Interpreter of Maladies

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Summary: book review
Review: Book Review Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the twenty best writers of American fiction according to the, The New Yorker. She is a remarkable American Indian writer who was born in London but raised in New York. Lahiri received her Ph. D. in English at Boston University. Her book Interpreter Of Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Lahiri's writing style is very straight forward and it is easy to follow and it does not have any cultural boundaries. The book Interpreter Of Maladies is a collection of nine short stories. The characters on her stories are Indian and Bengali decent. We might say that Lahiri wrote this book for her own people, but this book was written for readers who enjoy good fiction . There are main themes of these stories that can be clearly notice, which are communication and relationships. These themes can be seen through out the collection of these short stories. " Interpreter of Maladies" is one of the best stories in this book. The story was about the Das family, second-generation Indian American couple, with their three children visiting India. While in India they hired a tour guide named Mr. Kappasi who was a translator for a local doctor. While working for the Das's Mr. Kapasi was very fascinated about the family for being so Americanize. Through his experience with the family he observed things that he didn't see before, like how the children lack the discipline. Mina Das, the wife began talking to Mr. Kapasi about anything that she can ask him. He was very intrigue of the sudden interest towards him by Mina. He did not know what to make of it, Mina told her secrets to Mr. Kapasi, She told him that she cheated on her husband and the result of her infidelity was a child. That clearly look different from the two siblings. Mina was expressing her guilt to Mr. Kapasi and she was seeking for an answer the she never found before. The story Mina told to Mr. Kapasi showed him that her relationship with Mr. Das lack communication. To the fact Mina did not know Mr. Kapasi she felt comfortable telling him all her secrets. In a ways Mina openness gave him a false hope. Making him believed that Mrs. Das was interested on him. All along she was just looking for someone to talk to. "When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine" is a very touching story that involves a child building a good relationship a person that she did not know. Mr. Pirzada was a Bengali man who came to the United States to further his studies. While attending the university in New England he got acquainted with Lila's family (the little girls name). Mr. Pirzada and the family became good friends. He developed this relationship with Lila, he told her about his family in Dacca where there were political has been going on with the Indian government. Despite of their different cultural beliefs they still made a bond that lead to good friendship. Mr. Pirzada's fondness to Lila was one way of showing his love that he gave to his children who were far away from him, so he gave all that attention to Lila. After he was done with his studies he went back to Dacca to discover that his family was safe. Lila became a good friend to Mr. Pirzada when he needed it the most. This story demonstrates how two different individual can build a good relationship despite of the differences. The way Lahiri arranged her stories in the book played a major role on the success of this book. Every story had its own place in the book, because some tells us the history of her culture. Each of this story has its significance why people and critics considers book as one of the best. The book was very easy to understand and most of the story was written to be understood and followed easily. The chronology of the stories made this book unique because the readers can relate to the characters while they are reading it. The simplicity of the story made the readers feel that they are part of the story like a third person. The first story "A Temporary Matter" is about a relationship were the couple was having communication problems. It started when the two characters was in love to each other and ending up having problems with the relationship. This story can make readers think what is next to this story, so it makes us reader to want for more. This story was design to raise questions for the readers. The last story "The Third And Final Continent" was bout arrange marriages. How Indian find their spouse for economic reasons not for love. The story tells us about this two couple who married through arrange marriage but through time the woman began to fall in love with the guy. The story ended with a positive note compared to other stories in this book. This story is a perfect ending for this book because it lives readers something to hope for. The story demonstrates that people can fall in love with out lust. This story showed being intimate to each other can bring the best on each of us. Most Lahiri's characters are seeking for acceptance and affection. Her characters are common ordinary people with real problems. For that reason some of us can make a connection to some of the characters. Lahiri's choice of characters and stories made this book very appealing to people. The book can be read by anyone who loves life stories of people seeking for answers about life.

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Summary: Great culture exposure
Review: I believe Jhumpa Lahiri shares a lot of her culture and by doing so we, the reader, get to know her a little more. She does a great job at writing in a simple and clear way. This makes it possible for any group age to pick up her book and enjoy it. I particularly like the story, A temporary matter, I can easily visualize the couple in this story. I don't particularly like the fact that the ending to this story was left to the reader to imagine. I like to have the ending for a story, whatever that might be.

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Summary: Amazing..
Review: Being a college student who must commute by train for a total of 4 hours every day, I do a lot of reading. Unfortunately there have been books I've heard were good, I bought them, and couldn't bare to finish the novel. However, when I read about Jhumpa Lahiri when she was featured in Entertainment Weekly, I thought she seemed well versed, and could probably write an interesting book. It helped that I found she had won the Pulitzer, and the fact that her book was compiled of short stories (i love short stories!). I'm very intrigued by the Indian culture being that my best friend and several other aquaintences are of Indian decent, so I thought the fact that her book would be integrating some of that culture into the stories would open me up to another world in my readings (& it did, discreetly). When I read this book I was overwhelmed, it is absolutely the best book I've ever read. I was excited about the fact that each of the short stories featured had a sincere message, a lot of heart and feeling, and of course a little splash of a different culture. My favorite stories would be the opening story, "A Temporary Matter", and "Sexy". I would recommend this book to anyone that is human, because this book simply conveys common human emotion that I (& most others) can definitely relate to.

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Summary: A Quiet Book
Review: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni on the back cover says, "Filled with quiet astonishments . . . Here is a brave new voice, laced with elegance and compassion." Divakaruni speaks truly -- with one exception, the words of Lahiri herself. The last story in the book, "The Third and Final Continent," provides a succinct summation of the collection as a whole: "As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."

