narayan's writing technique was unpretentious with a natural element of humour about it. it focused on ordinary people, reminding the reader of next-door neighbours, cousins and the like, thereby providing a greater ability to relate to the topic. unlike his national contemporaries, he was able to write about the intricacies of indian society without having to modify his characteristic simplicity to conform to trends and fashions in fiction writing. he also employed the use of nuanced dialogic prose with gentle tamil overtones based on the nature of his characters. critics have considered narayan to be the "indian chekhov", due to the similarities in their writings, the simplicity and the gentle beauty and humour in tragic situations. greene considered narayan to be more similar to chekhov than any indian writer. anthony west of "the new yorker" considered narayan's writings to be of the realism variety of nikolai gogol.