Narayan, R. K. - Donald Barr (review date 12 February 1961)

Donald Barr (review date 12 February 1961)

SOURCE: "A Man Called Vasu," in New York Times Book Review, February 12, 1961, pp. 5, 16.

[In the following review, Barr praises the delicacy of Narayan's comedy in The Man-Eater of Malgudi.]

Each artist—if he is a true artist, and not just a utensil by means of which people gratify themselves according to the habits they have already—has to educate an audience for himself. This is not so difficult for a writer who is unusual in the usual ways: perversity, obscurity, syntactical tricks. Yet it has taken a quarter of a century for Americans to learn the meaning of R. K. Narayan's bland, sly, important genius. Why? Perhaps if we know why we have been so obtuse about his other books, we may be a little more perceptive about The Man-Eater of Malgudi.

Narayan's first novel, Swami and Friends, was the beguiling comedy of a Hindu schoolboy. It was oblivious of the class...

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