Preview of The Mystic Masseur Summary:

Characters in The Mystic Masseur are either Ganesh's helpers or else adversaries over whom he can triumph.

Beharry, a shopkeeper in Fuente Grove, is a helper, one of the few people in town who can read and a person who believes Ganesh is of a higher caste and therefore worthy of cultivation.

Leela, Ganesh's wife, is his helper (unless she is irritated with his laziness), as is the Great Belcher, an aunt who gives Ganesh old Hindu books which he uses in his cures.

Ramlogan, Leela's father and a wily shopkeeper, who never fails to pursue his self-interest under the hypocritical guises of friend and father-in-law, is one of Ganesh's chief adversaries. Although Ramlogan makes arrangements for the funeral of Ganesh's father, it is with the goal of capturing Ganesh, a person of higher caste, as a son-in-law.

Under the guise of friend, Ramlogan, who pretends to be...