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Interpreter of Maladies

4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 · rating details · 70,155 ratings · 4,971 reviews

Mr. Kapasi, the protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri's title story, would certainly have his work cut out for him if he were forced to interpret the maladies of all the characters in this eloquent debut collection. Take, for example, Shoba and Shukumar, the young couple in "A Temporary Matter" whose marriage is crumbling in the wake of a stillborn child. Or Miranda in "Sexy," who...more Mr. Kapasi, the protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri's title story, would certainly have his work cut out for him if he were forced to interpret the maladies of all the characters in this eloquent debut collection. Take, for example, Shoba and Shukumar, the young couple in "A Temporary Matter" whose marriage is crumbling in the wake of a stillborn child. Or Miranda in "Sexy," who is involved in a hopeless affair with a married man. But Mr. Kapasi has problems enough of his own; in addition to his regular job working as an interpreter for a doctor who does not speak his patients' language, he also drives tourists to local sites of interest. His fare on this particular day is Mr. and Mrs. Das--first-generation Americans of Indian descent--and their children. During the course of the afternoon, Mr. Kapasi becomes enamored of Mrs. Das and then becomes her unwilling confidant when she reads too much into his profession. "I told you because of your talents," she informs him after divulging a startling secret.

I'm tired of feeling so terrible all the time. Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I've been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better; say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy.

Of course, Mr. Kapasi has no cure for what ails Mrs. Das--or himself. Lahiri's subtle, bittersweet ending is characteristic of the collection as a whole. Some of these nine tales are set in India, others in the United States, and most concern characters of Indian heritage. Yet the situations Lahiri's people face, from unhappy marriages to civil war, transcend ethnicity. As the narrator of the last story, "The Third and Final Continent," comments: "There are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept." In that single line Jhumpa Lahiri sums up a universal experience, one that applies to all who have grown up, left home, fallen in or out of love, and, above all, experienced what it means to be a foreigner, even within one's own family.(less)

Paperback, 198 pages

Published May 22nd 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published January 1st 1999)

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Sep 01, 2010 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 5-star-reads, pulitzer, short-stories

Amazing, extraordinary - there aren't enough superlatives for this one!

The first story, A Temporary Matter tells of a young married couple who must endure a one hour power outage for five consecutive nights. They determine that in the darkness they will tell each other something they've never before told one another. In just a few pages Lahiri exposes the secret feelings of these individuals. And then she ends the story in a completely unexpected way. Rarely will I gasp while reading, though she...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Nataliya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer, 2012-reads

Writing short stories is not easy. A novel is an easier literary form in a way - it allows you the space for character and plot development and gives you the space to slowly fall in love with it.

Short story, on the other hand, is like literary speed dating; it only has so much time to set itself apart and make a somewhat decent expression. It's much easier for me to think of good novelists than good short story writers. Let's try - Hemingway, Poe, Bradbury, Chekhov, maybe a few more. Well, I gu...more Writing short stories is not easy. A novel is an easier literary form in a way - it allows you the space for character and plot development and gives you the space to slowly fall in love with it.

Short story, on the other hand, is like literary speed dating; it only has so much time to set itself apart and make a somewhat decent expression. It's much easier for me to think of good novelists than good short story writers. Let's try - Hemingway, Poe, Bradbury, Chekhov, maybe a few more. Well, I guess Jhumpa Lahiri can join the exclusive club. Her novel The Namesake left me wanting more, but her short stories are very well-done. Apparently the Pulitzer people thought the same thing.

If I were to describe the stories in Interpreter of Maladies in a single word, it'd be "melancholy". They are permeated by quiet, subdued, rich, and almost beautiful sadness; sorrow that paradoxically sometimes seems almost uplifting, even cathartic. The stories are slow to unfold, contemplative, intensely lyrical, nostalgic, and quietly moving.

"Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."

Lahiri writes about India and Indian heritage, be it Indian immigrants to American university towns or people in India. The country itself, its culture, its beliefs, its traditions, and the pain of missing it are ever-present in her fiction. The Namesake dealt with exactly the same premise, and the similarities between that novel and these stories are profound. The similar theme, repeating over and over in the stories, makes you anticipate the storylines, but somehow it does not detract from enjoyment of the prose and the stories. It's not about the plot; Lahiri's storytelling hinges on the inner world of her characters, their hopes, dreams, and memories.

"Whenever he is discouraged, I tell him that if I can survive on three continents, then there is no obstacle he cannot conquer. While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."

