Some good books impress you with thunder and lightning. They grab you by the nose, pull you through a whirlwind of impressions and new ideas, and leave your brain whirring with activity. Others are more subtle. You read them and enjoy them. You can't say exactly why. When you're done, you feel as if you have a new perspective, but you can't express exactly what it is. You know you enjoyed the author's style, but you can't put it in a category. The Guide is one of the latter.
This is the story of a very shallow man named Raju. Despite his shallowness, he is immediately likable. He is very much like many people you probably know: a self-centered opportunist with no plan who takes pains to make himself agreeable. Narayan begins in the middle of the story: Raju has been released from prison, and spends the night in a holy shrine. The local villagers mistake him for a holy man. He plays along.
Narayan hooks the reader with this conceit, because the questions is, naturally, how did Raju end up in jail? Raju is not a particularly good person, but nor does he seem a criminal. He's just careless and selfish. In exploring how Raju wound up in his predicament, the author explores, in a subtle and tender fashion, the slippery slope of a purposeless life.
Narayan occasionally flashes forward to the present and continues the narrative of Raju's life as faux guru. The payoff is predictable; it is no original insight that playing a role often has a real and lasting effect on a person's character. However, it is no less true for being unoriginal, and Narayan's writing is so straightforward and compelling that you may find fresh insight here. Some of the best ideas are old ones, and some of the best books explore timeless themes.
The Guide is unpretentious, charming, insightful, and instructive. This is a rare combination, and I highly recommend you read it.
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