From Publishers Weekly
The fictional town of Malgudi, India, is home to tranquil Nagaraj, whose daily routine of religious ritual and study of a Sanskrit scholar's oeuvre is unsettled by the arrival of his modern nephew. "The Malgudi residents are talkative, philosophical and able to confront events with wonder and humor," said PW. "Narayan captures the rhythm of generally contented lives."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In this, the 14th of his well-known Malgudi novels (e.g., Talkative Man , LJ 2/1/87), Narayan takes us into the daily routine of 50-year-old Nagaraj, who peacefully lives and acts inside his thoughts and whose associations with his family and friends are usually peripheral. Nagaraj perpetually dreams of writing the definitive treatise on the Sanskrit sage, Narada, yet he never studies Sanskrit. Though his story is told with much sensitivity and deft humor, he ultimately becomes a tragic figure defeated by his own character traits--a symbol of all humanity, whose dreams can never become reality because of inherent weaknesses. Nagaraj is supremely accurate in his depiction of an India that is a paradox of contrasts--of wealth and squalor, elegance and poverty, beauty and disease, erudition and ignorance--yet he wondrously renders Nagaraj's little world to represent the entire big world where we love and strive, unable to see that we are primarily responsible for our own lives.
- Glenn O. Carey, Eastern Kentucky Univ., RichmondCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