Overall, I enjoyed this story collection quite a bit. I chose to ration it over a few days rather than swallow them all at once, and it was a good experience. I definitely recommend this book and easily give it 4 stars. Now I'd be curious to see if and how Lahiri can expand her themes and touch on the subjects other than immigrant experience. (less)

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Apr 16, 2012 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Barbara by: Diane, Teresa, Maria, Cynthia

Shelves: short-stories, asia

My library presented me with a tattered, yellowing copy of this book. Its shoddy state soon became irrelevant as I quickly became immersed in this collection of stories. Jhumpa Lahiri's style is elegant, evocative and sweet. Her narratives create an aura of reality and presence for the reader.

In a blurb on the back cover, another of my highly regarded authors,Amy Tan, has stated. "Jhumpa Lahiri is the kind of writer who makes you want to grab the next person you see and say, 'Read this'-" It see...more My library presented me with a tattered, yellowing copy of this book. Its shoddy state soon became irrelevant as I quickly became immersed in this collection of stories. Jhumpa Lahiri's style is elegant, evocative and sweet. Her narratives create an aura of reality and presence for the reader.

In a blurb on the back cover, another of my highly regarded authors,Amy Tan, has stated. "Jhumpa Lahiri is the kind of writer who makes you want to grab the next person you see and say, 'Read this'-" It seems fitting to quote her here, because both skillfully recount the immigrant and foreign experiences , here or in their native countries.

Lahiri has presented her characters so astutely and with such clarity, that it seems possible to envision individuals as they encounter each event. I felt an attachment and an allure to the people and wished to learn and behold more.

It is difficult to select a favorite in this collection. In the title story, Interpreter of Maladies , Mr. Das was a compelling figure. He had gained this title in his town in India, where he was employed by a physician translating Gujarati to the doctor in attendance. Without his expertise, these patients would be unable to find appropriate assistance or care for their problems. At other times, Mr. Das was a tour guide. During one trip with an American family, he became unrealistically enamored with the wife. It was interesting to observe how this situation was resolved.

The realism and infeasibility of another of life's situations was revealed in Sexy . Miranda, the main character who is an American, has become involved in an affair with a married Indian man. Her emotional state is sensitively chronicled throughout.

As in her later book, Unaccustomed Earth , Lahiri has involved our gustatory senses with her many vivd descriptions of food, either simply as unusual snacks, bowls of cereal, or lavish spreads for families and/or guests. There does not appear to be an area where she was unable to capture and sustain interest in her eloquent voice.

I must issue my gratitude to my Goodreads Friends who urged me to read this fine book by this distinguished author!

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May 13, 2008 Kavitha rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: awardwinning

Once again, a very depressing storyline from yet another author of Indian origin. Remember! I am not being parochial here, I am Indian myself. Being very familiar with Indian cinematography and screenplays, I know that Indians are prone to over emphasizing on family sentiments and emotions. But what I fail to understand is how authors based out of other countries too have the same idea of applying sentiments in a very negative sense to their stories. It also beats me how this won the Pulitzer, j...more

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Dec 06, 2007 Dianna rated it 4 of 5 stars

