Upadhyay’s “The Good Shopkeeper” was chosen for the Best American Short Stories, 1999 , and subsequently was published in the 2001 collection resting God in Kathmandu , which won the Whiting Award for best emerging writers. Some critics, however, have pointed out some flaws. For instance, Kavitha Rao, writing for Far Eastern Economic Review found…
Tag: Samrat Upadhyay
The Good Shopkeeper – Setting
Nepal Overview About the size of Arkansas, Nepal is north of India and just south of China. It is a landlocked country with a dramatic landscape of the Himalayan Mountains to the north, bringing frigid weather in the winter, to the flat river plains of the Ganges in the south with subtropical weather. Mount Everest…
The Good Shopkeeper – Literary Devices
Limited Third-Person Point of View Upadhyay uses limited third-person point of view. The narrator tells the story with apparent objectivity, observing the protagonist and his actions. The narrator is privy to only the protagonist’s thoughts. Cues are given regarding what the other characters think, but mostly these characters are depicted according to how Pramod thinks….
The Good Shopkeeper – Themes
Humility As Upadhyay’s short story “The Good Shopkeeper” opens, the protagonist Pramod is just beginning his downslide from arrogance into humility. He has assumed he was sitting on top of the world with his great job as an accountant for a large corporation. He was making a good salary and proving to his wife’s family…
The Good Shopkeeper – Characters
Housemaid The housemaid is not given a proper name. She is the woman whom Pramod meets in the park and with whom he has an affair. The housemaid tells Pramod that he thinks too much and offers him a temporary escape from his troubles. She also helps him to look at life differently. She expresses…
The Good Shopkeeper – Summary
The story opens with Pramod announcing that he has lost his job. His wife, Radhika, cries when he tells her. Then Pramod scolds her; he does not like to tell her things because she does not think “with a cool mind.” But Radhika is not passive. She responds that she has a right to be…