Interpreter of Maladies in Retro Chapter Chicks

Dec 15, 2016 Brina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: short-stories, 500-great-books-women, pulitzer-winner, india, immigration

2024: Reading leads to rereading leads to writing. Anna Quindlen notes this in one of her essay collections that I have read multiple times- I will have to check my reviews and notes to verify which specific book. Each year thousands of books get published, each attempting to stand out from its peers. As a moderator in multiple group, I am always on the lookout for new books that I think the members of these groups will enjoy. As a reader, I rarely read new publications; at times ten or more yea 2024: Reading leads to rereading leads to writing. Anna Quindlen notes this in one of her essay collections that I have read multiple times- I will have to check my reviews and notes to verify which specific book. Each year thousands of books get published, each attempting to stand out from its peers. As a moderator in multiple group, I am always on the lookout for new books that I think the members of these groups will enjoy. As a reader, I rarely read new publications; at times ten or more years might elapse before I get to what was once a can’t miss novel. My 2024 reading theme has been reading upper echelon authors who are considered the masters of their craft. Unlike other years where I piece together new to me books for an enriching reading year, my 2024 includes a number of rereads of favorites across many genres. October was supposed to have been my challenge to read spooky books, but the best laid plans often fall short. This has been a month of family time and a lot of rereads, which have been both comforting and enriching. One author who inspires me as she has crafted an award winning career writing in multiple languages and genres is the esteemed Jhumpa Lahiri. Her first Pulitzer winning book sits on my shelf urging me to read it. After eight long years, I picked up her short story collection and savored every word, thinking how can she be a debut author. After following Lahiri’s distinguished career and returning to this first book, I see how Interpreter of Maladies was just the start; each book stood out more for its depth of language usage. These nine stories put Lahiri on the literary fiction map, and I enjoyed them more a second time around.

Standout stories:
When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine: The protagonist is a ten year old, first generation American born girl. Her parents were among the first wave of Indian immigrants, the father clinging to his native culture, the mother attempting to assimilate. Lilia is among the only non white children in her school. She learns American history and takes yearly field trips to Plymouth Rock, but these forays do not teach her about her own culture. Until Mr Pirzada joined her family for dinner, Lilia knew nothing about the India-Pakistaní war over a disputed region that the English neglected. Mr Pirzada fretted over the fate of his wife and seven daughters left behind in Dacca. Her brought Lilia nightly gifts, and she prayed for the well being of his family. He action comes to a climax on Halloween, when Lilia narrates words that are wise beyond her years. I picture Lilia as a young Lahiri because this along with the other stories occur in New England, mirroring Lahiri’s upbringing near Providence, Rhode Island. One could see that these stories fostered a kernel that became The Namesake, a full length novel discussing the Indian immigrant experience, a novel I now long to revisit.

Sexy features Miranda who engages in an affair with Dev. While the affair takes place, Miranda’s coworker Laxmi soothes her cousin, whose husband is concurrently engaging in an affair. Miranda listens to Laxmi’s phone conversations and questions her own doings and how they affect Dev’s wife. The events expose Miranda to immigrant culture, whereas before before meeting both Laxmi and Dev, she stuck to her own kind. And surprisingly, Miranda found herself enjoying aspects of other cultures, even stopping by an Indian grocery store after work a few times. It is Miranda rather than Dev who shows empathy and wonders if the affair is morally right. She sees what happens to Laxmi’s cousin and her son, both spiraling into depression. Gradually, she decides that her affair with Dev could ruin lives and slowly ends things, revealing both introspection and empathy of the human mind.

The Blessed House stood out the first time for its humor, and it touched me this second time in a similar manner. Mrs Sen’s reveals the difficulties faced by first wave immigrants who generally joined their spouses on college campuses. Mrs Sen was isolated from everyone she knew in a remote college campus, her entire family back in Calcutta. She could not drive and had no desire to do so whereas her husband was at wit’s end with what to do with her. In an isolated area with little public transportation and few Indians to befriend, Mrs Sen’s entire world was preparing supper in her university issued apartment. It made me wonder if Lahiri’s parents experienced similar early years in the United States and how they eventually adapted to life in a new county. Mrs Sen’s experience contrasts with that of the narrator and his wife in The Third and Final Continent. They arrive in Boston just as man arrives on the moon for the first time. Although they prefer tea to coffee and other reminders of Indian, this new couple makes the best of their life in America, eventually moving to the suburbs and having a son who enrolls in Harvard. This family does not forget where they came from but both work hard to achieve the American dream.

