The Good Shopkeeper

By: Samrat Upadhyay

“The Good Shopkeeper” by Samrat Upadhyay, was published in the “Best American
Short Stories” on 1999. The story is considered as one of the stories with best reviews all over
the world of literature. The author, Samrat Upadhyay, is a Nepalese writer who writes in English.
He is also a professor of creative writing and has previously served as the Director of the
Creative Writing Program at Indiana University. He is famous for his works portraying the
current situation of Nepal. According to a news article, Upadhyah was coined as “like a Buddhist
Chekhov”. He is famous for his works such as the “Arresting God in Kathmandu” in 2001, “The
Guru of Love” in 2003 and many more literatures and short stories. Because of his famous
works, he won a Whiting Award for one of his work and one of his stories was called as one of
the Notable Book of the Year in 2003 of the New York Times. His story, “The Good
Shopkeeper” is a fiction story designed for people who are most capable to understand the way
of life in the real and absurd world.

The story talks about a man named Pramod -- a typical husband and father. Pramod lost his job
and was humiliated because of it. After that said event, he was depressed because he wants to
impress his brother-in-law but seeing as he lost his job he was failed to do so. As time goes by,
Pramod turned anxious and mad because he can’t find a job to sustain his family, impress his
brother-in-law and to beat up everyone who humiliated him. He sat on a bench on a park and
then that specific moment changed his life for a lifetime.

A lot of lessons can be absorbed in the story. For some reasons the story wants the readers to
understand that people shouldn’t be attached and be consumed by material and things with
artificial significance in life. People must learn that no matter how absurd life is they must not be
consumed by anger but must learn how to be simple and just.

Upadhyay was famous for his works that opens up the minds of his readers and that’s what he
did on this story. He often times nurture the minds of his readers of the truth, the absurdity of life
and how one can solve his or her own problem. His use of words is not hard to understand for he
writes for all. The scenes are very easy to imagine because it seems like he portrays the scene on
the real world where it can really happen.

The story is very interesting to read because of the plot and structure and deserves a three out of
three rating.