city with shacks all around, frequently referring to it as a ghetto. I wasn’t aware that Jones and Newton met in Cuba, and while Naipaul tries to get Newton to admit to some kind of alliance between the People’s Temple and the Black Panthers, Newton doesn’t acknowledge any connection beyond the admiration of attracting followers and critiquing the racism and inequality of American society. Nevertheless, Naipaul links the People’s Temple to all kinds of radical groups including The Weather Underground, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and even the Mason Family, suggesting that there was something about California that attracted radicals and violent demagogues. In one chapter, Naipaul visits some kind of convention or market where various community groups have set up shop. He critiques the feminists, homosexuals, those who are interested in organic food and improving the environment, and even a group practicing a kind of polyamory, lumping all of these together and bundling them with the People’s Temple. I found this chapter to be particularly troubling since Naipaul seemed to generalize all of these groups. While he does make some important points about the nature of consumerism and how some of the groups were looking to sell products with the hope of making people feel better, it seemed like he was blaming the people rather than examining other factors that might have influenced the kinds of social change and development occurring in American society. Other chapters in which Naipaul reviews Jim Jones’ journey from an Indiana preacher who cared deeply about injustice and inequality were more relevant and seemed to offer Jones some more grace and understanding about his foray into religion or at least his use of religion to achieve political ends. If anything, this book takes on political relevance today to possibly see how religion is co-opted to attract followers to secular and political ideologies, seeing how overpromising and creating a kind of messiah who has immense and supernatural powers creates a dangerous and potentially fatalistic situation. The introduction by Hua Hsu notes one of the more powerful quotes from the book about how through Jones, Naipaul sees how “the language of religion could be transformed into the language of politics.” If anything, I took away some similarities from the past and today, recognizing how charismatic and determined leaders who see the world in black and white can often lead their followers on a road to nowhere, but also seeking a kind of mutually assured destruction or revolutionary suicide before exiting the scene. However, I also wondered what Naipaul would think about the world today, and how he might view movements for diversity, equity and inclusion today. Although he was critical of the People’s Temple, he blamed social movements rather than looking at individual differences and possibly Jones willingness to prey on those who were vulnerable or needy. There certainly is a need for assurance and fellowship, and to have a sense of purpose and meaning in the world. While some people are able to attain these things, others struggle with them, especially as American society has become more individualistic and competitive. Yet, these ideas or factors are not a part of Naipaul’s analysis. Rather, he makes an easy (almost lazy) assumption that Berkeley and the free speech movement helped to radicalize Patty Hearst, and this same movement also led to the deaths of nearly 1000 followers in Guyana. For Naipaul, it’s more about the movements that people follow without questioning, just blindly accepting, not recognizing the underlying mechanisms that lead people to blindly accept. Rather, he just assumes these people are lazy, thoughtless, or weak, and just want to be accepted by the crowd.
Naipaul’s Journey to Nowhere is a unique, fascinating, and frustrating book. While the book explores one of the 20th centuries greatest tragedies, Naipaul makes many generalizations and assumptions about what movements influenced the People’s Temple and led to Jonestown. The second half of the book is particularly frustrating due to Naipaul’s willingness to lump seemingly disparate groups together because they were alternative or non-mainstream. Furthermore, his condescending descriptions of the group demonstrate more of his bias rather than his ability to connect them to the People’s Temple. I can see how Journey to Nowhere is an important book that provides some insights into this tragedy, punctuated by some elegant descriptions of the surrounding Guyana environment, yet it is also a frustrating condemnation of the wrong factors that impacted the tragedy of Jonestown.
The second half of the book finds Naipaul in the United States, primarily in California, investigating the various groups and movements of the early and late 60s that were developing in a response to social issues in America. I found this part of the book to be more biased. I read another review that noted Naipaul’s condescension throughout this section, and I agree. The level of condescension towards groups like feminists, environmentalists, Civil Rights groups, students, and Vietnam protesters made this part of the book feel like Naipaul had some kind of personal animus towards anything progressive. There are some fascinating parts, like when he meets with Huey Newton of the Black Panthers, but Naipaul’s description of Newtown and his twitching legs and laconic speaking are not really journalistic and paint Newton as a kind of faded and false freedom fighter, a flawed remnant from the social unrest of the 60s who was now relegated to backroom hideouts on the margins of a run-down Oakland. In fact, he paints Oakland as a decrepit city with shacks all around, frequently referring to it as a ghetto. I wasn’t aware that Jones and Newton met in Cuba, and while Naipaul tries to get Newton to admit to some kind of alliance between the People’s Temple and the Black Panthers, Newton doesn’t acknowledge any connection beyond the admiration of attracting followers and critiquing the racism and inequality of American society. Nevertheless, Naipaul links the People’s Temple to all kinds of radical groups including The Weather Underground, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and even the Mason Family, suggesting that there was something about California that attracted radicals and violent demagogues. In one chapter, Naipaul visits some kind of convention or market where various community groups have set up shop. He critiques the feminists, homosexuals, those who are interested in organic food and improving the environment, and even a group practicing a kind of polyamory, lumping all of these together and bundling them with the People’s Temple. I found this chapter to be particularly troubling since Naipaul seemed to generalize all of these groups. While he does make some important points about the nature of consumerism and how some of the groups were looking to sell products with the hope of making people feel better, it seemed like he was blaming the people rather than examining other factors that might have influenced the kinds of social change and development occurring in American society. Other chapters in which Naipaul reviews Jim Jones’ journey from an Indiana preacher who cared deeply about injustice and inequality were more relevant and seemed to offer Jones some more grace and understanding about his foray into religion or at least his use of religion to achieve political ends. If anything, this book takes on political relevance today to possibly see how religion is co-opted to attract followers to secular and political ideologies, seeing how overpromising and creating a kind of messiah who has immense and supernatural powers creates a dangerous and potentially fatalistic situation. The introduction by Hua Hsu notes one of the more powerful quotes from the book about how through Jones, Naipaul sees how “the language of religion could be transformed into the language of politics.” If anything, I took away some similarities from the past and today, recognizing how charismatic and determined leaders who see the world in black and white can often lead their followers on a road to nowhere, but also seeking a kind of mutually assured destruction or revolutionary suicide before exiting the scene. However, I also wondered what Naipaul would think about the world today, and how he might view movements for diversity, equity and inclusion today. Although he was critical of the People’s Temple, he blamed social movements rather than looking at individual differences and possibly Jones willingness to prey on those who were vulnerable or needy. There certainly is a need for assurance and fellowship, and to have a sense of purpose and meaning in the world. While some people are able to attain these things, others struggle with them, especially as American society has become more individualistic and competitive. Yet, these ideas or factors are not a part of Naipaul’s analysis. Rather, he makes an easy (almost lazy) assumption that Berkeley and the free speech movement helped to radicalize Patty Hearst, and this same movement also led to the deaths of nearly 1000 followers in Guyana. For Naipaul, it’s more about the movements that people follow without questioning, just blindly accepting, not recognizing the underlying mechanisms that lead people to blindly accept. Rather, he just assumes these people are lazy, thoughtless, or weak, and just want to be accepted by the crowd.
Naipaul’s Journey to Nowhere is a unique, fascinating, and frustrating book. While the book explores one of the 20th centuries greatest tragedies, Naipaul makes many generalizations and assumptions about what movements influenced the People’s Temple and led to Jonestown. The second half of the book is particularly frustrating due to Naipaul’s willingness to lump seemingly disparate groups together because they were alternative or non-mainstream. Furthermore, his condescending descriptions of the group demonstrate more of his bias rather than his ability to connect them to the People’s Temple. I can see how Journey to Nowhere is an important book that provides some insights into this tragedy, punctuated by some elegant descriptions of the surrounding Guyana environment, yet it is also a frustrating condemnation of the wrong factors that impacted the tragedy of Jonestown.
