Book Report: Malgudi Days

I've finally finished reading Malgudi Days by R.K. Narayan, a collection of short stories, later adapted into a TV series, about a fictional town in India. The stories are meant to present slices of life in the country — the various personalities, struggles, family dynamics that, while set in India, are universally human. The show became a staple of TV watching for a generation of kids — something like India's "Little House on the Prairie." Or so I'm told.

At first, the short stories seemed innocuous, cute morality tales capped with a surprise twist. But the narratives seem to grow darker and more melancholy as the book progresses. I'm not sure whether the stories are presented in the order they were written, suggesting Narayan's growing world-weariness, or purposefully ordered to create the same effect. Either way, the change is subtle but real. The final story — which depicts a man in the autumn of his life growing faintly aware of his past wrongs and attempting, feebly, to right them — breaks your heart.

While I wouldn't rank Malgudi Days among the great works of English literature, the stories present interesting character studies and do a fine job of entertaining, charming and gently challenging the reader. The short-story format provides easy-to-digest chunks (must...refrain...from Indian food metaphor) that make the book easy to put down and pick back up again later. If you've ever wanted to read about India from an Indian point of view, the imaginary but oh-so-vivid locale of Malgudi is a good place to start.