“On October 30, 1990, V S. Naipaul, considered by many to be the greatest living English language novelist...”
This is not his own opinion of himself, but rather the opinion of the person indroducting V.S. Naipaul as a speaker. Naipaul won the Nobel prize for literature. It was a shock at the time, because he was not an anti-western author. There were a lot of “This can’t be!” remarks on the day it was announced.
Ah, should’ve followed the link to the article...it’s clear there by the use of italics (that do not show in the exerpt).
Thanks for the clarification.
Anyway, for someone with a Nobel prize, he sure didn’t make any lasting impression on Western readers (except perhaps in academia...). Hmm, what other (hint: recent) Nobel laureate immediately comes to mind?