In "Interpreter of Maladies", Mrs. Sen’s is a tragic story of the immigrant struggle and an ultimate failure to adjust. Many who read this story view Mrs. Sen’s inability to assimilate solely as a result of her own short-comings, placing full blame on her. However, this incomplete reading fails to consider the external and internal social forces that buffet the immigrant body which must also be held responsible for Mrs. Sen’s end state. These forces, both external- people in society of different...more In "Interpreter of Maladies", Mrs. Sen’s is a tragic story of the immigrant struggle and an ultimate failure to adjust. Many who read this story view Mrs. Sen’s inability to assimilate solely as a result of her own short-comings, placing full blame on her. However, this incomplete reading fails to consider the external and internal social forces that buffet the immigrant body which must also be held responsible for Mrs. Sen’s end state. These forces, both external- people in society of different culture, and internal- members within the home, play a critical role in Mrs. Sen’s attempt to assimilate.
Mr. Sen, the major internal force, furthers Mrs. Sen’s struggle to assimilate through his lack of action. As a university professor, Mr. Sen has a sense of belonging in the new country because he is contributing and interacting with the community. Consequently, he is more easily able to assimilate. In contrast, Mrs. Sen is up-rooted from India and transplanted to the United States as a housewife, mostly isolated. As Mrs. Sen becomes more adamant about getting the fresh fish, a symbol of her attempt to preserve her culture, Mr. Sen becomes more immersed in the university life, unable to find time to get fish or have dinner. Therefore Mr. Sen assimilates, while Mrs. Sen is left on the outside. As signs of Mrs. Sen’s emotional instability become more apparent, Mr. Sen still takes no action to help. In both cases of distress, as with the death of Mrs. Sen’s grandfather and the car accident in the end, we find Mrs. Sen’s alone in the bedroom, while Mr. Sen remains in the living room, removed from the situation (Lahiri 134). This physical divide in location is a metaphor for the divide in their understanding for each other. Mr. Sen’s insensitivity towards Mrs. Sen’s difficulties is partly to blame for the resulting failure.
Aside from internal forces, there are external forces across cultural lines which also affect the immigrant. Eliot’s mother is a major external force which affects Mrs. Sen, fueling her ultimate failure to assimilate. Eliot’s mother makes no attempt to understand and respect Mrs. Sen’s culture. Here, a cultural hierarchy is established, where Eliot’s mother believes that her “American” culture is more “correct” than the marginal cultures. Consequently, even in her own home, Mrs. Sen is violated by Eliot’s mother’s disrespect. Eliot’s mother refuses to remove her shoes at Mrs. Sen’s door and is disgusted by the food which Mrs. Sen’s kindly serves her (Lahiri118).
Mrs. Sen finds herself helpless against this imposed cultural hierarchy and tries to hide certain aspects of her culture in front of Eliot’s mother. Consequently, even in her own home, Mrs. Sen is unable to fully display her culture as she desires and therefore works harder to fight against assimilation of American culture. For example, Mrs. Sen tries to hide evidence of her cooking, one of the most integral parts of her culture, before Eliot’s mom arrives. Eliot describes it is as though they were cleaning up after a crime.
While in India, women cooked and cleaned together almost as a social gathering, here in the United States, Mrs. Sen’s feels as though her cooking is a display of her outsider status. With cultural hierarchy, Eliot’s mother establishes an opposition between American and Indian that does not allow for a middle ground of Indian American. Though in reality it is possible to find a delicate balance that is Indian American, Eliot’s mothers actions cause Mrs. Sen to believe that assimilation requires a relinquishment of her native culture. As a result, this idea augments Mrs. Sen’s aversion to assimilation and leads to her ultimate failure.

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Jun 04, 2008 Krys rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Krys by: everyone

By and large I found this collection overrated. Which is not to say that I didn't find some of the stories fantastic, the title story for example, as well as the 2nd story in the book. And nothing was really bad here, but seldom did any of these stories strike me as anything as phenomenal as Ms. Lahiri's novel The Namesake.

The collection can be sorted into two main types of stories, those in the East, and those in the West. In both cases, what separates most of these stories from the tale of The...more

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May 09, 2013 Madeline rated it 4 of 5 stars

Like her novel The Namesake, Lahiri's collection of short stories deals mainly with the experience of Indian immigrants in America. They often deal with a more specific experience: a young married couple moves to America shortly after being married so the husband can work at a university, and they have to navigate the new worlds of their marriage and the United States simultaneously. Being an Indian immigrant, or being the child of Indian immigrants, in America is clearly a subject close to Lahi...more Like her novel The Namesake, Lahiri's collection of short stories deals mainly with the experience of Indian immigrants in America. They often deal with a more specific experience: a young married couple moves to America shortly after being married so the husband can work at a university, and they have to navigate the new worlds of their marriage and the United States simultaneously. Being an Indian immigrant, or being the child of Indian immigrants, in America is clearly a subject close to Lahiri's heart, and in the hands of a less skilled author, her stories about this experience would become repetitive. But Jhumpa Lahiri is a very, very skilled author, and each story in this collection looked at the same subject from a different perspective. This is multiple observations on a similar idea, and every one is beautiful and leaves you feeling like you've just had a really good sob: emptied-out, sad, but somehow fulfilled at the same time.

The writing is straightforward, and beautiful in its simplicity. In The Namesake, I was frequently irritated by her attempts at casual banter between characters. Luckily, there's none of that here - Lahiri rarely has her characters speak, preferring introspection instead. The few conversations that do occur don't attempt any witty banter, preferring to go right ahead and drown you in subtle tragedy, like this exchange from "Mrs. Sen's" (it's told from the perspective of Eliot, an eleven-year-old who spends every afternoon at the house of his Indian babysitter, and it was my favorite in the collection:

"Mrs. Sen took the aerogram from India out of her purse and studied the front and back. She unfolded it and read it to herself, sighing every now and then. When she had finished she gazed for some time at the swimmers.
'My sister has had a baby girl. By the time I see her, depending if Mr. Sen gets his tenure, she will be three years old. Her own aunt will be a stranger. If we sit side by side on a train she will not know my face.' She put away the letter, then placed a hand on Eliot's head. 'Do you miss your mother, Eliot, these afternoons with me?'
The thought had never occurred to him.
'You must miss her. When I think of you, only a boy, separated from your mother for so much of the day, I am ashamed.'
'I see her at night.'
'When I was your age I was without knowing that one day I would be so far. You are wiser than that, Eliot. You already taste the way things must be.'"

