 Narayan 's success in the United States came a little later , when Michigan State University Press started publishing his books . His first visit to the country was on a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation , and he lectured at various universities including Michigan State University and the University of California , Berkeley . Around this time , John Updike noticed his work and compared Narayan to Charles Dickens . In a review of Narayan 's works published in The New Yorker , Updike called him a writer of a vanishing breed — the writer as a citizen ; one who identifies completely with his subjects and with a belief in the significance of humanity . 
