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A review by pranavroh
The Man-Eater of Malgudi by R.K. Narayan
3.0
It's been a long time since I last read a book by R.K. Narayan. It seems easy, on the surface, to dismiss him as a simplistic writer without a verve for language - however, Narayan's books are essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand India and its idiosyncrasies. The Man Eater of Malgudi is a classic R.K. Narayan book - funny, poignant and immensely accessible. If you are a first timer to his work, you couldn't ask for a better book to start with.
Nataraj runs a printing press in the fictional town of Malgudi. He lives a quiet, prosperous life and sticks to a lazy semi organised routine in his sleepy town - printing labels for a fruit juice company, pawning off extra work to the "Heidelberg" press next door and discussing politics and poetry with some of his irregulars. Lazy, non competitive and supremely satisfied with his lot in life, Nataraj is content until Vasu arrives.
Vasu is everything Nataraj is not - rude, ambitious, and blustering. He proceeds, in short order, to take over Nataraj's attic which he fills with the skins of dead animals for the purposes of taxidermy. He makes Nataraj's press the haunt of various dancing girls and hijacks Natraj's life on a regular basis. When Vasu makes plans for mayhem during a Temple Festival, however, Natraj is drawn into a confrontation that may change his life.
The beauty in Narayan's writing is that it is eminently accessible and slice of life. His stories never start with too much fanfare, employing flawed, insecure characters who abandon their values at the first opportunity. Most times, the main character is no paragon of virtue, nor is he or she selfish - they are just - ordinary and this ordinariness and its interaction with an uncertain world is the core concept in most of his books.
Despite using Indian colloquialisms and a toned down style of writing Narayan proves you don't need a thesaurus of complex English words or complex sentences to deliver an emotional impact. Harking back to when I first read "The Painter of Signs", the book still resonates in my memory as one of the most perfect and bittersweet books I have ever read. To capture the complexity of emotion and the capacity of the Indian mind to - move on from catastrophes is something Narayan does beautifully.
That said, this book is not perfect. I am yet to find an Indian author who doesn't specialise in contrived endings. The ending of this book made me raise an eyebrow for its sheer unbelievability, and, while the quite lazy and out of the blue, the abrupt shift in tone towards the end of the book doesn't gel well with what has come earlier.
Overall, The Man Eater of Malgudi is a short, sweet book with the trademark Narayan characters and small town events. It's largely funny, moving in parts and offers a rare glimpse behind the machinery running small town India. However, the ending is contrived, simplistic and frankly lazy, spoiling what was otherwise an extremely enjoyable book. I suggest you read it anyway
Nataraj runs a printing press in the fictional town of Malgudi. He lives a quiet, prosperous life and sticks to a lazy semi organised routine in his sleepy town - printing labels for a fruit juice company, pawning off extra work to the "Heidelberg" press next door and discussing politics and poetry with some of his irregulars. Lazy, non competitive and supremely satisfied with his lot in life, Nataraj is content until Vasu arrives.
Vasu is everything Nataraj is not - rude, ambitious, and blustering. He proceeds, in short order, to take over Nataraj's attic which he fills with the skins of dead animals for the purposes of taxidermy. He makes Nataraj's press the haunt of various dancing girls and hijacks Natraj's life on a regular basis. When Vasu makes plans for mayhem during a Temple Festival, however, Natraj is drawn into a confrontation that may change his life.
The beauty in Narayan's writing is that it is eminently accessible and slice of life. His stories never start with too much fanfare, employing flawed, insecure characters who abandon their values at the first opportunity. Most times, the main character is no paragon of virtue, nor is he or she selfish - they are just - ordinary and this ordinariness and its interaction with an uncertain world is the core concept in most of his books.
Despite using Indian colloquialisms and a toned down style of writing Narayan proves you don't need a thesaurus of complex English words or complex sentences to deliver an emotional impact. Harking back to when I first read "The Painter of Signs", the book still resonates in my memory as one of the most perfect and bittersweet books I have ever read. To capture the complexity of emotion and the capacity of the Indian mind to - move on from catastrophes is something Narayan does beautifully.
That said, this book is not perfect. I am yet to find an Indian author who doesn't specialise in contrived endings. The ending of this book made me raise an eyebrow for its sheer unbelievability, and, while the quite lazy and out of the blue, the abrupt shift in tone towards the end of the book doesn't gel well with what has come earlier.
Overall, The Man Eater of Malgudi is a short, sweet book with the trademark Narayan characters and small town events. It's largely funny, moving in parts and offers a rare glimpse behind the machinery running small town India. However, the ending is contrived, simplistic and frankly lazy, spoiling what was otherwise an extremely enjoyable book. I suggest you read it anyway