August 5, 2013
Of course I remembered the mass suicides in Guyana at the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones in 1978. However, I was busy at the time with three small children and didn't keep up with the news and analyses. I just happened upon this book used and picked it up. This is an analysis of what this author believes to be the causes of the event. Naipaul assumes that the reader knows what happened, when and where and begins with the interviews and analysis. I had to actually resort to wiki to catch up.
Naipaul was born in Trinidad and educated both there and at University College, Oxford. This background of course influenced his perceptions and judgements about what happened, especially his experience as a person of Indian descent. He begins to tell the story of The People's Temple with historical background of Guyana. Naipaul is attempting to find out how this tragedy was allowed to happen in Guyana. He presents some interesting ideas, e.g. that the idea of third world countries is actually a concept put upon these countries by first world countries. He talks about the stereotype of the angry Black militant leaders (his term) who appear in these countries and makes reference to what he believes is influence on them by American Blacks who traveled to Africa. This power dynamic resulted in much discrimination in Guyana against non-Blacks and, I would argue Naipaul's own discrimination against Blacks both African and American. Jim Jones was a self-proclaimed Socialist who was indeed welcomed by the government of Guyana, who eventually turned away from American relationships and embraced the govt. of Cuba, the U.S.S.R. and other communist countries. A lot more information and background are given here, but this first section is basically setting the scene for the Temple's welcome to Guyana and the lack of oversight of the group by their host country, and the influence of Jones on the government of Guyana, as well as their coverup of the background of the horrific events that occurred there.
Naipaul describes visits and interviews with many people, witnesses, experts, etc. He presents multiple sides of stories of events from many varied perspectives. There are no notes in the book, which I found to be more than a disappointment, only a bibliography. Although, he does seem to show lots of different perspectives and states that there is no explanation for how so many people who were part of this had different experiences and saw very different things. For example, there were many stories of abuse of Temple members, starvation, overwork and beatings. There were others who never witnessed any of that and described it all as a wonderful experience. Naipaul states that there are too many people who saw no abuse to be explained away by being kept from seeing it e.g. by not being allowed in certain areas. However, there are recordings of Jones preaching and rehearsals of mass suicide. The point is also made that many, many Temple members previously lived in terrible poverty and received no medical care, many were mentally ill, poorly educated although there were also some well educated and more knowledgeable members. In other words, for some, circumstances in Guyana that would be judged a nightmare to many would actually be a better experience than most of them had at home in the U.S.
Naipaul extensively describes life in the U.S. and particularly California in the 60s and 70s as being receptive to and welcoming of a great variety of social experiments. He specifically talks about support for Jones from Black Panthers, American politicians such as Willy Brown, and many others. I found Naipaul's description and judgements to be a little harsh of California, although I often find California amusing myself, having lived there most of my life.
Naipaul also claims that as the U.S. government realized the Socialistic threats made by the Temple, government agents began harassing the Temple, disrupting them, and discrediting them much as they did the Black Panthers in the same period. Some say they were threatened by what could have been public perception of a successful socialistic lifestyle.
Revolutionary suicide is defined and described by Naipaul and attributed to this event at least as an explanation of how people were convinced to participate. I found this to be an interesting section and something I had not heard about in this regard. Naipaul describes how it almost becomes inevitable, or the only way out and as a powerful political statement, giving meaning and purpose to both the lives and deaths of people who perceive themselves to be powerless. Naipaul actually claims revolutionary suicide begins when the oppressed rises up and says no to his oppressor. It is seen as a positive action of resistance, comparable to self-immolation. He states that Che Guevara says that revolutionary death is the reality, not victory, which is the dream. All revolutionaries are doomed. Naipaul interviews Huey Newton and other Black Panthers and draws connections in this excerpt:
"A linking of the Revolution with personal doom, forged in the twisted passions of Sergei Nechayev...touched up and romanticized by Che Guevara against the mountain scenery of Cuba and Bolivia, picked up by a former Oakland street boy Newton and given another little twist, ends up on the lips of Jim Jones in the Guyanese wilderness."
There are many interviews and visits to Oakland and Guyana among other places, that make me listen to Naipaul and I do find his thesis fascinating. I do find this last description to be a bit of a stretch, especially considering that Jim Jones, whose mother believed she had given birth to a messiah was already killing small animals and acting out in other ways before he ever left Indiana to move his congregation to California.
I was visiting Amish country in Illinois while finishing this book up, and kept making comparisons. I would also perceive Amish as revolutionary when compared to their surroundings and their removal of themselves from the main society of U.S. AND, they have been long-lasting. Wonder why.
I am fascinated, ambiguous, and don't care much for Naipaul, as you could perhaps tell. Nevertheless, four stars for this ambitious work.
Naipaul was born in Trinidad and educated both there and at University College, Oxford. This background of course influenced his perceptions and judgements about what happened, especially his experience as a person of Indian descent. He begins to tell the story of The People's Temple with historical background of Guyana. Naipaul is attempting to find out how this tragedy was allowed to happen in Guyana. He presents some interesting ideas, e.g. that the idea of third world countries is actually a concept put upon these countries by first world countries. He talks about the stereotype of the angry Black militant leaders (his term) who appear in these countries and makes reference to what he believes is influence on them by American Blacks who traveled to Africa. This power dynamic resulted in much discrimination in Guyana against non-Blacks and, I would argue Naipaul's own discrimination against Blacks both African and American. Jim Jones was a self-proclaimed Socialist who was indeed welcomed by the government of Guyana, who eventually turned away from American relationships and embraced the govt. of Cuba, the U.S.S.R. and other communist countries. A lot more information and background are given here, but this first section is basically setting the scene for the Temple's welcome to Guyana and the lack of oversight of the group by their host country, and the influence of Jones on the government of Guyana, as well as their coverup of the background of the horrific events that occurred there.
Naipaul describes visits and interviews with many people, witnesses, experts, etc. He presents multiple sides of stories of events from many varied perspectives. There are no notes in the book, which I found to be more than a disappointment, only a bibliography. Although, he does seem to show lots of different perspectives and states that there is no explanation for how so many people who were part of this had different experiences and saw very different things. For example, there were many stories of abuse of Temple members, starvation, overwork and beatings. There were others who never witnessed any of that and described it all as a wonderful experience. Naipaul states that there are too many people who saw no abuse to be explained away by being kept from seeing it e.g. by not being allowed in certain areas. However, there are recordings of Jones preaching and rehearsals of mass suicide. The point is also made that many, many Temple members previously lived in terrible poverty and received no medical care, many were mentally ill, poorly educated although there were also some well educated and more knowledgeable members. In other words, for some, circumstances in Guyana that would be judged a nightmare to many would actually be a better experience than most of them had at home in the U.S.
Naipaul extensively describes life in the U.S. and particularly California in the 60s and 70s as being receptive to and welcoming of a great variety of social experiments. He specifically talks about support for Jones from Black Panthers, American politicians such as Willy Brown, and many others. I found Naipaul's description and judgements to be a little harsh of California, although I often find California amusing myself, having lived there most of my life.
Naipaul also claims that as the U.S. government realized the Socialistic threats made by the Temple, government agents began harassing the Temple, disrupting them, and discrediting them much as they did the Black Panthers in the same period. Some say they were threatened by what could have been public perception of a successful socialistic lifestyle.
