Summary

The talkative man is a short story (of around 130 pages) based upon a man’s life in his struggle to make his reputation as a renowned journalist in the well known town of malgudi. It is a well known fact that R.K. Narayan is famous for his fictional town of malgudi through which he projects the mindsets of typical Indian people. The aspiring journalist of our story is christened the ‘Talkative Man’ or TM for short. He is from a well known family of zamindars living in Kabir Street. He is an individual, a rebel who lives independently on his own.

The story revolves around a handsome and posh character named Ryan, who arrives from timbuctoo with a flirtatious attitude which he hides behind a facade of research on weed removal and futurology which would revolutionize the world. He is introduced in his ubiquitous attire of a blue coat with a felt hat. He arrives at malgudi and sets about hijacking the waiting room of the station as his own living room. The station master, with a spotless track record of 30 years, is in a fix and approaches his savior TM for an intelligent and immediate rescue. Ryan requests an audience with TM as he is the only well known journalist in town. TM is irked by his contemplative behavior and confidence.

The author has written this book keeping in mind the attraction of men to women with money. Our beloved TM is faced with a challenge to expose our esteemed visitor and his philandering escapades. To make matters better or worse, a husky woman of a rich and cultural background is introduced as the wife of our fashionable young man and seeks out TM to get back with her beloved husband.

The comic side of the story is the part when our hero searches the belongings of Ryan in a mission impossible version only to find the desperate pleas of hundreds of young and old women pleading with him to come back in their lives as their enchanting young Casanova. He then plans a careful trap for our young philanderer in a gentleman’s disguise. The...