A Bend in the River: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Yvette and Salim go to have a late lunch at The Tivoli, a restaurant across the street from BigBurger that attracts more of a European customer base. Even there, though, the photograph of the President is inescapable, this particular one over three feet high. Salim asks if Yvette knew Indar before and she subtly implies their affair, commenting how “an encumbrance can become a habit.” Salim thanks her for the dinner party and compliments her outfit from that night. Yvette invites him to lunch at the house in the Domain the next day. When Salim arrives Yvette says she had cancelled lunch and forgot to tell him. She goes to make them eggs in the kitchen, and Salim notes how the allure of the house in the dimness of the evening has faded in the stark daylight—the shoddy craftsmanship is evident everywhere.

As they eat, Salim admits he has never read any of Raymond’s work and expresses his desire to read one of his books. Yvette explains he has yet to publish a book, other than his thesis and some articles, and moreover that the history of the country he had been working on ran into some troubles with the government. As a result he has pivoted to the collection of speeches. She is unable to give any clarity as to why or what kind of troubles Raymond had. Salim begins to feel that Yvette might be somewhat trapped there. Raymond is notably absent from their meal.

Salim invites her to the Hellenic club the next day, and before he leaves, Yvette hands him a stack of magazines with Raymond’s articles in them. Leaving the house, Salim is struck by how overgrown parts of the Domain are becoming, particularly the abandoned model farm. Between the squatters and the overgrowth, Salim begins to think that the Domain is not “Europe in Africa” but rather “just bush” like the rest of it, as Nazruddin had once said.

Yvette meets Salim at his apartment the next day before the Hellenic club, but instead of going to lunch the two have sex. It is unlike anything Salim has experienced before, having only experienced sex in brothels. Unlike those times, where it was a passionless, unbalanced exchange of services, he is both overwhelmed and entirely present in the moment. Afterward he feels energized, but as Yvette leaves, she kisses his trousers, a trick of spurring desire he had seen the women in the brothel do before, causing Salim to question the whole afternoon.

Yvette calls him the next morning and their affair begins in earnest. Though Salim is invigorated by their relationship, he also fears for his own moral decay, seeing his own work fall by the wayside. Eventually, Salim finds some time to read Raymond’s magazine articles. Though dense and academic, Salim notices the lack of real sourcing of information. Raymond’s writing seems totally detached, for example, from the actual people involved in the events he writes about, backed only by secondary sources. This disconnect leaves the writing hollow and occasionally inaccurate. Salim realizes that despite Raymond’s education, he knows less of actual Africa than people like Indar, or even Father Huismans. As some of Raymond’s aura is dispelled to him in this way, Salim reflects how Yvette must have been captivated by the person Raymond appeared to be when they first met, “glitter[ing]” like their house in the Domain that first evening.