Also, I love reading Lahiri when she writes about cooking. In fact, I want her to get her own cooking show, just so I can have more stuff like this:

"When friends dropped by, Shoba would throw together meals that appeared to have taken half a day to prepare, from things she had frozen and bottled, not cheap things in tins but peppers she had marinated herself with rosemary, and chutneys that she cooked on Sundays, stirring boiling pots of tomatoes and prunes. ...Shukumar had been going through their supplies steadily, preparing meals for the two of them, measuring out cupfuls of rice, defrosting bags of meat day after day. He combed through her cookbooks every afternoon, following her penciled instructions to use two teaspoons of ground coriander seeds instead of one, or red lentils instead of yellow. Each of the recipes was dated, telling the first time they had eaten the dish together. April 2, cauliflower with fennel. January 14, chicken with almonds and sultanas. He had no memory of eating those meals, and yet there they were, recorded in her neat proofreader's hand."(less)

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Apr 11, 2012 TD rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, reading-group, short-stories

--SPOILERS--

In her later novel "The Namesake", Lahiri says of two of her Indian, immigrant characters;

"In some senses Ashoke and Ashima live the lives of the extremely aged, those for whom everyone they once knew and loved is lost, those who survive and are consoled by memories alone."

In the final story "The Third and Final Continent" in her collection "Interpreter of Maladies", we encounter the 103 year-old Mrs. Croft, who the story's narrator - another Indian immigrant to America - rents a roo...more

--SPOILERS--

In her later novel "The Namesake", Lahiri says of two of her Indian, immigrant characters;

"In some senses Ashoke and Ashima live the lives of the extremely aged, those for whom everyone they once knew and loved is lost, those who survive and are consoled by memories alone."

In the final story "The Third and Final Continent" in her collection "Interpreter of Maladies", we encounter the 103 year-old Mrs. Croft, who the story's narrator - another Indian immigrant to America - rents a room from upon first arriving. Aged landlady and boarder are similar in that both are relics - she of another time, he of another place - and so they get on well; she thinks him a gentleman and believes America's recent lunar landing "splendid". Our narrator is too busy confronting the alienness of his new life to become wrapped up in this extra-terrestrial feat, although he does indulge his landlady in this regard, his graciousness tied up with foreignness. But in this story, unlike Ashoke and Ashima's situation in "The Namesake", the comparison between old age and the immigrant's experience is a positive one. Mrs. Croft's stoicism and individualism are admired by the narrator, and

"While astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."

Fortunately for us, it is not beyond Lahiri's, although elsewhere in this collection comparisons are not so kind. Lahiri draws parallels between the alienation felt by her Indian immigrants and that found in US society generally. In the story "Mrs. Sen's", the character of the title is a woman who will fail, we infer, to adapt to the way of life of her adopted home. She says to the boy she baby sits every afternoon "You are wiser than that, Eliot. You already taste the way things must be." She has just received a letter from India telling her she has become an aunt, and is upset that she will not form a part of her niece's life. Eliot on the other hand isn't fazed by the solitariness of his upbringing and his having to bear a large part of its burden. So too in "Sexy", Miranda's lust for Dev stems from aloneness rather than love, and an unconscious yearning for the communal life Lahiri explores directly in two of her pieces set in India.

"Sexy" forms something of a chiastic nub with "Mrs. Sen's" at the centre of this collection. In the latter the Indian Mrs. Sen is minding the American Eliot, whereas in "Sexy" the American Miranda must look after an Indian boy, Rohin, while her friend takes Rohin's mother out to cheer her up - Rohin's father has abandoned them for another woman. Miranda is likewise having an affair with an Indian man, Dev, and her encounter with the inscrutable Rohin decides her on ending the liaison. Earlier in the story, on visiting the Mapparium with Dev, he had called her sexy. They were standing at opposing ends of the Mapparium, and because of the wierd accoustics of the architecture she hears Dev's whisper "so clearly that she felt [it] under her skin". Later, when she is minding Rohin, the boy convinces her to put on a slinky number Miranda had bought with Dev in mind, but which she'd never had the opportunity to wear because of the speed with which their affair acquired a functional character. Seeing Miranda in her cocktail dress, Rohin also calls her sexy. When Miranda presses him as to what he means by this, Rohin's recourse is to his absent father: "It means loving someone you don't know." Lahiri's themes are cleverly rendered here: lonely Miranda is duped by the Mapparium-like illusion sex and desire give of emotional propinquity and fulfilment.

