Swami and Friends (Phoenix Fiction S.) - Softcover

Narayan

4.22

13,143 ratings by Goodreads

9780226568317: Swami and Friends (Phoenix Fiction S.)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226568318 ISBN 13: 9780226568317

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1980

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"There are writers--Tolstoy and Henry James to name two--whom we hold in awe, writers--Turgenev and Chekhov--for whom we feel a personal affection, other writers whom we respect--Conrad for example--but who hold us at a long arm's length with their 'courtly foreign grace.' Narayan (whom I don't hesitate to name in such a context) more than any of them wakes in me a spring of gratitude, for he has offered me a second home. Without him I could never have known what it is like to be Indian."--Graham Greene Offering rare insight into the complexities of Indian middle-class society, R. K. Narayan traces life in the fictional town of Malgudi. The Dark Room is a searching look at a difficult marriage and a woman who eventually rebels against the demands of being a good and obedient wife. In Mr. Sampath, a newspaper man tries to keep his paper afloat in the face of social and economic changes sweeping India. Narayan writes of youth and young adulthood in the semiautobiographical Swami and Friends and The Bachelor of Arts. Although the ordinary tensions of maturing are heightened by the particular circumstances of pre-partition India, Narayan provides a universal vision of childhood, early love and grief. "The experience of reading one of his novels is ...comparable to one's first reaction to the great Russian novels: the fresh realization of the common humanity of all peoples, underlain by a simultaneous sense of strangeness--like one's own reflection seen in a green twilight."--Margaret Parton, New York Herald Tribune

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Review:

This book by R.K. Narayan is just wonderful. It reminds us of our school days. The fun we had, our friends, the way we made friends, the exam fear, the eagerly awaited vacations, our kind principal, our strict but loving teachers, our punishments everything... It is just a marvel how a book written so long back can still connect to present days. It is just a wonderful book that will make you get serious, tickle you and make you laugh at the same time. Just get hold of this book and relive your childhood once again. --D Vinay on Feb 24, 2013

Great book to read and have in your collection. Captures your imagination and reminds you of childhood days. The language is simple and the humor is in good taste. Makes you wonder about one's own childhood and the author's insight of the things done during that period. Definitely a good buy. --Nagendra on Jun 17, 2012

this book is perfect for early teenagers in all respect. it has awesome stories and is the great work of R.K Narayanan so you can blindly go for it --Rohit Ranjan on Jul 12, 2015

About the Author:

R. K. Narayan's writing spanned the greatest period of change in modern Indian history, from the days of the Raj with Swami and Friends (1935), The Bachelor of Arts (1937) and The English Teacher (1945), to recent years of political unrest - The Painter of Signs (1976), A Tiger for Malgudi (1983), and Talkative Man (1987). He has published numerous collections of short stories, including Malgudi Days (1982) and Under The Banyan Tree (1985), and several works of non-fiction. His most recent work is The Grandmother's Tale: Three Novellas (1993). R.K. Narayan died in 2001.

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