Revolutionary suicide is defined and described by Naipaul and attributed to this event at least as an explanation of how people were convinced to participate. I found this to be an interesting section and something I had not heard about in this regard. Naipaul describes how it almost becomes inevitable, or the only way out and as a powerful political statement, giving meaning and purpose to both the lives and deaths of people who perceive themselves to be powerless. Naipaul actually claims revolutionary suicide begins when the oppressed rises up and says no to his oppressor. It is seen as a positive action of resistance, comparable to self-immolation. He states that Che Guevara says that revolutionary death is the reality, not victory, which is the dream. All revolutionaries are doomed. Naipaul interviews Huey Newton and other Black Panthers and draws connections in this excerpt:
"A linking of the Revolution with personal doom, forged in the twisted passions of Sergei Nechayev...touched up and romanticized by Che Guevara against the mountain scenery of Cuba and Bolivia, picked up by a former Oakland street boy Newton and given another little twist, ends up on the lips of Jim Jones in the Guyanese wilderness."
There are many interviews and visits to Oakland and Guyana among other places, that make me listen to Naipaul and I do find his thesis fascinating. I do find this last description to be a bit of a stretch, especially considering that Jim Jones, whose mother believed she had given birth to a messiah was already killing small animals and acting out in other ways before he ever left Indiana to move his congregation to California.
I was visiting Amish country in Illinois while finishing this book up, and kept making comparisons. I would also perceive Amish as revolutionary when compared to their surroundings and their removal of themselves from the main society of U.S. AND, they have been long-lasting. Wonder why.
I am fascinated, ambiguous, and don't care much for Naipaul, as you could perhaps tell. Nevertheless, four stars for this ambitious work.
April 26, 2026
Unfortunately, this book has to be read by Jonestown scholars as nasty as the author was. The author was racist towards Black people and African diaspora as a whole. As he was Indo-Trinidadian, this does not surprise me. In the United States, Indian-Americans comprise one of the Trump’s newest block of voting immigrants, the United States have ever seen . He is predictively racist towards other groups and he spends a great deal of time being extremely critical of everything. Mercurially, this approach works because it was a lack of critical thinking that caused people temple and the Jonestown massacre in the first place.
Shiva Naipaul also managed to not only get to the massacre site in Guyana but to other key locations, including the actual receivership auction of peoples temple effects and property and a sparsely attended symposium on people’s temple held at Berkeley community theater. He even managed to get an interview with a recently out of exile Huey Newton! These factors alone make the book worth reading.
This author’s cynical racism is actually appropriate when he makes his case about what caused the tragedy as racism was a huge factor in the wholesale extermination of over 750 men women and children, Black and or of color. Those factors alone make this essential reading for Jonestown/Peoples Temple scholars. The book is also extremely well written, just beware of the bias.
Since the mass murder suicide tragedy on November 18, 1978, various sociologists, religious scholars, and even former temple members, have tried to find excuses and justification for the mass murder, suicides, and even the abuses of the Temple before the event, within the asinine framework of so called “New religion” and a very white brand of sociology which is abjectly patronizing to Black Americans. Despite a wealth of information, including many free books to download like this one, you’ll find much of that type of Jonestown apologist scholarship in the personal essays written by some members or more often their relatives, found on alternative considerations for Jonestown website.
It’s Shiva’s unapologetic mistrust of the United States as well as all different forms of economic policy as applied to Third World and first world countries, that gives him the ability few other scholars of shown in deciphering, what led to the mass massacre. Shiva wisely points out that the majority of the people in the rank-and-file of the temple were already broken. Either by race or poverty or by being directionless and depressed and disenchanted with the fallout from the 1960s. He
Shiva Naipaul also managed to not only get to the massacre site in Guyana but to other key locations, including the actual receivership auction of peoples temple effects and property and a sparsely attended symposium on people’s temple held at Berkeley community theater. He even managed to get an interview with a recently out of exile Huey Newton! These factors alone make the book worth reading.
This author’s cynical racism is actually appropriate when he makes his case about what caused the tragedy as racism was a huge factor in the wholesale extermination of over 750 men women and children, Black and or of color. Those factors alone make this essential reading for Jonestown/Peoples Temple scholars. The book is also extremely well written, just beware of the bias.
Since the mass murder suicide tragedy on November 18, 1978, various sociologists, religious scholars, and even former temple members, have tried to find excuses and justification for the mass murder, suicides, and even the abuses of the Temple before the event, within the asinine framework of so called “New religion” and a very white brand of sociology which is abjectly patronizing to Black Americans. Despite a wealth of information, including many free books to download like this one, you’ll find much of that type of Jonestown apologist scholarship in the personal essays written by some members or more often their relatives, found on alternative considerations for Jonestown website.
It’s Shiva’s unapologetic mistrust of the United States as well as all different forms of economic policy as applied to Third World and first world countries, that gives him the ability few other scholars of shown in deciphering, what led to the mass massacre. Shiva wisely points out that the majority of the people in the rank-and-file of the temple were already broken. Either by race or poverty or by being directionless and depressed and disenchanted with the fallout from the 1960s. He
December 8, 2017
Out of 10 I'd give it a 5. The story behind Jonestown (which occurred on my birthday), has so much more to it than a guru leading blind followers to their deaths. To finally learn some of that story was what made this book enjoyable, but otherwise I found the author to be judgmental and close-minded, and the writing to be sort of scattershot and disjointed. I often couldn't tell whether the author was being neutral or facetious. From V.S. Naipaul's late brother.
February 11, 2018
The first part about Jonestown is interesting, but when the narrative moves to California Naipaul's condescension and ignorance becomes unbearable. Much of his analysis now seems very dated. He does not observe, he judges, so in turn the reader judges the author. The results are not pretty and the book gets worse and worse as one struggles through it.
July 8, 2026
A powerful and sometimes alarming book. Much to admire about Shiva’s method – his persistence, his unabating skepticism, the way he sets a scene – and much to deplore: the bitterness that colors every sentence of this book, his racial hatred, his unwillingness to allow even a bit of light shine through in this dark book.
“Bucky turned to the props arrayed about the stage.
He drew a rectangle on the blackboard; he divided the rectangle with a diagonal.
Look! Two triangles!
The audience gasped; they started to applaud; they stamped their feet.
He pointed to the Asiatic quarter of the world map.
Look! More than half of humanity lives in that corner!
The audience gasped.
Revelation was in the air.
But I had had enough. I wanted fresh air. Outside, the California sun was hidden. The Technicolor civilization was driven into hiding by a persistent drizzle.”
“Bucky turned to the props arrayed about the stage.
He drew a rectangle on the blackboard; he divided the rectangle with a diagonal.
Look! Two triangles!
The audience gasped; they started to applaud; they stamped their feet.
He pointed to the Asiatic quarter of the world map.
Look! More than half of humanity lives in that corner!
The audience gasped.
Revelation was in the air.
But I had had enough. I wanted fresh air. Outside, the California sun was hidden. The Technicolor civilization was driven into hiding by a persistent drizzle.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 27, 2019
To the few who have read this book, it is truly beautiful.
July 27, 2026
read about 2/3 of this book. while it’s a great account of the cultural moment this event took place in, the authors racism is so deeply embedded in the text that it’s difficult to read without that being the main take away above all
June 30, 2024
Book Review
Journey To Nowhere
4/5 stars
"The author spots African atavism in Guyana"
*******
The purpose of this book was to do a postmortem of the Jonestown massacre.
A lot of his book is Naipaul trying to disentangle manufactured reality from actual reality. (True Believers are not the best source of accurate information.)
It was written in two parts over 314 pages:
-First, the conditions in Guyana that impelled the possibility of Jonestown.
-Second, about the conditions in the States that led up to those events--specifically, Naipaul takes us to Land-Of-Fruits-and-Nuts California and details (with Bob Newhart-like incredulity) a bunch of Loopy White People.
