An Astrologer’s Day by R.K Narayan
Dusk by H.H Munro (Saki)
The Umbrella Man by Roald Dahl
In many ways, An Astrologer’s Day, is a thriller and is filled with an uncanny suspense which is revealed only at the end. And yet, like all his other stories, here R.K Narayan deals with the life of an ordinary Indian man whose life, when touched by Fate, had altered dramatically. The suspense which is cleverly maintained till the haunting end ensures that the reader will keep turning the pages, and when the end does arrive there is not just a sense of relief alone but also a sense of simple astonishment that is breathtaking.
Indeed, this is a fine suspense story.
The story of Dusk begins on a very pessimistic note as the author, H.H Munro describes all the defeated people of the world who come out of their homes in the dusk time so that they do not have to meet successful people.
However, the rest of the story has little to do with this pessimism and we are drawn into the brilliant plan of a confidence trickster who was out to make money on some gullible victim. The end of the story is bound to make the reader laugh and wonder at the wit and creativity of a master storyteller.
The Umbrella Man by Roald Dahl, is about a confidence trickster, but unlike the other stories this is told from a child’s perspective which adds to the humor and charm of this narration.
A mother and her little daughter are tricked into buying an expensive umbrella for a throwaway price; but they soon realize that not only the seller is a genuine seller but has a strange reason for selling the umbrella, and that they have been “shortchanged” in spite of buying the umbrella dirt cheap.
There is an element of suspense in all three stories which keeps the readers on pins and needles till the very end. R.K Narayan kicks off the story by subtly narrating the life of the lower class Indian i.e the astrologer and the surroundings in which he works. The narrator does not re…
An Astrologer's Day vs Dusk vs The Umbrella Man. (2019, Dec 05). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-an-astrologers-day-dusk-and-the-umbrella-man/