Lahiri’s work contrasts Indians in both India and the United States and how one’s origins effect their experience. This first book of hers was considered unique because in the late 1990s, the first wave of first generation Indian Americans born in the United States began to come of age. Lahiri’s family arrived earlier than most, and, through her writing, exposed other groups of Americans to the Indian American immigrant experience. Many immigrant groups experience similar feelings as they arrive in the melting pot that is the United States. The generation gap felt by Indians is hardly unique; what stands out for me in all of Lahiri’s work is the depth of her writing. These stories range from fifteen to thirty pages in length. The characters are well crafted and could easily develop into a full length novel. One could see how Lahiri ideas for the stories that became both The Namesake and The Lowland began here. It takes a special writer to craft short stories that engage the reader as well as a full length novel. Lahiri is one of the best. She is now focusing on translation of works in three languages and shorter nonfiction pieces involving these said languages. Although I am more drawn to nonfiction, she is one writer who I will stop everything for when she publishes new fiction. Her writing makes me smarter, so hopefully it will not take eight years to revisit this story collection that marked her as one of the best authors alive today, in any language.

2016: In 2000 Jhumpa Lahiri became the first Indian American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her short story collection The Interpreter of Maladies. In these nine poignant stories, Lahiri relates the Indian immigrant experience, connecting the tales and creating one voice for them. The stories shared a sadness of being separated from one's family by thousands of miles, yet also offered a glimmer of hope for their lives in India or the United States.

Not generally a reader of short stories, this year I read two powerful novels, Homegoing and The Book of Unknown Americans, which told one story in vignettes. Unlike these two books, however, Maladies is nine separate stories which share one overarching theme. The characters never meet even if they came from the same city in India to the same city in America, craving the company and friendship of other Indian Americans. Lahiri does a masterful job of giving purpose to her protagonists even if in some cases we only get to know them for fifteen short pages. As each story begins in a negative light and ends positively, the reader looks forward to each successive story in the collection.

Even though each story is brilliant in its own right, three stand out in creating an upbeat environment upon conclusion: the keynote story The Interpreter of Maladies where Mrs. Das comes to terms with herself as the story ends; The Story of Bibi Haldar where the title character is ostracized and desires to marry above all else; and the ending story The Third and Final Continent with an unnamed protagonist who looks back on his first days in America thirty years later. All share the theme of Indians who find it easier to hang on their customs than assimilate, creating people proud of their culture yet longing for their old country. This did not seem all too different to me than immigrants from other ethnicities and Lahiri does a superb job of making the Indian experience stand alone.

Lahiri was raised in suburban Boston in Rhode Island and appears to create her characters from childhood memories. Whether it was two Indian girls going trick or treating or a newlywed couple grappling with whether to observe Hinduism or Christianity, the stories are written in a labor of love. Each story is penned with the details of the color and texture of the women's saris to the brand of tea that the characters drank. From reading the stories of of these immigrants, I felt empathy with their lives as second half twentieth century arrivals to America.

Jhumpa Lahiri has weaved together stories of sadness yet has her readers leave feeling positive about her characters. Although short in length, each story is powerful from start to finish and has the readers desiring to know more about the characters' lives. A collection worthy of the Pulitzer, I look forward to reading more of Lahiri's work. Interpreter of Maladies rates 5 bright stars. ...more

222 likes · Like · see review

May 30, 2021 Theresa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: debut, short-stories-and-essays, friends-recommended

it took me until about halfway through the stories, which I read a couple at a time, fully to appreciate the beauty and complexity of each one and the collection as a whole. I am no stranger to reading short stories, something I enjoy reading as I transition from one book to another or even as a way to find new authors, especially in genre fiction.

The stories are all addressing the displacement of Bengalis, those from the northeastern most region of India and now bordering on Bangladesh. That t ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 11, 2024 Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Schu rated it really liked it

Shelves: short-story, short-and-sweet, pulitzer, winter-2023-2024-challenge

Jhumpa Lahiri's selection of short stories is well-developed and written. Each touching story, some more so than others for this reader, tells tales of Indian culture through different generations. Readers can expect to be amazed by the complexity of the short stories- an astounding feat given that not all short stories are capable of this. The imperfect characters and their situations are relatable and will bring about empathy. I can see why Interpreter of Maladies won the Pulitzer, as it's tru ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 04, 2008 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, india, culture, library, concierge, women-writers, short-stories, pulitzer, literary-fiction

Wonderfully written short stories that explore relationships. Spare but exquisitely crafted.

This collection of short stories won the Pullitzer Prize. Lahiri is a great observer of life. While writing with a distinct cultural view, she explores universal themes of grief and connectedness.

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 02, 2015 Celia rated it really liked it

Shelves: pulitzer, kindle-list, eol-book-club, 100-must-read, 52-2016

Nine short stories describing immigrant life from India.

The nine titles are highlighted in Kindle Notes.

Now reading The Namesake which is a wonderful novel with the same intent: describing the immigrant experience.

4 stars

2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 30, 2014 Kris (My Novelesque Life) rated it liked it

3 STARS

"Pulitzer-winning, scintillating studies in yearning and exile from a Bengali Bostonian woman of immense promise. A couple exchange unprecedented confessions during nightly blackouts in their Boston apartment as they struggle to cope with a heartbreaking loss; a student arrives in new lodgings in a mystifying new land and, while he awaits the arrival of his arranged-marriage wife from Bengal, he finds his first bearings with the aid of the curious evening rituals that his centenarian land ...more

1 like · Like · see review