A detailed review of Mr. Niyogi’s Last Audit

On Reedsy Discovery, a veteran writer posted a review of the book, click here to read the review.

An evocation of upper class Indian life starring a dying but feisty accountant, begged by a mysterious voice to rescue 200 marooned miners.

Here is the full text of the review:

” Although Mr. Niyogi’s Last Audit is set in Bengaluru, a large city in southern India, there is nothing particularly “Indian” about the story other than the names: Kiran Singh, Mr. Niyogi’s associate; Archana, his daughter; Ramani, his wife; Mr. Saran, the chairman of Saran Airlines, his former employer, and more. With small tweaks it could have been set in New York, London, or Tokyo.

Mr. Niyogi, now retired and plagued by Parkinson’s disease, had grown elderly as Saran Airlines had grown into an international travel conglomerate where Mr. Niyogi was the lead  accountant. Archana learns that a friend’s son has been stranded with 200 other miners on a tiny island in the Maldives when their employer went bankrupt. Can Mr. Niyogi do something?

It seems unlikely. Author S.N. Rao describes the effects of Parkinson’s, which cannot be cured. Palliative measures can give some brief relief, and the author describes these—twice. It’s an ugly, mortifying way to die.

Mr. Niyogi. troubled by a mysterious voice begging him for help escaping the island, comes up with a plan. I was troubled by this supernatural voice and think the author missed an opportunity to make more of it and its effect on Mr. Niyogi.

I was also troubled by Mr. Niyogi’s decision to hide his plan from his loving wife. It requires his daughter’s collusion, and he tells her, her mother “is already under a lot of stress worrying about my health. I don’t want to put her under more stress. As much as I want to do this, I don’t know if I will have the courage if your Mom is completely against it.” This may be an Indian thing, but I don’t think so.

Finally, a small thing. I bumped on the written formality when people talk. ““I did not [rather than ‘didn’t’] want to trouble you any more than I already have, and that is [that’s] why I kept it hidden from you too all this time. But now I need your help, and there is [there’s] no one else I can ask.” Perhaps this is the way an elderly Indian man would talk to his daughter, but it runs through the book and sounds stiff and unnatural.

Nevertheless Mr. Niyogi’s Last Audit is an interesting evocation of a certain upper class Indian life. “

Review by: Wally Wood on Reedsy Discovery