The English Teacher

Laura chose The English Teacher by R.K Narayan.  Book club night was held at Laura’s house in Papakura.  Present: Laura, Rebekah, Nicole, John, Marnie, Georgia, Chez, Greg, Andy, Trina, Daniel and Jonathan.  Laura had prepared some bruschetta; together with other snacks.  The buttery Montana Chardonnay was enjoyed by many.

Notably, several members had failed to read the book.  This made discussion stilted at times.  Because of this, small splinter groups formed and discussed other things, which was disappointing. (Even with the greatest stretch of the imagination, Narayan’s themes did not extend to useless Japanese inventions.)  A major point of discussion was spirituality in the novel.  Some members considered this reduced enjoyment levels – others were comfortable to experience the spiritual journey with the protagonist, Krishna.  On one end of the spectrum were Marnie and Jonathan who clearly felt uncomfortable with the flagrant spirituality in the novel.  On the other end were Laura and John who were quite taken by the spiritual journey.  Fence sitters included Nicole and Chez who could understand how people used spirituality as a tool to manage hard times but failed to personally connect with Krishna’s experience.  The other members seemed to be perhaps, not well acquainted enough with the story to comment.

The favourite character was varied; there was an equal division between Krishna, Leela and Susila.  More unanimous was the expression of distaste at the actions of the headmaster of Leela’s school – aside from Georgia who was pleasantly bemused by his bold decision to leave his family.

Daniel, our resident Narayan expert (he had just completed Cambridge exams on The English Teacher) shared some critical perspectives on the novel.  It is widely held that The English Teacher is seen to be a book of two halves – something that our readers related to.  For this reason, it is not considered to be Narayan’s piece de resistance.  Our readers seemed to feel differently upon learning that the book was largely autobiographical – although they were happy to read about spirituality in a work of fiction, it was more difficult to digest when put into an autobiographical context.

All in all, it was an interesting night.  It showed us how important it is for everyone to have read the book for us to have an in-depth and engaging discussion.  Furthermore, it highlighted the importance of our absent members - Kirsten, Paul and Anne who always add depth to our discussions.