1 review for Mr. Sampath
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Mr. Sampath
by R K Narayan
Description:
“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 strangenesslike one’s own reflection seen in a green twilight.”Margaret Parton, New York Herald Tribune
“Narayan’s limits are meticulously imposed and observed but his humor and compassion come from a deep universal well, with the result that he has transformed his imaginary township of Malgudi into a bubbling parish of the world.”Christopher Wordsworth, Observer
About The Author
R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 13 May 2001), full name Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer, best known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English, along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.
Narayan’s mentor and friend, Graham Greene was instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan’s first four books, including the semi-autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher. The fictional town of Malgudi, was first introduced in Swami and Friends. Narayan’s The Financial Expert, was hailed as one of the most original works of 1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, was adapted for film and for Broadway.After The English Teacher, Narayan’s writings took a more imaginative and creative external style compared to the semi-autobiographical tone of the earlier novels.
His next effort, Mr. Sampath, was the first book exhibiting this modified approach. However, it still draws from some of his own experiences, particularly the aspect of starting his own journal; he also makes a marked movement away from his earlier novels by intermixing biographical events. Soon after, he published The Financial Expert, considered to be his masterpiece and hailed as one of the most original works of fiction in 1951.
The inspiration for the novel was a true story about a financial genius, Margayya, related to him by his brother. The next novel, Waiting for the Mahatma, loosely based on a fictional visit to Malgudi by Mahatma Gandhi, deals with the protagonist’s romantic feelings for a woman, when he attends the discourses of the visiting Mahatma. The woman, named Bharti, is a loose parody of Bharati, the personification of India and the focus of Gandhi’s discourses. While the novel includes significant references to the Indian independence movement, the focus is on the life of the ordinary individual, narrated with Narayan’s usual dose of irony.
Skryf Review
Brilliantly written and well-executed. The best feature of this novel is that the four main characters: Mr. Sampath, Srinivas, Ravi and Mr. Somu, are unconditionally lovable.The novel is not predictable and is a dramatic page-turner. The story follows the friendship of Mr. Sampath (the Printer) and Srinivas (the Editor), and discusses important social issues with ironical ease. Humor mainly pushes the story along. The dialogues are fun, and the characterization of Ravi as a painter who has lost his way, opens up a special place in the heart for amateur artists.The conclusion is brilliant and will have many readers remembering this masterpiece for a long time to come.