in the west, narayan's simplicity of writing was well received. one of his biographers, william walsh, wrote of his narrative as a comedic art with an inclusive vision informed by the transience and illusion of human action. multiple booker nominee anita desai classes his writings as "compassionate realism" where the cardinal sins are unkindness and immodesty. according to wyatt mason, in narayan's works, the individual is not a private entity, but rather a public one and this concept is an innovation that can be called his own. in addition to his early works being among the most important english-language fiction from india, with this innovation, he provided his western readers the first works in english to be infused with an eastern and hindu existential perspective. mason also holds the view that edmund wilson's assessment of walt whitman, "he does not write editorials on events but describes his actual feelings", applies equally to narayan.