It seems that those two factors together are enough to explain the inanity of Jonestown.
It's not a comfortable book.
I wonder: "If a cult leader wanted to rustle up some idiots to exploit /convince to commit suicide, why would he have to choose black people for this? Couldn't he have made a colony of Chinese people?"
Was that *really* his largest source of available idiots?
Even worse: When Jim Jones knew that he was dying of brain cancer, he just convinced everybody else to commit suicide to come with him. (They really thought that this guy was the Messiah.)
*******
Based on the frequency with which things like this happen (Black Hebrew Israelites, Nation of Islam, etc), I would guess that some people really are genetically more easily duped than others. (Yes, Dear Readers, that really was his largest source of available idiots.)
Probably about 30 years ago my parents and I were watching a news clip, and there were some Nigerians rioting for some reason or another after the government was turned over to civilian rule.
My mother exclaimed: "Damn! Is it something about nickas that's just innately BAD?"
It's not what I came to this book expecting to recall, but this Trinidad Indian author seems to say just that-- in a nice way. (p.33-The word that he uses to describe it is "atavistic.")
(Background: Indians are the largest ethnic group currently in Guyana, Trinidad, and Surinapme--and they have been there for centuries. In all of these places as well as parts of Africa, they've had some difficulties living with black people, and have built up a corresponding dislike--and it seems like that that is where this author is coming from.)
As I look at the events in places where there are enough black people to do damage--like Detroit, Baltimore, and East St Louis (first hand) and Countless Other Places (second hand), much of what this author writes is old wine in new bottles.
These ridiculous events *in Guyana* have a LOT of uncomfortable resonances:
1. Derelection of duty / corruption/ incompetence (18 out of 20 of the lowest HDI countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. None of the top 50 are African or black. The highest black country is St Kitts and Nevis at position 51.)
2. Escapism ("We need to find our true heritage that has been stolen from us. As Muslims. Let's change our names to Abdul Malik Aziz, and then every good thing will follow. No, wait! We are really Africans, and we should change that names to Mwatabu Okantah and mattress all the problem. No, wait! We were really Israelites. Let's change our names to Yahawada Israel, And that should do the trick." Here, the author quotes [p.27] that "It was Africa which is given the world law, philosophy, medicine, religion, astronomy, music, magic, and science; it was Africa which had civilized Europe, and not the other way around...")
3. Messianism ("The Talented Tenth will save us! No, it is MLK! No, it's Malcolm X! No, it is the first black president!")
4. Criminal influence in government (Coleman Young. Ray Nagin. Mobutu. Jacob Zuma. In fact: Can you think of any city/country that has been run by black people that has NOT degenerated into a racketeering operation?)
5. Looting, rioting and destruction (Black Lives Matters riots. Rodney King riots. Detroit riots. Watts riots )
6. Social collapse (South Africa. Detroit. Sudan.) Author says as much on page 17.
7. Driving productive people from out of their midst. (Indians in Uganda and Kenya. White people out of places like Detroit/St Louis/E St Louis, etc.)
8. Making the false connection between political power and prosperity ("If we can just vote, we can vote prosperity into existence.") ignoring the fact that sovereign African countries are the lowest per capita income and the lowest human development indices in the world.
9. Aided and abetted by "liberals who fethisise black radicalism, whilst leading affluent lives." (Janet Rosenberg, Angela Davis, to name but a couple in this book.)
*******
The bad part about it is that even as roughly a as Naipaul portrays Guyana, there are other places even worse. (Currently, their HDI is 95 out of 193. Range between 0.627 and 0.739. GDP per capita is $18,200.)
Guyana in the author's words:
1. "The first Guyanese to arrive on the scene had plundered the encampment."
2. " The toilets were waterless. A carefully painted sign apologize for the inconvenience. It had clearly been there a long time calling the paint was yellowed with age and stained."
3. "These people won't think twice about choke and rob."
4. "Consciously, brutally, we have set about remaking ourselves in the third world image."
5. "Only 10% have passed English at Ordinary Level. Fewer still had passed the mathematics examination. None had passed Spanish. None had managed to scrape together five passes..... The machines were a standing invitation to theft. They had hired a security staff to deal with the problem, but it was becoming clear that the security people themselves have been involved in some of the thefts."
6. "In Guyana, the atavistic ideal of the Big Black Chief--the archetype so superbly realized by Idi Amin--has, despite the socialist gloss, been almost fully achieved."
7. "After he had committed murder on his Trinidad commune, it was to Guyana that Michael X had fled."
8. " But the most notorious of Burnham's criminal courtiers is a black preacher from Tennessee calling himself Rabbi Washington. Back home, where he is known as David Hill, he is wanted by the police on charges of blackmail and violence. But in Guyana, where he resurfaced in 1972, he is a figure of consequence. He has created around himself a religious sect - - the House of Israel."
9. "By February 1978, as a result of overwork and semi starvation, conditions have become so bad that half of the commune was stricken with diarrhea and high fevers.... Jones with preaching them over the public address system for an average of 6 hours a day, sometimes much longer."
10. "In California, children had been subjected to increasingly heavy beatings. After a while was out of the refinement of placing a microphone close to the mouth of a beating child so that his screams would resound all the better."
11. " Jones had cleverly managed to insinuate himself into the San Francisco political scene. He was a masterful social worker and a great self publicist. In Guyana he had compromised local officials by providing them with the sexual services of Temple women."
12. "..... the process by which followers signed over all their assets to The Temple in expectation that they would be taken care of for the rest of their lives."
California ferment, in the author's words:
1. " Watts, the ghetto that had been the scene of some of the most violent black rioting in the 1960s. Traces of that violence could still be seen in the many empty lots once occupied by businesses that had never been rebuilt." (Wow! Just like Detroit!)
2. "Young blacks, as ever, stood on street corners, looking with apathetic intensity of nothing in particular."
3. 'I can't help thinking we black people can be very gullible'
4. "... more than half of adult blacks had not made it to the 8th grade..... one in three blacks was a functional illiterate..... of $13,600 blacks between the ages of 6 and 19, half were not in school.... 80% of crimes were committed by blacks."
5. "There was a tendency in the '60s to run on ahead. When nothing happened, many of us became bitter toward the people and turned away from them to God or whatever."
6. "[fascism and genocide] were bargain basement political terms, and nearly everyone with pretensions to a radical outlook would make use of them. Long before Jim Jones started to terrorize his following, the blacks, with the assistance of their best white friends, had been terrorizing one another with the rhetoric of mass extermination."
7. "Eldridge Cleaver, a metaphysician of rape, had returned from Algerian exile and declared himself a born again Christian."
8. "The junk people, the human waste left behind by American History, are no less negative, no less dangerous a quantity."
Verdict: This is worth the reading. Naipaul died a couple of years after the publication of this book, but had he lived he would have had a great career ahead of him. (Incidentally: he is the brother of VS Naipaul.)
If you don't want to damage/take away any remaining hope of black vertical mobility, don't read this book.
Vocabulary:
warp
fusty
tarbush
helots
Kerista Consciousness Church
Church of Hakeem
Journey To Nowhere
4/5 stars
"The author spots African atavism in Guyana"
*******
The purpose of this book was to do a postmortem of the Jonestown massacre.
A lot of his book is Naipaul trying to disentangle manufactured reality from actual reality. (True Believers are not the best source of accurate information.)
It was written in two parts over 314 pages:
-First, the conditions in Guyana that impelled the possibility of Jonestown.
-Second, about the conditions in the States that led up to those events--specifically, Naipaul takes us to Land-Of-Fruits-and-Nuts California and details (with Bob Newhart-like incredulity) a bunch of Loopy White People.
