This is the story of Nataraj, who earns his living as a printer in the little world of Malgudi, an imaginary town in South India. Nataraj and his close friends, a poet and a journalist, find their congenia l days disturbed when Vasu, a powerful taxidermist, moves in with his stuffed hyenas and pythons, and brings his dancing-women up the printer's private stairs. When Vasu, in search of larger game, threatens the life of a temple elephant that Natara j has befriended, complications ensue that are both laughable and tragic.
"Conoisseurs have known for years that the city of Malgudi, hybrid of Mysore and the molten universe, is the place to go for some of the best, wisest, and slyest scenes from the human comedy." --The Observer (London)
"Narayan's comedy . . . is a classical art, profounf in feeling and delicate in control." --The New York Times Book Review
"Narayan is a first-rate storyteller, and this is one of his most successful efforts . . . it cracks the whole of like wide open." --The New Yorker
This is the story of Nataraj, who earns his living as a printer in the little world of Malgudi, an imaginary town in South India. Nataraj and his close friends, a poet and a journalist, find their congenia l days disturbed when Vasu, a powerful taxidermist, moves in with his stuffed hyenas and pythons, and brings his dancing-women up the printer's private stairs. When Vasu, in search of larger game, threatens the life of a temple elephant that Natara j has befriended, complications ensue that are both laughable and tragic.
Praise
"Conoisseurs have known for years that the city of Malgudi, hybrid of Mysore and the molten universe, is the place to go for some of the best, wisest, and slyest scenes from the human comedy." --The Observer (London)
"Narayan's comedy . . . is a classical art, profounf in feeling and delicate in control." --The New York Times Book Review
"Narayan is a first-rate storyteller, and this is one of his most successful efforts . . . it cracks the whole of like wide open." --The New Yorker
