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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A gentle, everyday story about a quiet, simple man,
By Dave Deubler (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The World of Nagaraj (Hardcover)
Set in Narayan's fictional small Indian town of Malgudi, this story follows some significant events in the life of a quiet man named Nagaraj: a family man, born to modest wealth, a part-time accountant who is not too interested in money, a would-be writer obsessed with the ancient sage Narada, and perhaps ultimately, a failure. Through his eyes we can experience the simple joys of small town life in South Asia, but we also gradually become acquainted with its frustrations.In Narayan's easy prose we follow Nagaraj about town on a typical day, enjoying the simple everyday pleasures that life holds for him, meeting people he knows, and hearing their stories before it's time to return home to his wife and pyol (balcony). Over the course of time, we learn about his relationship with his disillusioned, but still dutiful wife Sita, his difficulties in raising his nephew Tim, and his ongoing attempts to write a biography of his beloved Narada. Most of all we come to know Nagaraj very well. Although he has a touch of the intellectual about him, we soon discover that his reluctance to speak up for himself leads others to secretly view him with disdain. This is especially evident in his relationship with his older brother Gophu, who regularly snubs and belittles him, despite the fact that Gophu's greatest accomplishment seems to revolve around the processing of methane gas on his farm. But Gophu does possess an inner strength that is sadly lacking in Nagaraj. We see too often how Nagaraj suppresses his real thoughts so as not to give offense to others, then utters inanities to mask his real feelings of irritation or even superiority. This leads even his social inferiors to believe that he is merely a fool, when in actuality his real failing is not his intelligence, but a gentleness of the soul that sometimes seems to border on saintliness. Indeed, he possesses some of the childlike simplicity that is often associated with the very religious, although his own religious leanings are modest, not fanatical. Nagaraj's problems have a faintly comic element to them, and to that extent the book is a rather amusing look at a very ineffectual man, but on another level, one can't help but sympathize with his difficulties. If Nagaraj reminds you too much of someone you care very deeply about, this trip to Malgudi could be a very melancholy journey.
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