It seems that those two factors together are enough to explain the inanity of Jonestown.
It's not a comfortable book.
I wonder: "If a cult leader wanted to rustle up some idiots to exploit /convince to commit suicide, why would he have to choose black people for this? Couldn't he have made a colony of Chinese people?"
Was that *really* his largest source of available idiots?
Even worse: When Jim Jones knew that he was dying of brain cancer, he just convinced everybody else to commit suicide to come with him. (They really thought that this guy was the Messiah.)
*******
Based on the frequency with which things like this happen (Black Hebrew Israelites, Nation of Islam, etc), I would guess that some people really are genetically more easily duped than others. (Yes, Dear Readers, that really was his largest source of available idiots.)
Probably about 30 years ago my parents and I were watching a news clip, and there were some Nigerians rioting for some reason or another after the government was turned over to civilian rule.
My mother exclaimed: "Damn! Is it something about nickas that's just innately BAD?"
It's not what I came to this book expecting to recall, but this Trinidad Indian author seems to say just that-- in a nice way. (p.33-The word that he uses to describe it is "atavistic.")
(Background: Indians are the largest ethnic group currently in Guyana, Trinidad, and Surinapme--and they have been there for centuries. In all of these places as well as parts of Africa, they've had some difficulties living with black people, and have built up a corresponding dislike--and it seems like that that is where this author is coming from.)
As I look at the events in places where there are enough black people to do damage--like Detroit, Baltimore, and East St Louis (first hand) and Countless Other Places (second hand), much of what this author writes is old wine in new bottles.
These ridiculous events *in Guyana* have a LOT of uncomfortable resonances:
1. Derelection of duty / corruption/ incompetence (18 out of 20 of the lowest HDI countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. None of the top 50 are African or black. The highest black country is St Kitts and Nevis at position 51.)
2. Escapism ("We need to find our true heritage that has been stolen from us. As Muslims. Let's change our names to Abdul Malik Aziz, and then every good thing will follow. No, wait! We are really Africans, and we should change that names to Mwatabu Okantah and mattress all the problem. No, wait! We were really Israelites. Let's change our names to Yahawada Israel, And that should do the trick." Here, the author quotes [p.27] that "It was Africa which is given the world law, philosophy, medicine, religion, astronomy, music, magic, and science; it was Africa which had civilized Europe, and not the other way around...")
3. Messianism ("The Talented Tenth will save us! No, it is MLK! No, it's Malcolm X! No, it is the first black president!")
4. Criminal influence in government (Coleman Young. Ray Nagin. Mobutu. Jacob Zuma. In fact: Can you think of any city/country that has been run by black people that has NOT degenerated into a racketeering operation?)
5. Looting, rioting and destruction (Black Lives Matters riots. Rodney King riots. Detroit riots. Watts riots )
6. Social collapse (South Africa. Detroit. Sudan.) Author says as much on page 17.
7. Driving productive people from out of their midst. (Indians in Uganda and Kenya. White people out of places like Detroit/St Louis/E St Louis, etc.)
8. Making the false connection between political power and prosperity ("If we can just vote, we can vote prosperity into existence.") ignoring the fact that sovereign African countries are the lowest per capita income and the lowest human development indices in the world.
9. Aided and abetted by "liberals who fethisise black radicalism, whilst leading affluent lives." (Janet Rosenberg, Angela Davis, to name but a couple in this book.)
*******
The bad part about it is that even as roughly a as Naipaul portrays Guyana, there are other places even worse. (Currently, their HDI is 95 out of 193. Range between 0.627 and 0.739. GDP per capita is $18,200.)
Guyana in the author's words:
1. "The first Guyanese to arrive on the scene had plundered the encampment."
2. " The toilets were waterless. A carefully painted sign apologize for the inconvenience. It had clearly been there a long time calling the paint was yellowed with age and stained."
3. "These people won't think twice about choke and rob."
4. "Consciously, brutally, we have set about remaking ourselves in the third world image."
5. "Only 10% have passed English at Ordinary Level. Fewer still had passed the mathematics examination. None had passed Spanish. None had managed to scrape together five passes..... The machines were a standing invitation to theft. They had hired a security staff to deal with the problem, but it was becoming clear that the security people themselves have been involved in some of the thefts."
6. "In Guyana, the atavistic ideal of the Big Black Chief--the archetype so superbly realized by Idi Amin--has, despite the socialist gloss, been almost fully achieved."
7. "After he had committed murder on his Trinidad commune, it was to Guyana that Michael X had fled."
8. " But the most notorious of Burnham's criminal courtiers is a black preacher from Tennessee calling himself Rabbi Washington. Back home, where he is known as David Hill, he is wanted by the police on charges of blackmail and violence. But in Guyana, where he resurfaced in 1972, he is a figure of consequence. He has created around himself a religious sect - - the House of Israel."
9. "By February 1978, as a result of overwork and semi starvation, conditions have become so bad that half of the commune was stricken with diarrhea and high fevers.... Jones with preaching them over the public address system for an average of 6 hours a day, sometimes much longer."
10. "In California, children had been subjected to increasingly heavy beatings. After a while was out of the refinement of placing a microphone close to the mouth of a beating child so that his screams would resound all the better."
11. " Jones had cleverly managed to insinuate himself into the San Francisco political scene. He was a masterful social worker and a great self publicist. In Guyana he had compromised local officials by providing them with the sexual services of Temple women."
12. "..... the process by which followers signed over all their assets to The Temple in expectation that they would be taken care of for the rest of their lives."
California ferment, in the author's words:
1. " Watts, the ghetto that had been the scene of some of the most violent black rioting in the 1960s. Traces of that violence could still be seen in the many empty lots once occupied by businesses that had never been rebuilt." (Wow! Just like Detroit!)
2. "Young blacks, as ever, stood on street corners, looking with apathetic intensity of nothing in particular."
3. 'I can't help thinking we black people can be very gullible'
4. "... more than half of adult blacks had not made it to the 8th grade..... one in three blacks was a functional illiterate..... of $13,600 blacks between the ages of 6 and 19, half were not in school.... 80% of crimes were committed by blacks."
5. "There was a tendency in the '60s to run on ahead. When nothing happened, many of us became bitter toward the people and turned away from them to God or whatever."
6. "[fascism and genocide] were bargain basement political terms, and nearly everyone with pretensions to a radical outlook would make use of them. Long before Jim Jones started to terrorize his following, the blacks, with the assistance of their best white friends, had been terrorizing one another with the rhetoric of mass extermination."
7. "Eldridge Cleaver, a metaphysician of rape, had returned from Algerian exile and declared himself a born again Christian."
8. "The junk people, the human waste left behind by American History, are no less negative, no less dangerous a quantity."
Verdict: This is worth the reading. Naipaul died a couple of years after the publication of this book, but had he lived he would have had a great career ahead of him. (Incidentally: he is the brother of VS Naipaul.)
If you don't want to damage/take away any remaining hope of black vertical mobility, don't read this book.
Vocabulary:
warp
fusty
tarbush
helots
Kerista Consciousness Church
Church of Hakeem
October 5, 2022
This is a book about Jonestown, but also about Third Worldism and the New Age, the madness of crowds and how radical ideas behave in societies. Naipaul is like a more restrained Tom Wolfe, with a great eye for detail and human behavior as well as a knack for universals. To explain Jonestown and position it in the broader landscape of the 60s counterculture, he combines travelogue, social critique, journalism, and philosophy. His tone is acerbic, darkly humorous, with a justifiably pessimistic outlook on human nature. It's not surprising that this writer died young. Judging from this, it was our loss.