However, there is a weakness in this story; just as it inverts the situation in "Mrs. Sen's", so too does it operate on an internal, symmetric differential. Miranda's affair is framed by that of Rohin's father's and the comparison is too obvious. It is only Lahiri's skill in depicting the clingy Rohin that saves what would otherwise be redundant and sententious. The title story of the collection suffers from a similar thematic palimpsest: Mrs. Das's personal revelation to Mr. Kapasi is too obvious a comment on his lust for her. Both characters are lonely and unhappy in their marriages, and both seek consolation in the other; again it is Lahiri's characterisations to the rescue. While treating minor quibbles, it should be noted these stories are not, for the main part, particularly short; most would be around ten thousand words plus. Not a problem in itself, but it does permit Lahiri to delve into the back-stories of her characters, the correspondence between characters´ plights and their pasts tending toward the mechanistically causative. Twinkle's ebullience in "This Blessed House" is a notable exception - this story works because Twinkle bucks the immigrant trend, and this reader would have enjoyed more surprises and 'in spite ofs'.Conversely, in "A Temporary Matter", when soon to be ex-husband and wife "wept together, for the things they now knew", for the reader the writing has been on the wall for too long already (if Raymond Carver had penned the story - and he might well have - he would have titled it Things They Now Knew).

Where Lahiri's stories are all back-story we are treated to shorter tales, and both of these have Indian settings (perhaps it is telling Lahiri should adopt the cooler form of the tale for this material). I doubt most would consider "A Real Durwan" and "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar" - and particularly the latter - as constituting the best of the collection, but this form rather than Lahiri's fidelity to verisimilitude holds personal appeal. These tales also orbit one another, the first recounting the way in which Indian community can work to exclude penurious and marginal people, the latter the reverse, and they also bracket the 'nub' of "Sexy" and "Mrs. Sen's" to complete the collection's chiastic ordering (I don't know if Lahiri wrote with this in mind, but this parafictional structuring reminds me of Nam Lee's collection "The Boat", where the ordering of stories has its own important story to tell). "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar" also foreshadows the narrator's acceptance in "The Third and Final Continent" of his new life in America, a life which will always feel displaced, but is no less wondrous for being so.

All in all, Lahiri's stories of encounters between India and America form a strong if well-behaved collection.
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Oct 07, 2008 Berenice rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is a collection of soulful short stories of Indian immigrants living in the US and I think some stories where in India too, I read this book maybe in 2006 or 2007 but every time I think of a book that really touched me emotionally I think of this book or Alice Munro's short stories. I came across Interpreter of Maladies by chance, it was left at the lunch table at my office where co-workers exchange used items. I picked up and didn't read it for a while... After reading the 1st short s...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Tanu Das rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: really-good, all-time-favorite

5+++++++++++ stars...
As Mrs Croft said"SPLENDID" :D

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Sep 11, 2012 Asha Seth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: indian-literature-lovers, short-story-lovers, travel-a-lot-readers, immigrants

Recommended to Asha by: Sachin Yadav

Shelves: indian-literature, impossible-to-forget, re-readables, 2012, books-i-own

Interpreter of Maladies was recommended to me by one of my friends who kept harping about the book all the time to an extent that every-time I thought about him it was this book that I would see swimming in front of my eyes.

Okay, so I was not reluctant about reading it but coming from a person who seldom reads books, I was just pushing it for later. Having read it now, I am happy I did as Jhumpa is an amazing story-teller and all her short simple tales in this book have got me enchanted.

The 'Nam...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Angus rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed-and-blogged, pulitzer-prize, 5-stars

Original post at Book Rhapsody.

***

Intro

As far as I know, this is the first anthology of short stories from a single author that I ever read. My copy was given by a friend, who bought it for me after seeing me scanning its pages. This friend also treated me to a cup of coffee afterwards, and I think I should mention that this friend is fond of the name Jhumpa. I fondly call this book just Interpreter, which I read back in college at the temporary library during my long breaks, and I also remember...more

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Sep 30, 2008 Eber Atkinson rated it 3 of 5 stars

this book is mostly about different types of loneliness and disconnection with the world. there was a story about a woman with an illness who was kept in a small room and could not live in a normal way - at her lowest point she became pregnant and then was cured, maybe not of her illness, but of her isolation and immaturity. i liked that story. somewhere on the cover there is a reviewer who said she wished she could spend more time with the characters in this collection. i was glad not to, becau...more

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Apr 29, 2008 Kirk rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: currently-teaching

How weird that there's no cover image here. Not like Lahiri is either obscure or out of print. [Rev: Hey, somebody posted the cover! Yea!-4/12/08] Anyway, the author recently caused a mini-controversy by complaining publicly about reviewers questioning her focus on Indian-Americans. Her rhetorical-question response was, "Do people ask Updike and Roth when they're going to write about something other than WASPS and Jews?" Well, as a matter of fact, they do, and they have for probably the past thi...more

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Apr 12, 2008 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Had a really hard time putting this one down ... I fell in love with Shoba and Shukumar, and with Twinkle especially.

