Magnetically readable, Notes of a Mediocre Man offers alternating views of America and India through the eyes of ordinary people—children, workers, survivors, underdogs—whose inner and outer worlds are realized in a brilliantly poignant, fable-like style reminiscent of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s. Aurora speaks for common or “mediocre” humanity, buffeted by the brutalities and dreams of an unsettled global era; his immigrants recall Bharati Mukherjee’s characters struggling with disillusion, while his Indians are as knowingly and lovingly depicted as R.K. Narayan’s broad range of human types. Yet his style is unique: the signature voice of a storyteller who unerringly fits all local themes and affiliations within the compass of philosophical questions—of good and evil, innocence and experience. A beautiful book that reads fast but lingers long in memory.