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Loading... My Days (1974)by R. K. Narayan
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  rajendran | Aug 9, 2008 |    ) experimentalis | Mar 19, 2008 | no reviews | add a review
"I am inclined to call this the last chapter, but how can an autobiography have a final chapter? At best, it can only be a penultimate one; nor can it be given a rounded-off conclusion, as is possible in a work of fiction." So begins the last chapter of My Days, the only memoir from R. K. Narayan, hailed as "India's most notable novelist and short-story writer" by the New York Times Book Review. In his usual winning, humorous style, R. K. Narayan shares his life story, beginning in his grandmother's garden in Madras with his ferocious pet peacock. As a young boy with no interest in school, he trains grasshoppers, scouts, and generally takes part in life's excitements. Against the advice of all, especially his commanding headmaster father, the dreaming Narayan takes to writing fiction, and one of his pieces is accepted by Punch magazine (his "first prestige publication"). Soon his life includes bumbling British diplomats, curious movie moguls, evasive Indian officials, eccentric journalists, and "the blind urge" to fall in love. R. K. Narayan's larger-than-life perception of the human comedy is at once acute and forgiving, and always true to it. No library descriptions found. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
1
Narayan, the creator of Malgudi, in his simple lucid style speaks of his life in MY DAYS. The book is in three sections -- in the first, he describes his life as a lonely child growing up in his grandmother's house in Madras with a monkey, a peacock and a parrot for companions! He goes on to describe his first school, the fear of the class teacher and the anxiety to remain unnoticed, being a player in the local football team "Jumping Stars"; his move to Mysore and admission to a school, where his father is the Headmaster. He narrates with amusing candour his comprehension skills for science and mathematics and his discomfiture at the special attention, the teachers gave the 'headmaster's son'. He discovers his passion for writing in the idle year he spent waiting to take his university examination after having failed in English -- his favourite subject...
The second section deals with the obstacles he encountered as a young writer, how the manuscript of his first book Swami and Friends caught the attention of Graham Greene; their lifelong friendship; his falling in love and marriage to Rajam, the birth of their daughter and the poignant tale of his wife's untimely death that left him devastated and his coming to terms with it, and his experiments with psychics.
In the last section, he gives a detailed account of his overcoming the writer's block, and the writing of The English Teacher. He continues describing his literary journey and his evolution as a fine writer. He writes about how he worked on his novel and short stories. About his visit to the United States of America at the invitation of the Rockefeller Foundation, how he stayed on for a couple of months at Berkeley and wrote The Guide. Along the way he tells of his experiences with the filming of The Guide by the noted actor Dev Anand. In the last few chapters we see an established, contented, writer known worldwide for his characteristic simple, lucid style and gentle irony...