Jhumpa Lahiri has made of herself an Interpreter of Maladies: in these stories her lovingly crafted characters, precisely chosen details, and intensely real storylines serve to describe and translate the symptoms, fears, and experiences of diaspora. As I put down the book, I felt like she had said to me, "I didn't need you to read a whole novel. I did not write out for you all th...more

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Jul 17, 2007 Yosita Oramahi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Interpreter Of Maladies was my first literary journey with an Indian author. The book that caused this so-called addiction that I now have for Indian writers. This Pulitzer, New Yorker and PEN/Hemingway Award winner consists of nine short stories that delve into the lives of Indians living in a foreign land, struggling to balance between their traditional values and the demands of today’s modern ways. A beautiful descriptive insight into what goes on behind the closed doors of these people’s hom...more

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Jan 26, 2009 Jwala rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A good collection of short stories. Each story involves persons whose roots are Bengali. Each story flows along with the pace of life and then ends quietly. Only later does the epiphany strike.Each story deals with some mix of cultural and romantic uncertainty, giving the collection a pleasing continuity.
While not being weepy, the stories are a bit somber. Also, the ending of each is deliberately vague, and by that, I mean that they don't all provide complete closure the way a novel would. In t...more

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Jul 14, 2008 pri rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to pri by: my Sarah

Shelves: 2008

beautiful stories. this book took me a while to read, though it is quite short. the stories themselves are so full and complete that it's a bit of a crime to read them one on top of the other. better to read one and let it simmer for a few days before moving on to the next.

best quote: While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortun...more

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Jul 25, 2007 Sondang rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: myfavouriteofalltimes

The Indian writer (ok, I’ll broaden this into Asian writer) never fail to amaze me.
Maybe it because the ‘similar’ cultural background that made them speak about love-hatred-pride-ambition-guilt-faith in a very touching way.
Actually, all the stories in Lahiri’s writing tells about something simple in daily lives, but she wrote that beautifully. And my applause especially go to the way she describes all the character so clearly –which is I know not easy when it comes to short stories.
She took comm...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Shaun rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2013

Having read that this collection of short stories won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, I had high expectations for this book, maybe too high since I repeatedly found myself underwhelmed.

While the stories are strong in language and detail, the majority are weak in plot and memorable characters and therein lies the reason for my disappointment. Elegant writing only takes me so far. I want interesting characters that offer me some new insight, something this collection is lacking.

Painting a flawless pic...more

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Jun 22, 2007 Sze rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

the last few lines from the third and final continent is so simple and thus rings so true:

"I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have travelled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."

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Jan 08, 2009 Michele rated it 5 of 5 stars

Character-Rich Stories
This collection of nine stories was the choice for our January book club. Jhumpa Lahiri is a talented storyteller and the topic of “maladies,” which is woven through each tale, made for interesting discussion. The stories are character-rich and are set in both India and the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Regardless of the setting, Lahiri’s description is filled with minute, sensory-oriented detail. The characters become three dimensional as they share what humors an...more

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Mar 01, 2009 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lahiri does some amazing stuff in this group of stories. She returns again and again to images of displacement, however temporary they may be, and the changing boundaries of maps both literal and personal. The writing here is graceful - it's easy to let it pick you up and just carry you along for a lovely ride. I also appreciate that her stories manage to be compelling without often relying on wildly desperate characters to tell them... she creates an overall quiet and observant group of people...more

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May 14, 2013 Saurabh Sharma rated it 4 of 5 stars

A mesmerising collection of half a dozen short stories that touch your heart and soul. Jumpa Lahiri's best work in my humble opinion, 'interpreter of Maladies' enthrals you and moves you with every story. The stories based on slice of life events have strong emotional resonance and human interest at their core. Lahiri's subtle prose and lucid style makes this collection extremely readable and captivating. The stories revolve around themes of adaptability, human spirit, unhappy marriages, infidel...more

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Apr 29, 2011 dirt rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Bread lovers

Shelves: book-club

The first story and the last story are amazing. Like you are eating a sandwich and the bread is the best part. This book would not be a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

I could easily identify with the couple in the initial story who are reconnecting during the power outages. They have to deal with these communication issues after going through an inexplicably difficult event. Jhumpa captured what it is like to be in that absolutely sucky situation, but she also wrote beautifully about getting t...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Maya Khan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ipad-books, pulitzer-winners

