R. K. Narayan
Swami & Friends, The Bachelor of Arts,
The Dark Room, The English Teacher.
Everyman’s Library, 648 pages, $25

R. K. Narayan Mr. Sampath – The Printer of Malgudi,
The Financial Expert,
Waiting for the Mahatma
Everyman’s Library, 616 pages, $25

A comparison of car horns in the U.S. and India will serve to orient newcomers to R. K. Narayan (1906–2001). This is not to say that novice readers of his books must register acoustic differences between a Cadillac and an Ambassador on the one hand, or a Ford Explorer and a Maruti van on the other. I refer to competing protocols. In America, to be honked at is an insult. In India, the horn is a civic necessity.

Certainly road rage is endemic to both countries, as it is the world over. While an American may express bewilderment at a delayed left turn or an abrupt lane switch, these are the least of his Indian counterpart’s worries. Cows and water buffalo, bicycles and scooters, blind curves with inadequate signage, and, above all, pedestrians, require a staccato reception. Yet each distinct note of impatience drowns in the vast impersonal blare that India’s streets, its sounds and colors, supply.

This conspiracy of indifference, of great passions muffled by the din of day-to-day commerce, would challenge any writer seeking to place a fictional milieu. In Narayan’s case, the backdrop seems to have liberated him. His novels and stories breed Micawbers who parlay limited resources into grand