Salt & Sawdust: Stories & Table Talk

Author: R. K. Narayan

Pages: 221

Publisher: Penguin Books India

Acc. No. : 7413

An amazing collection of short stories and essays. This book is truly a delightful and delicious feast for all the readers, by R. K. Narayan. This book is also filled with humour which made me more addicted towards it. The cover illustration, matching to the story ‘Salt and Sawdust’, is made by the author’s own brother- R. K. Laxman.

This book is divided into three sections mainly. The first two are short stories – ‘Salt & Sawdust’ and ‘Guru’. The other part is called ‘Table Talk’ which is a new form of writing by R. K. Narayan. This is a collection of his own lived experiences. My favourite story among these is of course the title story itself which narrates about a childless couple Veena and Swami. The wife who cannot tell the difference between salt and sawdust, leaves the husband to cook. Veena writes a novel which was strange lovestory of a dentist and a poor jawed,toothless girl. The girl had dental problems and was not at all beautiful, but because of the dentist, she becomes really beautiful and they fall in love. The novel came out really well which impressed the publishers also. But due to some financial problems, they had to turn it into a cookery book! Swami told her about the finest dishes and their recipes, while Veena gave them life with her words. The book was aptly named ‘Appetizer’.The results were awesome. The couple became really famous. They received invitations from various organisations to lecture and demonstrate. Their life was completely changed.

This book is really good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It helped me to get one of my favourite authors. The rest is left to you. You can have a wonderful time reading this book, just the way I did. I hope you’ll take my advice.