It's a collection of short stories all based on Indians. The first one, A temporary matter is about a young couple both of Indian origin living in the USA. Shobha and shukumar have lost a child prematurely and is grieving in their own ways. The story had an emotional, poignant feel to it and I was really hoping they'd reconcile somehow get over their differences and move on..but Shoba delivers a low blow and shukumar's counters with an equally malicious one. That's when I kind of decided that th...more It's a collection of short stories all based on Indians. The first one, A temporary matter is about a young couple both of Indian origin living in the USA. Shobha and shukumar have lost a child prematurely and is grieving in their own ways. The story had an emotional, poignant feel to it and I was really hoping they'd reconcile somehow get over their differences and move on..but Shoba delivers a low blow and shukumar's counters with an equally malicious one. That's when I kind of decided that they were better apart.

The second one, "when Mr.pirzada came to dine" has several themes going on, at least that's what I think.. Anyway the titular character, mr.pirzada is a Bangladeshi then east Pakistan in the middle of a war against west Pakistan. He's in the states to finish his research on certain plants. He dines at Lilia's place who narrates this story. They have elaborate meals together and he brings chocolates and sweets for the kid. They watch TV and look for any news from home during the war. Liliafeels sorry for him and imagines how he'd miss his seven daughters back home and says a prayer for the first time in her life p, asking godtosave Mr. pirzada's family. She also realizes how Bangladesh and its war has almost zero impact on the other side of the globe..Mr. Pirzada goes back home and sends a post card thanking the American hosts for their kindness and informs them that his entire family is safe and sound. So I understand that war in itself is a hopeless subject, but what I do t understand is the whole point of the story. I honestly don't. This is what happens when you go abroad... Meet other families of the same origin and you try to build a network.

Now the third one, Interpreter of Maldies is even worse. Mr. Kapasi is a taxi driver who happens to meet the Das' oneday. They are all Americans of Indian origin. He casually observes each person and forms an opinion. When he doesn't drive taxis he acts as an interpreter for a local doctor. Mrs Das has three kids one of which isn't mr.das's. She confesses it to Mr. Kapasi of all people who by then had developed a massive crush on mRs. Das.. Jesus it gets even worse when she doesn't respect him or his advice and his contact address goes flying in the wind. Meanwhile he also rescues the illegitimate child whom the father adores unaware of the real situation. They all climb in the taxi and off they go! End of.. Seriously its kind of hard of believe this won any award let alone a Pulitzer. Yes I admit Lahiri is of Indian origin and has a superior command over the language but is that enough?

The stories seem to get only worse..

The fourth one A real Durwan is about an old maid who is a refugee from Bangladesh living in Calcutta. She has nothing to her name save a few pennies and a bunch of skeleton keys. She cleans the dilapidated apartment she lives in and acts as a security guard. After a mishap, things go missing from the apartment and people are quick to point fingers at Boori ma. I'll tell you what, this kind of mistreatments happen almost on a regular basis in India. Heck it happens in my own home.. Maybe I have hardened or maybe I've watched to many Indian movies which always have a similar underlying theme, this story simply failed to evoke any emotion in me.

Awesome is the word to describe the last story, "the third and final continent"! It was quietly brilliant. The author has woven a delicate stry with subtle yet powerful emotions that tug at your heart and mark its presence. This story is about the life of a Bengali man who left India to study at LSE, London and then works at Boston, America. He rents a room from a really old woman who is a 100 yrs old. He is surprised by her age and mortified even. As soon as his wife reaches the states he goes elsewhere and one day finds the lady's obit in a paper. He is stunned. He then buysa house of his own, grows in love with his love, and has a son together all the while aware that his son would face a similar future but with a stronger parents!

I loved that story because I could totally relate to that. I felt the same abroad as well and would do it all over again if it means a better future for my son. I think this one strory is very compelling and is the main reason behind the Pulitzer!(less)

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Aug 22, 2011 Safae rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: english

A temporary matter :
The story of a couple or what is left of a couple. it is well known for love to die after marriage , it is something we read about constantly , there is always a reason for it to disappear , and sometimes there isn’t even a reason , it just evaporates , everyday’s routine kills it silently. And I can’t help feeling sad about it, it is devastating.
The lack of communication between the two of them had led to a wall of silence separating them from each other leaving each one in...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Cheryl in CC NV rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: immigrants, emigrants, travellers, and dreamers

Recommended to Cheryl in CC NV by: Uday Desai

Thanks Uday for recommending this little treasure. I've two stories left - I couldn't put it down last night until my eyes closed on me against my will!

