This is probably funniest and perfect little novels I have read in a long time. I made my wife listen to me read long sections of it to her because I was cackling throughout. The book came out in 1935 and it’s about 10 year old boy named Swaminathan and his cohort of friends. They are not particularly mischievous in terms of what they get into, but they hate school and love cricket and have no sense whatsoever, and this creates issues.
The novel begins with Swami dreading each passing second of his school day and his boredom sets off his teacher who goes off the rails about Christianity and Hinduism. This leads to Swami begging his father to send a threatening letter to school.
Later Swami and his friends decide to form a cricket team, which school gets in the way of constantly.
All of this happens against the backdrop of the rising troubles in India in the late 20s/early 30s with the rise of Gandhi’s movement, but all Swami and Friends care about is their team. There’s a clear sense of dramatic irony that we find, understanding how much more dangerous the world around them is than they have any clue of.
The tone of this book is amazingly funny. Swami sees every thing as life or death: if his friend gets him in trouble the teacher “will kill him!”. The relationship he has with his grandmother is also sweet and amazing. In one chapter he becomes completely flustered that she doesn’t know who Tate is, the greatest cricket player in the world! He’s the Tate of his team, by the way.
I loved this book.
(Photo: https://www.amazon.com/Swami-Friends-Phoenix-Fiction-Narayan/dp/0226568318/ref=sr_1_3?crid=PZF6U1TY5X6H&keywords=swami+and+friends&qid=1552328397&s=gateway&sprefix=swami+and+%2Caps%2C504&sr=8-3)