The Painter of Signs (Penguin Classics)
by R. K. Narayan
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Book Summary Information
Author: R. K. NarayanIntroduction: Monica Ali
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-29
ISBN: 0143039660
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Book Reviews of The Painter of Signs (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: A well-crafted non-classic
Summary: 3 Stars
The Painter of Signs is a good story, and it shows RK Narayan's capacity for wit and irony. The man could write, and it shows.
Yet I must disagree with the notion that The Painter of Signs is anything close to a great novel. We are told that Raman, the main character, is someone who wants to live in the Age of Reason, but we don't see it very much. Oh sure, he tires of his pious Aunt, who attends readings of the great Indian epics at the Temple every night, but that is not about the Age of Reason -- that's a standard intergenerational squabble. Similarly, Daisy, Raman's love, is a very flat character: she appears, she speaks, she does what she does. But we know very little about her. Narayan attempts to let us know her through relating what she tells Raman, but this almost seems like necessary background in order to make the plot move (which it does). In the end, she is a flat character.
I enjoyed the book, and it is a good read, but I find it a strangely muted window into India. As always, Narayan's description of the people and life of Malgudi are terrific and at times laugh-out-loud funny. But if you are looking for fiction that tells you about India, I would suggest first going to The White Tiger, by Arvind Adiga, Salman Rushdie's brilliant Midnight's Children, or even Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies, much of which is not about India per se but rather the Indian expatriate community in the United States. Another work that is based on fiction and has been unfortunately overlooked is Jonah Blank's beautiful Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana Through India, which really gets to the heart of key aspects of Indian culture.
My own view is that one compelling reading of The Painter of Signs is one that Narayan would have abhorred, namely, a political reading. Narayan didn't like critics finding allegories in his books, but I think it works here. Raman is India itself, torn between its rich traditions (the Aunt) and a seductive modernity (Daisy). Narayan does not choose between these two, and he was hardly a defender of traditional India, but a political reading of The Painter of Signs shows him (or the text) cautioning about the embrace of modernity that cannot deliver what it promises -- or what a person might convince himself that it promises if he is infatuated by its appearance.
Summary of The Painter of Signs (Penguin Classics)
For Raman the sign painter, life is a familiar and satisfying routine. A man of simple, rational ways, he lives with his pious aunt and prides himself on his creative work. But all that changes when he meets Daisy, a thrillingly independent young woman who wishes to bring birth control to the area. Hired to create signs for her clinics, Raman finds himself smitten by a love he cannot understand, much less avoid-and soon realizes that life isn't so routine anymore. Set in R. K. Narayan's fictional city of Malgudi, The Painter of Signs is a wry, bittersweet treasure.Classics Books
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