Ok done. I love that the author helps those of us who haven't the extreme emigration experiences understand a little bit what it's like to be so far from home. At least one character hasn't left her homeland, but even she doesn't fit in because of her mental illness. So, someone like me, raised in green rural northwest Wisconsin and now living in...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Eugenie Winkler rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. --Spoilers--
For those looking for the basics on Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri it’s a collection of short stories whose characters are some sort of Indian, recent immigrants or children of immigrants. But that’s a summary like “whoops” is an acceptable tagline for the Titanic.
It’s a pleasure to read Lahiri who manages to express tombs in this short collection, using an economy of words that I’m frankly jealous of. You can just walk into this novel and into the most intimate and painful...more --Spoilers--
For those looking for the basics on Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri it’s a collection of short stories whose characters are some sort of Indian, recent immigrants or children of immigrants. But that’s a summary like “whoops” is an acceptable tagline for the Titanic.
It’s a pleasure to read Lahiri who manages to express tombs in this short collection, using an economy of words that I’m frankly jealous of. You can just walk into this novel and into the most intimate and painful moments of a person’s life and feel it with them from behind their eyes and all because of the way she is able to condense the poignant lonely heart into so few words.
Thank goodness these are not just stories of immigration, of how hard it is to be culturally different and not be able to speak the language of your new home. Instead Lahiri explores loneliness and isolation from a national, interpersonal, and personal perspective. A Temporary Matter might have been about any couple using a power outage to reconnect after a personal tragedy but by starting the collection off the first story sets the tone for the collection as an intimate picture of people out of context from the setting of a family history down to the details of what we expect from ourselves and what happens to us.
Lahiri asks what it means when the image of ourselves crumbles and we seem like foreigners even to ourselves, like in Sexy where a woman who has an affair with an older man reconsiders what she is doing in their relationship. More directly another story from Interpreter of Maladies Mrs. Sen a latchkey kid is left to the care of an Indian woman who is homesick and feels inept in her new lifestyle in America. This story deals both with Mrs. Sen’s depression and frustration as she deals with being trapped in her own house, unable even to drive down to get fish for dinner, but the story also mirrors that loneliness in the latchkey boy Eliot. No stone is left unturned as Lahiri paints a melancholy picture for everyone:
"The beach was barren and dull to play on alone; the only neighbors who stayed on past Labor Day, a young married couple, had no children, and Eliot no longer found it interesting to gather broken mussel shells in his bucket, or to stroke the seaweed, strewn like strips of emerald lasagna on the sand."
She sets the perfect atmosphere that permeates from Eliot to Mrs.Send and throughout the collection. From the stories themselves across to the bleedingly real characters and back to the writing style, Lahiri does an astounding job in such small increments. From one short story to another her characters call you out in how similar they seem to anyone. What carries all of this is her writing. Take for example a piece from the story The Treatment of Bibi Haldar:
"Anticipation began to plague her with such ferocity that he thought of a husband, on which all her hopes were pinned, threaded at time s to send her into another attack. Amid Tins of talc and boxes of bobby pins she would curl up on the color of the storage room, speaking in non sequiturs. 'I will never dip my feet in milk,' she whimpered. 'My face will never be painted with sandalwood paste. Who will rub me with turmeric? My name will never be printed with scarlet ink on a card.'"
She writes without any dramatic flair, with a simplicity and efficiency so that the writing is always clear and reflective for the story and character to be embodied in the words. While it might seem to be a depressing theme I have to impress that she doesn't make it any more depressing than you've ever felt on your own lonely. Part of her skill is that the disgust, fear, loneliness, frustration that plagues her characters all resonates with true life so that it never feels gratuitous but instead feels familiar. Overall I have to recommend this book: it’s sad and beautiful and real. (less)

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Oct 23, 2011 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own

The short story collection entitled Interpreter of Maladies is a powerful novel featuring characters caught between cultures, families and often identities. Jhumpa Lahiri as the writer and omniscient observer sympathises with the plight of such characters, having felt herself a sense of identity crisis.

The collection won a pulitzer prize and I believe that it is firmly deserved. The prose is powerfully moving and emotional providing insight into how culture, or a lack of, influences individuals....more

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About Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London and brought up in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Brought up in America by a mother who wanted to raise her children to be Indian, she learned about her Bengali heritage from an early age.

Lahiri graduated from South Kingstown High School and later received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College in 1989. She then received multiple degrees from Boston Un...more

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The Namesake: A Portrait of the Film Based on the Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks)

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“Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination.” — 223 people liked it

“While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination." (from "The Third and Final Continent")” — 38 people liked it

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