Naipaul approaches Jonestown as a case study in how ideas work. "We blithely enunciate ideas but we cannot control them, we cannot chain them up... An idea, once loosed into the world, is anybody's plaything." He traces the murder-suicide of almost a thousand people in Guyana back to Sergei Nechayev's "Revolutionary Catechism", an idea of revolutionary suicide which Jim Jones digested through the Black Panthers by way of Che Guevara. Ideas have legs.
But ideas, even absurd and murderous ones, also have enablers. Naipaul explores how Third Worldism in Guyana welcomed the Jonestown commune with open arms. Guyana was in many ways as deranged and unreal as Jonestown. "[Third Worldism] is a mode of being, a state of mind. That state of mind spreads like an infection and begins to create its own realities, stimulated by a vocabulary of resentment and racial self-assertion." But Guyana itself was made possible by Western idealists. "Madness finds support and confirmation abroad among the self-avowed, metropolitan friends of the oppressed. Those who ought to know better nourish our crazy dreams of resurrection and redemption... [They] underwrite our lunacies."
He doesn't spare the United States any more than he does Guyana. Especially California and the "21st century thinking" of the New Age in the 1970s, and the middle-class kids who played revolutionaries in the 1960s only to retreat into the safety of "consciousness-raising" as soon as the stakes got high. He notes how Jones preyed on America's black urban underclass. Naipaul points out how useless this underclass was to America's technologically advanced society - so much waste product, what to do with it? We can extend Naipaul's observation to much of the Rust Belt and white rural America in 2020.
And he condemns most of the contemporary attempts to label and file away Jonestown: "It would be exhaustively indexed and forgotten. When the next aberration occurred it would be briefly resurrected for the purposes of comparison." And this is done because America had become overrun by taxonomists, "supplying tiny printouts that would explain any event", confident in their explanations and predictions because humans are mere chemistry and biology.
This is a fairly obscure book by an author overshadowed in life and death by his more famous brother, but it's well worth reading. It's the most helpful piece I've read on the Third World and the chaos of the 60s and 70s in the United States, not to mention Jonestown. There's lots to think over here. I'll definitely pick up Naipaul's North of South at some point.
Naipaul approaches Jonestown as a case study in how ideas work. "We blithely enunciate ideas but we cannot control them, we cannot chain them up... An idea, once loosed into the world, is anybody's plaything." He traces the murder-suicide of almost a thousand people in Guyana back to Sergei Nechayev's "Revolutionary Catechism", an idea of revolutionary suicide which Jim Jones digested through the Black Panthers by way of Che Guevara. Ideas have legs.
But ideas, even absurd and murderous ones, also have enablers. Naipaul explores how Third Worldism in Guyana welcomed the Jonestown commune with open arms. Guyana was in many ways as deranged and unreal as Jonestown. "[Third Worldism] is a mode of being, a state of mind. That state of mind spreads like an infection and begins to create its own realities, stimulated by a vocabulary of resentment and racial self-assertion." But Guyana itself was made possible by Western idealists. "Madness finds support and confirmation abroad among the self-avowed, metropolitan friends of the oppressed. Those who ought to know better nourish our crazy dreams of resurrection and redemption... [They] underwrite our lunacies."
He doesn't spare the United States any more than he does Guyana. Especially California and the "21st century thinking" of the New Age in the 1970s, and the middle-class kids who played revolutionaries in the 1960s only to retreat into the safety of "consciousness-raising" as soon as the stakes got high. He notes how Jones preyed on America's black urban underclass. Naipaul points out how useless this underclass was to America's technologically advanced society - so much waste product, what to do with it? We can extend Naipaul's observation to much of the Rust Belt and white rural America in 2020.
And he condemns most of the contemporary attempts to label and file away Jonestown: "It would be exhaustively indexed and forgotten. When the next aberration occurred it would be briefly resurrected for the purposes of comparison." And this is done because America had become overrun by taxonomists, "supplying tiny printouts that would explain any event", confident in their explanations and predictions because humans are mere chemistry and biology.
This is a fairly obscure book by an author overshadowed in life and death by his more famous brother, but it's well worth reading. It's the most helpful piece I've read on the Third World and the chaos of the 60s and 70s in the United States, not to mention Jonestown. There's lots to think over here. I'll definitely pick up Naipaul's North of South at some point.
April 17, 2013
This book was an interesting philosophical journey primarily focused on the social and political conditions of the 1960's and 70's that allowed Jim Jones and the People's Temple (as well as other fringe organizations of the times such as the Black Panthers) to flourish, and the queues that were ignored that would have alerted people to the dangers of Jones's cult of personality and movement. Naipaul, a British journalist of Trinidadian birth, travels to Guyana to research the massacre at Jonestown a month after the suicides, then moves on to California where he attends the auction of the Temple's assets, which takes place inside the San Francisco Temple. He ruminates on what makes California different from the rest of the country - even the rest of the world - and how those differences allowed Jones to gain so much power over his followers - power that was in no short supply if the hundred or so people that followed him to California from Indiana are any indication.
I enjoyed the book for several different reasons, not the least of which had to do with the fact that the subject matter was entirely fresh to me. All I had previously known about Jonestown came to me mostly through my mother's view of a bunch of crazy cultists throwing the world away in order to reinvent it in their own image. While Naipaul doesn't go into great detail following every chronological step of the church, he does an excellent job of showcasing Jones's personality, several times using the leader's own words to demonstrate ideas, which are often self-contradictory and highly idealistic. Naipaul's background in journalism shines through with balanced reporting of both the good and the bad of the organization and those that lived within it; equally obvious throughout are Naipaul's opinions. I also liked this book because there were actually a few words I had to look up. This happens so rarely that I had to take note of it, but I attribute it to the fact that the author attended college in an era when academia was still devoted to rampant intellectualism.
While I did enjoy this book, I rushed to finish it to get to the next book. It didn't grip me or hold me rapt, I didn't pick the book up and have trouble putting it down, and I felt the writing itself was perhaps a little dry and mired in Naipaul's own mental meanderings at times. It was good, I'm glad I read it, but I probably won't read it again.
I enjoyed the book for several different reasons, not the least of which had to do with the fact that the subject matter was entirely fresh to me. All I had previously known about Jonestown came to me mostly through my mother's view of a bunch of crazy cultists throwing the world away in order to reinvent it in their own image. While Naipaul doesn't go into great detail following every chronological step of the church, he does an excellent job of showcasing Jones's personality, several times using the leader's own words to demonstrate ideas, which are often self-contradictory and highly idealistic. Naipaul's background in journalism shines through with balanced reporting of both the good and the bad of the organization and those that lived within it; equally obvious throughout are Naipaul's opinions. I also liked this book because there were actually a few words I had to look up. This happens so rarely that I had to take note of it, but I attribute it to the fact that the author attended college in an era when academia was still devoted to rampant intellectualism.
While I did enjoy this book, I rushed to finish it to get to the next book. It didn't grip me or hold me rapt, I didn't pick the book up and have trouble putting it down, and I felt the writing itself was perhaps a little dry and mired in Naipaul's own mental meanderings at times. It was good, I'm glad I read it, but I probably won't read it again.
Want to Read
January 21, 2010I'm honestly only likely to read at most one book about Jonestown, but this one was recommended by a very smart guy.
August 8, 2026
"Deep racial terror was mercilessly exposed and exploited in the People's Temple. Jones stripped bare his following and left them naked and defenseless. He did not liberate: he assaulted and traumatized those who believed in him. One can sense at a certain levek his ragign hatred for the blacks whose God he claimed to be.; a hatred so deep-seated, so tormenting that,, in its fury, it turned itself inside out and called itself Love."
