The Guide - [short] Book Review

As my first experience with Narayan, I was pleased with what I was introduced to. Being a Pakistani, I love the literature composed by my neighboring country, India. Some of our opinions, cultures, languages are in some way similar; a connection that reminds us of our past.

Narayan’s novel The Guide also reminds the protagonist, Raju, of his troubled past as well. It’s a book that is semi-narrated by Raju, who has just been released from the prison after serving his time there for committing forgery. He takes shelter in a nearby temple, where he is misidentified as a holy person. He now, involuntarily, has to assume this new role given to him.

Since the novel was composed in 1958, I was expecting it to be written in extreme compound sentences. However, I was delighted to discover Narayan’s simplistic prose and how the words and narration simply flowed so well that you wouldn’t want to put the book down. And if you did put it down, it felt as though you interrupted Raju’s narration. I may or may not have interrupted him thrice.

I found the concept of the book to be novel and creative. It is interesting to read of an offender having a spiritual journey to become a spiritual guide. What is more amusing and intriguing is that Raju was a tour guide before he became a spiritual guide.

What had me fascinated was how Raju’s identity kept changing. In the beginning, he is a vendor, tending to his father’s store by the railway. Soon, he begins giving tours to the various tourists arriving by train, and comes to be known as “Railway Raju”. Afterwards, he becomes the manager for Rosie, a dancer who initially arrived with her archeologist husband Marco but he left her after her affair with Raju. When he commits forgery, he is sentenced to two years in prison where he is known as “the Teacher”. Finally, at the steps of the temple, the townspeople begin calling him “Swami”.

This constant change of identity implies that a person has multiple appearances overtime and/or with different individuals. From being selfish and greedy, Raju slowly turned into a patient and determined individual. Although his character was quite obnoxious and sometimes unbearable, whatever identity he claimed, he always helped and served others — from curious tourists to eager dance enthusiasts to suffering townspeople.

The discrimination against women, where their sole aim is to serve the men, portrayed in the novel is unfortunately true in our unprogressive societies. For instance, Rosie once or twice even makes a statement that it is a “good wife’s” responsibility to cook and clean. Furthermore, Raju’s mother blames Rosie for turning his life upside down. And Raju calls Rosie “his property”. When in fact, it should be everyone’s responsibility to cook and clean as they are basic needs for all individuals. And it is not Rosie’s fault that Raju fell obsessively in love with her. Instead of blaming her son, she finds it easier to accuse a stranger, a seductive “snake”. Additionally, Raju’s love for Rosie is controlling, as though he owns her, as though he has created her like a god. And perhaps he owns her because he has created her. He monitors her every action, what item to accept, who to talk with.

I have mentioned how Raju is a terrible person by thinking he is “superior” than the rest but there are certain qualities about him that make him a good person at the same time. He does help and serve those around him and does his best to do his job. He is true to the work he does despite his awful personality. He escorts Marco to the tour to the caves; he tries not to miss any engagements related to Rosie’s dancing; he provides the suffering townspeople the serenity they sought. In addition, he is a good listener who has a habit of providing “guidance” to other people. His physical guidance soon alters to spiritual one. Raju is not a bad or good character, he is just human.

Narayan’s The Guide is about guidance to an individual to not simply view virtue with awe but to practice it. Narayan physically guides his readers from railway tracks to bright stages to crowded temples just like a tour guide. He spiritually guides them by teaching them patience, perseverance and generosity, all the characters that a person should possess. The book’s ambiguous ending leaves the reader to think of Raju’s fate. I was pleasantly surprised by the novel and would recommend everyone to read it whenever you feel you are in a quandary. Every one of us is corrupt and holy at the same time, and what action you choose only displays you as a human, capable of good and evil and everything in between.