The Vendor of Sweets
As seen:
By NARAYAN, R. K., and and, R. K. Narayan
avg rating
1 review
While the colourful sweetmeats are frying in the kitchen, Jagan immerses himself in his copy of the Bhagavad Gita. A widower of firm Gandhian principles, Jagan nonetheless harbours a warm and embarrassed affection for his wastrel son Mali. Yet even Jagan’s patience begins to fray when Mali descends on the sleepy city of Malgudi full of modern notions, with a new half-American wife and a grand plan for selling novel-writing machines. From different generations and different cultures, father and son are forced to confront each other, and are taken by surprise . . .
TweetReviews
This book centers around the relationship of a father and a son: father -Jagan- a follower of Gandhi- and his son Mali, who rejects his father's values and culture in favour of more liberal Western ideas.
Of course, when the story unfolds we are able to understand how Jagan, himself, was a path finder and a person who breaks the customs and cultural taboos in the society then.
Mali watched his father rejecting western modern medicine to cure his mother’s brain tumor and tried to cure with natural remedies. Mali blamed his father for her death.
As a young man, who was sent to a private college, leaves college without even letting his father know with an intent of becoming a writer. He steals some of his father’s money to move to America to attend a writing program. Though hurt by his son’s rejection of his way of life, he does not even try to confront the son regarding his Jagan soon begins bragging about his son in America.
The story revolves around the bringing up of children, generation gap, western influence, marriage, and conflict between spiritualty and materialism.