This book is a re-release of an 80s classic deep dive into the Jonestown tragedy in Guyana that led to 900 people committing mass suicide. Shiva Naipul looks at this from so many angles: from California, Indiana, and even from the place it happened in Guyana. He describes the political, financial, and cultural climate in each respective place and the kind of environment that allowed this type of tragedy to happen.
Shockingly enough, he also describes how Jim Jones doesn't stand alone, and how this type of cult brainwashing continues to fester. Some of the political and historical context can be dry at times, but the book's pace randomly picks up in certain places, where true adventure and horrifying personal testimonials are included. Even more interesting was the wide scope of the testimonials; some were horror stories, some were still supporters, and some refuse accountability altogether.
The book's uneven pace makes it hard to rate, but I give it a solid 4 out of 5; engaging, painfully detailed, and really makes you view the situation from a broader perspective. Recommend it to anyone interested in religious sects, cults, and cult-of-personality deep dives.
Thank you, NetGalley and Doubleday Books, for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy of this rerelease in exchange for my honest opinions.
"It's good to be open-minded, but you can't be so open-minded your brains fall out."
This book is a re-release of an 80s classic deep dive into the Jonestown tragedy in Guyana that led to 900 people committing mass suicide. Shiva Naipul looks at this from so many angles: from California, Indiana, and even from the place it happened in Guyana. He describes the political, financial, and cultural climate in each respective place and the kind of environment that allowed this type of tragedy to happen.
Shockingly enough, he also describes how Jim Jones doesn't stand alone, and how this type of cult brainwashing continues to fester. Some of the political and historical context can be dry at times, but the book's pace randomly picks up in certain places, where true adventure and horrifying personal testimonials are included. Even more interesting was the wide scope of the testimonials; some were horror stories, some were still supporters, and some refuse accountability altogether.
The book's uneven pace makes it hard to rate, but I give it a solid 4 out of 5; engaging, painfully detailed, and really makes you view the situation from a broader perspective. Recommend it to anyone interested in religious sects, cults, and cult-of-personality deep dives.
Thank you, NetGalley and Doubleday Books, for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy of this rerelease in exchange for my honest opinions.
"It's good to be open-minded, but you can't be so open-minded your brains fall out."
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
DNF @ 21% (91/432)
While the initial history (bulk of chapter 1 and 2) appears long winded and irrelevant, they do eventually help to paint the picture of Guyana and why a tragedy could take place. At chapter 3 and 4, Shiva started discussing more about Jonestown and how it interacted within politics of not just America but Guyana as well and the pacing, for me, picked up. The details provided about Jonestown, the connections Jim had within the Guyanese government, the scandal of politics pre-massacre, as well as the political history of Guyana were cleanly laid out and easily fact checkable.
My issue lies within the tone of the author. Shiva’s voice came off extremely cynical, judgmental, and almost negative towards the black Caribbean population. Very rarely have I questioned who is the audience of a book is for and then googled a picture of the author, but the tone and cadence used when talking about the rise of black nationalism gave me pause. These details may have stuck out to me more due to being Caribbean but I was given the impression that Shiva may participate in some Indian x Black racism. Back to the judgmental tones, there felt to be a preconceived notion and self righteous lense we were being presented some information with. I’ve read essay collections before where information is analyzed from the author’s lense/opinion and when it’s presented so negatively, it has you judge the author more than the content.
Recommended Audience: Those who are more curious about the political aspects and changes of the 1960-1970s with a sub-focus of Jonestown and why extremist movements were accepted in Guyana. If you’re purely into cult/serial killer style analysis, this will not scratch the itch.
While the initial history (bulk of chapter 1 and 2) appears long winded and irrelevant, they do eventually help to paint the picture of Guyana and why a tragedy could take place. At chapter 3 and 4, Shiva started discussing more about Jonestown and how it interacted within politics of not just America but Guyana as well and the pacing, for me, picked up. The details provided about Jonestown, the connections Jim had within the Guyanese government, the scandal of politics pre-massacre, as well as the political history of Guyana were cleanly laid out and easily fact checkable.
My issue lies within the tone of the author. Shiva’s voice came off extremely cynical, judgmental, and almost negative towards the black Caribbean population. Very rarely have I questioned who is the audience of a book is for and then googled a picture of the author, but the tone and cadence used when talking about the rise of black nationalism gave me pause. These details may have stuck out to me more due to being Caribbean but I was given the impression that Shiva may participate in some Indian x Black racism. Back to the judgmental tones, there felt to be a preconceived notion and self righteous lense we were being presented some information with. I’ve read essay collections before where information is analyzed from the author’s lense/opinion and when it’s presented so negatively, it has you judge the author more than the content.
Recommended Audience: Those who are more curious about the political aspects and changes of the 1960-1970s with a sub-focus of Jonestown and why extremist movements were accepted in Guyana. If you’re purely into cult/serial killer style analysis, this will not scratch the itch.
July 25, 2026
4.5 stars. A fascinating look at the aftermath of 1978 Jonestown murders and mass suicide, and an equally fascinating thesis about what led a group of more than 900 Americans into the South American jungle where they would die. Naipaul’s book was published a mere two years after the event, and feels like an awfully prophetic read in 2026. He asserts that the conditions that allowed the Jonestown cult to be born, to flourish, and ultimately to end as it did are distinctly American in nature, and makes a compelling case that The People’s Temple wasn’t all that different from countless other social movements that grew out of the ‘60s and ‘70s in the United States. Journey To Nowhere taught me a lot I hadn’t known about Jim Jones, his origins, and the surprisingly un-churchlike cult he created, and reminded me of a lot I feel I do know about millions of my fellow Americans and their desire to feel like they’re part of something bigger, something that will make their worlds more secure and more prosperous and – very often – something they believe can only be given to them by a charismatic strongman.
One interesting side note: I’d never realized that the poison drunk by the Jonestown victims was mixed with Fla-Vor-Aid, not Kool-Aid. So the wrong drink mix has not only been associated with one of the most horrible tragedies of the 1970s, but has literally become part of a figure of speech for blind devotion to a dangerous idea. Talk about catching a cultural stray…
One interesting side note: I’d never realized that the poison drunk by the Jonestown victims was mixed with Fla-Vor-Aid, not Kool-Aid. So the wrong drink mix has not only been associated with one of the most horrible tragedies of the 1970s, but has literally become part of a figure of speech for blind devotion to a dangerous idea. Talk about catching a cultural stray…
February 4, 2024
Journeying with Naipaul (even if it is "to Nowhere") is always worth the trip. Naipaul weaves poetic prose with acerbic social commentary to produce a book that spans across genres and topics - Part I is part travelogue of visiting Guyana and Jonestown (after the mass suicide) and part history of Third World Caribbean/South American countries and their politics; Part 2 is more philosophical, covering topics such as communism/socialism, the New Age movement, feminism, the 1960s/1970s college movements, hippie culture, the Black Panthers, est, and more.
The main topic is the Jonestown Massacre/Mass Suicide of 1978, but more largely Naipaul looks at the events and ideas in America and around the world that contributed to the rise of Jim Jones and Jonestown. Naipaul's tone is critical, cynical, and misanthropic. Naipaul was politically incorrect, even for his time, and says it how he saw it - his writings are refreshingly honest and direct. He had an eye for what really WAS, almost like someone living in the future writing on the past instead of like a contemporary writing on current events. Chapter 8 in particular, where Naipaul visits a New Age expo, is worth reading even as a stand alone chapter.
