I have always loved this book, and it prompted me to read all of R.K. Narayan's books, though to be honest, it is not his masterpiece (that would be either The Guide, Malgudi Days as a whole, or The Financial Expert). Yet this book does capture a sense of Narayan's unique genius, his ability to write myth and folkore as a living force that can exist side by side with cars, film crews, and the entire panoply of modern India.
I taught this book in a Freshman Composition course, and the students were rather divided on its merits. Some found it too "simple," having trouble accepting a book that begins as the memoirs of a captive tiger (which Narayan is at no great pains to keep intact), only to jump off to other narratives and points of view. The key to keep in mind is that Narayan is writing this book from the tradition of folklore and myth, where tigers can talk--yet are not bound by our ponderous modern notions of "realism." Indeed, though a modern work, many of the characters and situations in this book seem lifted out of folklore, as brilliant translated and realized by Narayan (much as he retold the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and others). On the surface, it is a simple story, well-told, yet has powerful undercurrents, particularly on the purpose of one's life, and the contradictions of each "path" we choose. The relationship of the Raja with the holy man is brilliant, particularly as Narayan allows us to see the messiness of cutting one's self off to follow a path of individual salvation.
A short book, but one that I return to often. To truly enjoy it, it's important not to impose a Western perspective on it, or even look for "novelistic" elements in the narrative. Simply read it and let yourself fall into Narayan's folkloric world, which exist as much here as in some enchanted world at the beginning of history.
Did I mention the book is often hilarious as well?
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Swapnil Dubey
Tale of a Tiger !!!
Reviewed in India on September 24, 2020
Swapnil Dubey
Reviewed in India on September 24, 2020
A Tiger for Malgudi, is a biography of a tiger. His story starts with being an unquestioned and untamed king of the jungle and then gets captured and is forced to be obedient to his Captain in a circus and then surrenders again but this time voluntarily to a Sadhu.
The way writer describes how a living soul must act and think goes against every cell of how we live day-by-day with full on talking and listening but never thinking.
Writer narrates tiger's life experience in a way that it's hard to separate him from average human being. How he acts to pose his superiority on others in jungle, how he shows enmity against those he can't catch or kill.
This story made me care about the main character.. the tiger and I was wondering since the start that how it would end or what would happen to the tiger, eventually. Well, what you get in the end is just heart warming. Message well received Writer Sir.
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