Customer Reviews

Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts, The Dark Room, The English Teacher (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)

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This book contains four novellas. In reality it is 2400 pages in only 600. While many writers take twenty pages to write what should have taken up no more than ten, Narayan took those ten pages and wrote them better in five.

He draws you into the world of his characters so quickly and thoroughly you are amazed that so much was told in such a small space. Each of these four novellas take place in Malguti, a fictional town in South India. Narayan wrote these in the 1930's and 40's, While it would be helpful to have some knowledge of the India at that time, it isn't required to enjoy his writing. This Everyman's Library edition has a time line of his career along with world and literary events for each time period. This was most helpful as an introduction to Narayan's works.

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Swami and Friends: This is an example of "boys will be boys" no matter where they live. They can be studious or laggard; helpful or cruel; friendly or surly; humble or haughty or all at the same time. As I read this I kept thinking of the "Little Rascals". Those of you too young to know about them (aka "Our Gang") owe it to yourself to try to find copies to watch.

Swami is an underachiever who lacks self-confidence and tries to get it vicariously from his friends. This is both an amusing and moving novella. Like so many of us in youth, Swami, to others, is so ignorant; but to himself his brilliance knows no bounds. He is a master at rationalizing his actions, yet so in need of love and support.

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The Bachelor of Arts: Young men will also be young men. We journey with Chandran from college (What do I want to do when I grow up?) to after (I've grown up! What am I going to do?). There's love and disappointment. There's hope and disillusionment. There's growing up for real and ???.

This is more serious than the first novella. Narayan lets us see into the mind of Chandran as he battles with himself to find his place. Malgudi may be fictional but it is truly part of the real world.

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The Dark Room: Middle-aged men will be idiots. Middle-aged women will be ... perfect of course (I'm not that dumb). This is about "He who rules the castle and all in it." vs "She who wants a life (or does she?)." I did not like this as much as the other three. It is very stereotyped but the writing is still great.

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The English Teacher: I so wanted the protagonist to be an old man to continue the progression. It was not to be. Our hero this time is a teacher and want-to-be poet. Looking for his place in life, following family tragedy, he ventures away from the norm to try the new. This one is said to be somewhat autobiographical and is very moving.

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In looking back on the four, the first and last are my favorites. The characters are drawn from life and placed in real world situations. Narayan's concise style continues throughout and draws the reader in to Malgudi. Fortunately there are many more that follow for me to read.

I really enjoyed these carefully crafted novellae. I particularly like 'Swami & Friends', which reinforced the universal forces that act upon children -- loyalty, belonging, and love. I also thought the 'Dark Room' was an excellent work, contrasting the response of an upper-class Indian housewife's ultimately failed attempt at rebellion with her husband's lack of appreciation for what he has. I highly recommend Narayan's work -- a window into Raj and post-Raj India with few peers.