Customer Reviews

The Financial Expert

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It is through this book that I began my love affair with Mr. Narayan's writing. His characters are wry and ironic and clear. One is transported and thoroughly engaged. Best of all, Mr. Narayan delivers the heart of a story without the glitter and glare of literary cleverness and intellectual showing-off. The gift is so simply and honestly packaged that one is amazed and gratified by its depth.

"The Financial Expert" takes place in the made-up city of Malgudi in southern India. It centers around the life and pursuits of a man named Margaya who daily sits in a public park and offers expert advice--to those willing to pay for it--on matters of financial import. As you follow along, it seems as if Margaya's life has finally taken a turn for the better, but in reality all is unraveling. The book is rich in imagery of life in India, and one's ease in absorbing these details is due to Mr. Narayan's ability to present the unfamiliar in such a familiar light.

I hope that many more people are lucky enough to discover Mr. Narayan's work.

If you haven't yet discovered the pleasures of R.K. Narayan, I highly recommend The Financial Expert. It is nothing less than a classic. Superbly written, with humorously human characters and a well observed story. We follow the successes and of Margayya, the "financial expert" who lives in Narayan's fictional Malgudi. His story is amusing and entertaining. Narayan is a wonderful writer. Enjoy.

The Financial Expert By R. K. Narayan.

Set in the mythical town of Malgudi, The Financial Expert is a cautionary tale about the evils of the love of money. Margayva, the protagonist of this tale, is a self-made man who has a knack for taking advantage of the poor rustic souls in his community. He lends easily but not freely, wheedling his neighbors out of their assets. He is entirely unsympathetic as a boorish and petty man, so completely concerned with "status" and appearances that he develops little else. He dotes on his piggish, stroppy son, with predictable results. He is evil to his brother and sister-in-law who live as strangers next door. He is so consumed with acquisition of money that he cannot for a moment enjoy its benefits, either by spending it, or by giving it away. Ultimately, when a Ponzi scheme he has developed fails, he is reduced to his humble origins.

But for the wonderful, illuminating descriptions of the teeming life in that part of world, and, I suspect, clear insight into the small minds and hearts of some bureaucratic types in India, the book would be a disappointment. It is a short book, thankfully, predictable, but not charmless. Three stars and perhaps I am being generous.

Narayan's beautiful prose deserves special mention. Midway through Part One, the main character, the Financial Expert Margayya, finds himself in the midst of a street melee, assaulted from all sides by "vegetable-sellers, oilmongers, passers-by, cartmen, students - everyone"! A washer woman reprimands him but a lone cyclist lends Margayya his voice. In this short single paragraph we find a miniature reproduction of the whole of Malgudi.

The novel opens with Margayya sitting across the street from a bank under a banyan tree in the fictional Indian town of Malgudi; he fills out forms for peasants. He works from a wooden box he carries around in which he keeps paper, a quill, and an inkwell.

The bankers object to what they see as his meddling with their clients. They force him to leave and Margayya is left jobless with a wife and child to support. He meets a priest who asks him what he wants; Margayya dreams of riches. Very well then, says the priest. He tells Margayya that he must worship the goddess Lakshmi and perform special rites that will take forty days and use up his last 200 rupees. Margayya does all he is told and soon becomes wealthy. How does not really matter, but let us say great luck favoured a greatly predisposed spirit.

But because he chose the goddess of wealth over the goddess of wisdom, his mind knows no rest. He is not a good father; he is inept rather than cruel or negligent. He spoils his son but then demands too much of him.

As expected, years pass and Margayya's fortunes rise and fall as events finally betray him, for no reason at all... Or rather he loses all through the later effects of the same contingency that brought him wealth in the first place. There is irony and structure in this. Margayya retrieves his old wooden box and returns to the banyan tree, his life having come a full circle.

Has this self-centered unpleasant man learned anything? Would we wish his life for ourselves? It does not matter. He has lived the life he was meant to live, for good or for ill, but he has lived it.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

The book is about the life of an Indian chettiar (money-lender) and on his relationship with his son. Narayan's command of the English language is second to none and yet the book is extremely readable. Although set in India, the book will appeal to everyone: it is a good and interesting story, written in excellent English. ALL IN ALL, A FANTASTIC BOOK !