The Vendor of Sweets by R. K. Narayan

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

14) The Vendor of Sweets by R.K. Narayan is pretty cool. I picked it up because I realized I know less than nothing about Indian literature and now seems a good time to try to start fixing that. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

The Vendor of Sweets is about a father and a son, trying to bridge an impossible generational gap. The father, in his youth one of Gandhi's Satyagrahi, is the titular vendor of sweets, a man who in his post-rebellion years has become a moderately successful businessman by refusing to acknowledge the contradictions between his Gandhian ideals and his desire to succeed in his community. The son, alienated from his community by aspirations of greatness, seeks to become first a novelist and then, after a sojourn in America, a manufacturer.

The novel is short, simple, and affecting. At first. It presents itself sentimentally, but then resolves instead in a surprising and farcical finale, after dabbling in Marquez-style magical realism in the middle. It is a book that appears to be one thing on first glance but which quickly unfolds confusing new layers.

I'm not sure how happy I am with that farce ending. In reflecting, I think it's the most honest ending the book could have, but one doesn't go to literature for the purest honesty. Generally, I want my literature to be aspirational, and The Vendor of Sweets doesn't offer much in that direction, except the invocation of the father's misguided (and therefore gently-mocked) sense of integrity in the novel's last lines.

Then again, if a comedy is supposed to end in a wedding... I definitely don't want this story's proposed wedding to happen. I guess Narayan is better off treating The Vendor of Sweets as that odd sort of comedy that ends in divorce.

Comments

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting. I'll add it to my reading list. :-)