Narayan, R. K. - Donald Barr (review date 19 May 1957)

Donald Barr (review date 19 May 1957)

SOURCE: "Three Minds in Trouble," in New York Times Book Review, May 19, 1957, p. 4.

[In the following review, Barr lauds Narayan's The Printer of Malgudi for its comedy and subtlety.]

The town of Malgudi, fermenting with dreams, is the setting R. K. Narayan has devised for his novels of life in modern India. They have all been charming novels—modest in dimensions, gentle both in laughter and in pain, alive with an easy eccentricity—and the latest of them, The Printer of Malgudi, is something more than charming.

It is the subtle story of three minds and six wild universes. These universes of philosophy, influence, art, love, sudden glory and vainglory have a kind of unearthly abundance. They keep no books. They are made of hopes. Kipling's puritan God of Things as They Are does not preside over any of them. The three minds are not geniuses but the brains of little...

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