narayan first broke through with the help of graham greene who, upon reading "swaminathan and tate", took it upon himself to work as narayan's agent for the book. he was also instrumental in changing the title to the more appropriate "swami and friends", and in finding publishers for narayan's next few books. while narayan's early works were not commercial successes, other authors of the time began to notice him. somerset maugham, on a trip to mysore in 1938, had asked to meet narayan, but not enough people had heard of him to actually effect the meeting. maugham subsequently read narayan's "the dark room", and wrote to him expressing his admiration. another contemporary writer who took a liking to narayan's early works was e. m. forster, an author who shared his dry and humorous narrative, so much so that narayan was labeled the "south indian e. m. forster" by critics. despite his popularity with the reading public and fellow writers, narayan's work has not received the same amount of critical exploration accorded to other writers of his stature.