The Painter of Signs

By R.K. Narayan

Book Overview

For Raman the sign painter, life is a familiar and satisfying routine. A man of simple, rational ways, he lives with his pious aunt and prides himself on his creative work. But all that changes when he meets Daisy, a thrillingly independent young woman who wishes to bring birth control to the area. Hired to create signs for her clinics, Raman finds himself smitten by a love he cannot understand, much less avoid-and soon realizes that life isn't so routine anymore. Set in R. K. Narayan's fictional city of Malgudi, The Painter of Signs is a wry, bittersweet treasure. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143039660
• ISBN13: 9780143039662
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Refreshingly Simple, Delightfully Beautiful

This is the first book of Narayan's I've read. I read it mainly because Graham Greene, one of my favorite authors, was a long-time proponent of Narayan's works. I fully concur with Greene that Narayan is a nuanced writer who achieves great effect with a few carefully selected words. I see how Greene came to feel that he "knew" India and Indians from reading Narayan's multi-decades stories of the fictional city of Malgudi and its surroundings. Like America's Faulkner, Narayan creates a fully realized place which comes alive to the reader, both in setting and its various characters. I truly believed I was in India around 1973. It is hard not to love Raman, the opinionated sign painter. While it is hard to love Daisy, the westernized birth controlling technocrat, I found the relationship between the two both exotic and mesmorizing. I couldn't put the book down and had to know how his infatuation-turned-love ended. I appreciated how chaste the book is both in its choice of words and description of events. The book is simple yet beautiful. I loved this book so much that I gave it to my daughter to read this summer before she matriculates at college. I now plan on reading Narayan's earlier works.

Clash of principles and emotions

I read this book years ago but never forgot it. I read it again this week and was in awe of its deceptive simplicity. On the surface, it seems like nothing more than a love story, but then there is Daisy-- the antithesis of a romantic heroine: abrasive, brusque, rigidly obsessed with ideals and principles-- in sum, kind of a bitch. But isn't it always the people who don't fit into our preconceived ideas of what a person should be who drive us to distraction? So it is with Daisy, who is perhaps attractive to Raman because of her near-complete indifference to him; so unlike his aunt; so unlike the tradition-bound life he both loves and longs to escape. A beautiful, entertaining read.

Fresh, fun, and full of charm.

This bittersweet novel is as fresh and charming today as it was when originally published in 1976. Telling the story of Raman, a conscientious sign-painter, who is trying to lead a rational life, the novel is filled with busy neighborhood life and gossip, the alternating rhythms and sounds of the city from morning till night, and the pungent smells and tantalizing flavors of home cooking, as Narayan portrays everyday life in Malgudi. The city is growing and changing, as its inhabitants try to carve out some individual successes within the juggernaut of "progress."Raman, a college graduate, brings a sense of professionalism to his sign-painting, taking pride in his calligraphy and trying to create exactly the right sign, artistically, for each client. Living with his aged aunt, a devout, traditional woman whose days are spent running the house and tending to her nephew's needs and whose evenings are spent at the temple listening to the old stories and praying, Raman prefers a rational approach to life. Then he meets Daisy. A young woman devoted to improving the lives of women and the standard of living of the country through strict family planning, Daisy becomes his biggest customer, commissioning signs for all the family planning clinics she helps establish through the city and outlying rural areas. Ram soon finds his attraction to Daisy more powerful than this desire to remain "rational."Narayan is a master of domestic scenes, presenting the major and minor conflicts of family life through the different points of view of the participants. Respect for his characters and a good-humored (and often humorous) presentation of their issues give warmth to his scenes and allow the reader to feel real empathy with the characters. Raman's belief in his own rational enlightenment and his simultaneous vulnerability to Daisy's manipulations provide the author with unlimited opportunities for dramatic irony. Scenes between Ram and his devout, elderly aunt provide a glimpse of the conflicts between old and new India, in addition to the generational conflicts every family faces between its young and its old. Scenes between Ram and Daisy reflect the changes in the role of women in society, as women become more assertive and liberated. Though he is presented as a unique, individualized character, Ram, the painter of signs, is, in a sense, Everyman, facing his coming-of-age as all men before him have done in cultures around the world. Only the details (and the sights, and sounds, and smells) are different. Mary Whipple

the painter of signs

THE PAINTER OF SIGNS IS A VERY GOOD BOOK.IT IS ABOUT A PAINTER IN THE IMAGINARY TOWN OF MALGUDI.HIS NAME IS RAMAN.HE LIVES AT HOME WITH HIS AUNT WHO TAKES CARE OF HIM.SHE TOOK CARE OF HIM FROM THE TIME HIS PARENTS DIED.SHE IS A VERY RELIGIOUS PERSON AND GEOS TO THE TEMPLE EVERYDAY.RAMAN PAINTS SIGNS FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF PEOPLE.FOR EXAMPLE:THE BANGLE SELLER.ONE DAY HE IS ASKED TO PAINT A SIGN BY THIS LADY.RAMAN GETS ATTRACTED TO THIS LADY,DAISY,AND STARTS VISITING HER.MEANWHILE,DAISY IS PLANNING A BIRTH CONTROL CAMPAIGN.SHE IS GOING TO VISIT SOME OF THE REMOTE VILLAGES TO EXPLAIN THIS.SINCE,RAMAN HELPS HER SHE DECIDES TO TAKE RAMAN WITH HER.WHY DON'T YOU READ THIS VERY GOOD BOOK TO FIND OUT THE RESULTS OF THE CAMPAIGN AND WHAT HAPPENS TO RAMAN AFTER THIS.

Intro to Feminism?

One of Narayan's most imaginative works; it speaks of human agency and feminism. Its aimless male protagonist becomes infatuated with a visionary career woman; she alone infuses meaning into his tepid life. The novel is short and easy to read by design (perhaps)- it leaves its reader unsatisfied and begging for more. My favorite Narayan novel so far.