The main topic is the Jonestown Massacre/Mass Suicide of 1978, but more largely Naipaul looks at the events and ideas in America and around the world that contributed to the rise of Jim Jones and Jonestown. Naipaul's tone is critical, cynical, and misanthropic. Naipaul was politically incorrect, even for his time, and says it how he saw it - his writings are refreshingly honest and direct. He had an eye for what really WAS, almost like someone living in the future writing on the past instead of like a contemporary writing on current events. Chapter 8 in particular, where Naipaul visits a New Age expo, is worth reading even as a stand alone chapter.
May 12, 2020
If a book focused on a horrible event like the Jonestown massacre can be described sensitively as a delight, this book is a delight. Naipaul goes on-site to investigate the socio-economic and political environments that enabled an organization like Peoples Temple to attract followers and skirt oversight, both in corrupt, autocratic Guyana and post-modernist California. Despite the serious subject matter, Naipaul writes with a touch of humor and sarcasm...maybe reading like a PJ O'Rourke with a drier and more restrained touch?
The one flaw is that Naipaul's discussion of the California scene throws a lot against the wall without coalescing around a coherent thesis. On the other hand, forty years later doing so would still be a difficult task. Some things are hard to understand. Journey to Nowhere may not have the answers, but it provides ample food for thought.
The one flaw is that Naipaul's discussion of the California scene throws a lot against the wall without coalescing around a coherent thesis. On the other hand, forty years later doing so would still be a difficult task. Some things are hard to understand. Journey to Nowhere may not have the answers, but it provides ample food for thought.
August 7, 2026
An interesting examination of the Jonestown cult resulting in the mass suicide. But Naipaul manages to make it a critique of many things, including the hothouse nature of California philosophy, American indifference to poverty, the weird magical thinking of third world socialism, and about a thousand other things. Because of this, the book strays often from its nominal topic, though it's an interesting ride.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley, Shiva Naipaul, and the publisher for granting me access to this ARC.
To put it bluntly, this book completely lost my interest. After the parts discussing Jim Jones and Guyana, I found myself losing focus. This may be due to the fact that it seems that I misunderstood what the premise of the book really entailed. Overall, not something I found myself interested in.
To put it bluntly, this book completely lost my interest. After the parts discussing Jim Jones and Guyana, I found myself losing focus. This may be due to the fact that it seems that I misunderstood what the premise of the book really entailed. Overall, not something I found myself interested in.
July 27, 2026
I had read a review; it seemed like it might be deeper than it felt to me.
He did a lot of research; and went to Jonestown; but I somehow wanted something more 'historical' perhaps.
He did a lot of research; and went to Jonestown; but I somehow wanted something more 'historical' perhaps.
March 9, 2026
This is a thorough review of the story of Jonestown, through both interviews and Naipaul's on the ground observations. It's a republish, but it's also deeply relevant in today's hellscape. Recommended read.
January 25, 2010
Journey to Nowhere begins – and ends – in a precipitation-dampened atmosphere. For author Shiva Naipaul, this marks a particularly unusual melancholy pall over his entire work.
This book provides a very alternate view on Jonestown, Guyana, and the People's Temple under Jim Jones. Rather than regale established fact and speculated experiences there, Naipaul takes the route of self-exploration and variant viewpoints. Rather than delve into the horrors so lushly provided by the age's “instant books” and media reports of 1978-1979, Naipaul attempts to decode the lure of the Temple, and to rationalize the irrational beliefs held by over a thousand followers of Jones.
Journey to Nowhere has been described as being rife with “sardonic humour” (The Times, London). This, in a sense, accurately describes the overall tone of the work. Naipaul spares no detail for the sake of seriousness' sake; he delves into the overbearing presence of a fellow (unnamed) writer who protests at every given opportunity during a government-sanctioned tour of the depleted Jonestown, to great comical effect; he also described the pesky fly bothering Black Panther Huey Newton during Naipaul's exchange with the man. As far as humour goes, the book does contain a hearty amount of satirical-yet-realistic detail, but it cannot be considered a work of comedy.
In fact, during his remaining short years alive after the publication of Journey to Nowhere (also released as Black & White in Europe), Naipaul contended that the dark changes which overtook his writing style was a direct effect of the bleak, desolate journey into the eviscerated Jonestown, two months after the 1978 tragedy, with the stench of violent death still emanating from the very Guyanese soil.
Naipaul links the journey of the People's Temple from church to socialist movement to American tragedy to many other elements of the zeitgeist from which it spawned. Racial relations are examined, as are “religious” and ingeminated teachings/beliefs to which individuals remain steadfast, regardless of what they may have formerly felt as being “moral,” or socially acceptable. Journey to Nowhere is not a glimpse of the People's Temple under yet another microscope, resplendent with trite commentary – this book is wholly unique inasmuch as it represents a single man's journey into the heart of the beast, and his particular conclusions regarding the entire matter.
Well-written and captivating, this book may not be the definitive version of events which led to the “revolutionary suicide” in Jonestown, but it does represent one of the most introspective investigations thereof.
This book provides a very alternate view on Jonestown, Guyana, and the People's Temple under Jim Jones. Rather than regale established fact and speculated experiences there, Naipaul takes the route of self-exploration and variant viewpoints. Rather than delve into the horrors so lushly provided by the age's “instant books” and media reports of 1978-1979, Naipaul attempts to decode the lure of the Temple, and to rationalize the irrational beliefs held by over a thousand followers of Jones.
Journey to Nowhere has been described as being rife with “sardonic humour” (The Times, London). This, in a sense, accurately describes the overall tone of the work. Naipaul spares no detail for the sake of seriousness' sake; he delves into the overbearing presence of a fellow (unnamed) writer who protests at every given opportunity during a government-sanctioned tour of the depleted Jonestown, to great comical effect; he also described the pesky fly bothering Black Panther Huey Newton during Naipaul's exchange with the man. As far as humour goes, the book does contain a hearty amount of satirical-yet-realistic detail, but it cannot be considered a work of comedy.
In fact, during his remaining short years alive after the publication of Journey to Nowhere (also released as Black & White in Europe), Naipaul contended that the dark changes which overtook his writing style was a direct effect of the bleak, desolate journey into the eviscerated Jonestown, two months after the 1978 tragedy, with the stench of violent death still emanating from the very Guyanese soil.
Naipaul links the journey of the People's Temple from church to socialist movement to American tragedy to many other elements of the zeitgeist from which it spawned. Racial relations are examined, as are “religious” and ingeminated teachings/beliefs to which individuals remain steadfast, regardless of what they may have formerly felt as being “moral,” or socially acceptable. Journey to Nowhere is not a glimpse of the People's Temple under yet another microscope, resplendent with trite commentary – this book is wholly unique inasmuch as it represents a single man's journey into the heart of the beast, and his particular conclusions regarding the entire matter.
Well-written and captivating, this book may not be the definitive version of events which led to the “revolutionary suicide” in Jonestown, but it does represent one of the most introspective investigations thereof.
May 14, 2015
Shiva Naipaul’s account of the Jonestown tragedy is well researched and very readable. It was first published in 1980 in the United Kingdom under the title Black and White. Naipaul takes a look at the origins of Peoples Temple and why Guyana was chosen as their “Promised Land.” He interviews Huey Newton, among other Jonestown sympathizers. Naipaul does what few others have; he does not lay the blame for Jonestown solely at the feet of Jim Jones. Naipaul sees what happened in Jonestown as a result of the fantasy of the Third World revolution, the fantasy of personal redemption that created the liberation movement of the late Sixties and the mindless pursuit of social change and liberal politics present in California. This book contains a bibliography and an index.
July 2, 2008
Interesting account of Jim Jones' People's Temple. Pretty fast read.
Read
December 18, 2009a random choice.
September 20, 2016
A very poetic journal, plenty of sarcasm and acuity in the late Shiva's notes on the trends which fed and enabled the massacre
December 21, 2022
Aptly titled
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