This collection of eighteen essays is the first major work to evaluate the contributions of India's foremost literary figure writing in English, R. K. Narayan. His fourteen novels and nine volumes of short stories are centered almost exclusively in the fictional south-Indian town, Malgudi.

Narayan, who began to acquire an international reputation in the second half of this century, reveals the India of his experience by focusing on the details of the lives of the characters who live in this complex community.

Representative of the general field of Narayan criticism, Contemporary Critical Essays provides a balanced assessment, but also contains new interpretations of Narayan's work that are drawn from the latest developments in literary theory, feminist and cultural studies, as well as investigations into the implications of colonization and decolonization. As a result, these essays offer fresh insights, explore new directions, and reveal the nuances of an established literary criticism.