The English Teacher

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Summary: trauma of departure of a loved one
Review: This book is autobiographical. It depicts painful struggle of the protagonist to come to terms with passing away of his young, beloved wife.

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Summary: His best work...
Review: This one's my favourite Narayan - along with the Maneater of Malgudi, this occupies a very special place in my book-shelf. The English Teacher - a.k.a. Grateful to Life and Death - is a sad story, sadder than most of Narayan's Malgudi novels. But the tragedy is softened by the wry humour that runs through the novel.

'The feeling,' Narayan writes on the first page, 'again and again came upon me that as I was nearing thirty I should cease to live like a cow (perhaps, a cow, with justice, might feel hurt at the comparison), eating, working in a manner of speaking, walking, talking, etc, - all done to perfection, I was sure, but always leaving a sense of something missing.' You can see what I'm talking about.

The story, as Narayan narrates in his autobiography 'My Days', is intensely personal.
'The English Teacher is autobiographical in content, very little of it being fiction. The "English Teacher" of the novel ... is a fictional character in the fictional city of Malgudi, but he goes through the same experience I had gone through...'

'That book,' he writes, 'falls in two parts - one is domestic life and the other half is "spiritual."'

The second half comes as a bit of a surprise, but Narayan tackles the difficult subjects of death, deprivation and desolation masterfully. Narayan takes you through the story gently. There are no shocks, nothing disturbing. This is a sad tale, gently told.

The book ends on a note of hope - 'it was a moment of rare, immutable joy - a moment for which one feels grateful to Life and Death.' The reviewer who spoke of how Narayan manages to 'communicate ... the extra-ordinary ordinariness of human happiness', I think hit the nail right on the head.

Rating:
Summary: There's no better way to be taught English
Review: Writers such as R.K. Narayan, P.G. Wodehouse, write without aspiring for greatness. Like a flower which grows without thinking, their words flow naturally filling page after page with the innate simplicity of life. There are no bones, attached strings or dark clouds with silver linings looming on the horizon. How simple is life!

An extremely funny book that at the same time evokes empathy and makes the heart flow with the milk of human kindness. Certainly not his best writing (Guide, Swami & Friends, The Vendor of Sweets), but definitely recommended.

He is indeed in the top 5 list of all time. Not merely as an Indian author, but very universal, making us realize how similar we all are. I would certainly include his books in the package we send out to the first extra-terrestrial species we spot.It would give them an excellent idea of humanity.