The Painter of Signs (1976) is a novel by celebrated Indian author R. K. Narayan. It describes a tumultuous romance between a sign painter and a political activist.
The novel tells the story of a man named Raman, a perfectionist sign painter. He lives and works in the fictional city of Malgudi. He takes a great deal of pride in his work despite his frequently unreasonable and ungrateful customers. He resides with his aunt, who is renowned for her knowledge of myths and legends. One day, Raman is employed to make a sign for a woman named Daisy, who is working on a family-planning campaign. He is so taken with her intelligence, strong will, and physical beauty that he decides to accompany her on a three-week journey across India, making signs for her trips to different villages. They become close, as Raman learns more and more about Daisy. Eventually, after they return to Malgudi, they acknowledge their feelings for one another and decide to get married. However, things quickly begin to deteriorate between them, as Daisy does not want her work to be restrained by Raman's needs and demands. She finally tells him that she cannot be with him after he asks her to move into his house. Crushed by this news, Raman tells her that his home will always be open to her, when she returns to Malgudi.
Published in 1976, the novel is recognized as a minor gem in Narayan's body of work. In a contemporary review for the New York Times, critic Anthony Thwaite writes, "Without dense insistence, without trading on the exotic or doggedly making anthropological points Narayan observes a deeply traditional society gradually becoming aware of change, of the flux of modern Western notions. It is a world as richly human and volatile as that of Dickens, but never caricatured; and—unlike E. M. Forster's India—it is seen from the inside, though by a writer whose ironical detachment has no coldness. Funny and poignant, deftly written, 'The Painter of Signs' is pure delight."
