R.K. Narayan- The Guide

The Guide

Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics

R.K. Narayan

1958

"He got down from his pedestal; that was the first step to take. That seat had acquired a glamour, and as long as he occupied it people would not listen to him as to an ordinary mortal. He now saw the enormity of his own creation. He had created a giant with his puny self, a throne of authority with that slab of stone."

I've been thinking a lot recently about my own personal reading landscape, and of other people's in general. I try to visualise it as some sort of weird amorphous blob, growing larger and murkier each time I successfully add something new to its context; recently that's been a case of examining the familiar by trying to fully complete reading the bibliographies of some of my favourite authors. Auster is the most common of late, and in my look at Moon Palace I halfheartedly looked at the concept of increased fulfillment based on familiarity and the mostly safe exploration found when sticking to a particular author. I've really enjoyed reading lots of Auster and Terry Pratchett recently and I definitely appreciate being able to sharpen my understanding of their work, but sometimes it can be more interesting looking at something new. Reading R.K. Narayan's The Guide was my attempt to take a quick break from indulging in the comfortable favourites by tackling a novel exploring a culture and emanating froma time that I'm only marginally familiar with.

Published only ten years after Britain gave India back its independence, The Guide is a prime example of classic post-colonial literature, as a work of fiction encapsulating a rapidly changing time and place where two old and established cultures merged to create an initially strange amalgam. My only experiences with Southeast Asian literature come from the genetically very English Rudyard Kipling (I read the two standards, The Jungle Book and Kim many years ago) and other Western interpretations (Orwell's Burmese Days comes to mind), so The Guide was a new experience that felt, to me at least, somewhat more legitimate in a way. Handily, R.K. Narayan wrote his fiction directly in English, giving me a first-hand version of the world he was presenting. Yay for post-colonialism.

R.K. Narayan

I was a little apprehensive beforehand that I might struggle to connect with literature from such a mostly different culture (in terms of their classical literature), but I found The Guide to be a superb story, brilliantly controlled and paced by an author with a superb knowledge of story-structure, in a manner that couldn't help but make me think of the greats of eighteenth century English literature (Charles Dickens and Mary Shelley, curiously)- regularly switching from the past to the present of Raju, the central character, and switching from omnipresent narration to first person in doing so, all putting Raju's tribulations into context. At the start of the book Narayan introduces Raju as a corrupt tour guide in the fictional city of Malgudi who has just been released from a two-year prison sentence, and is then mistaken for a Ghandi-like spiritual leader by a local simpleton named Velen. Having established the set-up, Narayan switches between the present, where Raju begins to reluctantly accept his unexpected new life, and the past, as Raju narrates to Velen the story of how he ended up in prison.

Raju's account of his past fills the bulk of the book (which is a short novel at roughly only 200 pages), and is an engaging human drama where Raju the corrupt guide falls in love with a married woman named Rosie, and dedicates himself to fulfilling her dream of becoming a famous dancer. I found Raju to be a compelling character thanks to Narayan's flowing portrayal of his determination, anger and craftiness. Narayan's prose is not overly complicated or flowery, but strikes a careful balance between relatable drama and a fable-like tone that both compares and contrasts with Raju's spiritual rebirth to give the prose a gravitas that glued my eyes to the page. Ultimately the story narrows into Raju facing the greatest challenge of his life, embracing his new role as spiritual guide, with his secret history creating a deep character on the verge of reaching his own transcendence.

The Guide is a book I'm sure will linger with me, thanks to its powerful, very well-crafted narrative and refined main character. It isn't a book that tries to answer any of life's great mysteries, but instead explores the range of complex experiences and emotions that can shape a person into something unrecognisable to others.