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Summary: very stylized and crafty
Review: Stories of strange incidents in the lives of people living in other country written with elegant craft and exceptional descriptions. Jhumpa Lahiri is unquestionably one of the most readable modern Indian english writers. Refreshing style and excellant story craft make the reader feel the incidents rather than reading about some incidents in other people's lives objectively. Reading any story gives us a strange feeling of being a mute member of the incident described in the story - be it the issue of temporary matter between Shoba and Shukumar or the worry of Mr.Pirzada about his Dhaka house and five daughters. We tend to feel like a traveller in the taxi of Mr.Kapasi observing the Das family with all curiousity showed by the interpreter of maladies. It is one of the rare books I preferring to present or recommend to all my friends who like good reading about human relations and drama in life. One of my friends dont like these themes but he still liked the style of writing.

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Summary: Some Good, Some Okay, None Great
Review: The stories that comprise Interpreter of Maladies have a common thread, albeit a loose one: the uselessness of the west and the emptiness of glamour. Lahiri, whose parents were born in India, is herself, wholly a product of the West. Born in London and raised in New England, she now lives in that most glamorous of all cities, New York. So, it is not surprising that the majority of Lahiri's characters share a similar background with the author: Most have relatives in India but they, themselves, live in the northeastern United States. They prefer Mahler to Ravi Shanker and New England pot roast to chicken Tandoori.

Not all of Lahiri's characters are Bengali or even Indian, but all are definitely typical upper-middle class suburbanites. They work in offices, have affairs and spend their disposable income in high-end stores. If they are married, their marriage is troubled; if they have children, their children are troubled. Most of all, the people in book suffer from a lack of ritual in their lives. They are, if anything, too much a product of the American culture they have come to embrace.

Some of these stories succeed and some of them fail. When they fail, it is because the characters have, perhaps, become a little too westernized; they tend to get bogged down in the angst that characterizes so many upper-middle class lives today. Their lives and personalities are flat; they have no sharp edges to interfere. The stories that succeed are those whose characters live on the fringes; the precocious boy from "Sexy," or the title character of the story "Mrs. Sen's."

While most people have grown tired of the stereotypical Indian convenience store owner, it would have been nice, as well as more realistic, to have seen a few struggling-to-survive characters alongside these economically successful Yuppies. As it is, the stories, although written in elegant prose, lack emotional depth and flavor. They seem to just fall flat. These people may suffer, but they suffer in such a way that our response is not much more emotional than an occasional yawn.

The two stories that do come closest to expressing the anguish of real life are "A Real Durwan" and "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar." Those stories, however, are set in India, and, compared to the others, seem almost like parables.

Lahiri writes in straightforward, precise prose and provides a Joycean documentation of detail that, in the best stories takes on profound symbolism or provides quiet amusement. In the some of the stories, however, she lets a note of self-consciousness or tired sentiment creep in and ends these stories with a cliche, such as " they wept together, for the things they now knew." Most of the stories were apparently crafted in a workshop and, unfortunately, the lack of originality shows it. Lahiri should know by now that concrete details and implied emotion always win out over declarative statements such as the above.

Although Lahiri's prose style is far different than Arundhati Roy's, both authors seem to be suffering from a case of style-over-substance. It will be interesting to see what both do in the future.

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Summary: Sweet stories of sad events.
Review: Sweet stories of sad events - that's the best way to describe this book. The stories are inherently sad, however, its elements are so real and so tangible you can't help but feel joy from them. Each story transports you into someone's life; a life conceived so fully that you will find it hard to believe this is a work of fiction.

Each character's association with India - whether they be native Indians or second generation Indian-Americans - offers a fresh twist. Being an Indian-American myself, reading this book offered tremendous satisfaction, as thoughts and situations connected with being Indian and of Indian decent are voiced in such detail. The characters gave me insight into my own family members and what they must have gone through in their lives. For this I can't thank the author enough.

Interpreter of Maladies is filled with beautiful and sincere stories. People I've lent this book to have promptly bought their own copies to keep in their libraries. You will never stop appreciating this book.

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Summary: Longing for Lahiri
Review: Interpreter of Maladies invites the ache of hunger, a feeling more primitive than mere appetite. The book left me longing for Indian food, for the company of close friends and family, for the sounds of Mahler.

Most of all, I am left with unrequited longing for Ms. Lahiri's next effort.

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Summary: Interpreter of Maladies: Stories
Review: I found Lahiri's atmospheric writing dazzling. She aces style. However, the characters remained at an emotional distance. It's as though the style became a barrier to emotion substance. I would not level this criticizm at Lahiri alone. Unfortunately, I find that many "modern" writers are more interested in dazzling style than emotional substance. In the end, all the work begins to look the same, feel the same--one note and gray.

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Summary: Language, Language, Language
Review: When I picked up this book, I knew it had won the Pulitzer Prize, so I assumed that I would read a few pages and put it down in frustration with it's complexity. No Way! In fact the genius of this book is that it explores so many complex themes of displacement, lonliness, adultery, marital discourse, cultural identity/assimilation, the effects of war, sexism, and myth with such a brevity of language so as to make it highly accessible. I think the subtle suspense driving each story, that makes you want to turn the page, even when all pages have been turned, would not have worked as well had the story been bogged down in heavy metaphor. Anyone who wants to be transported to another place (India) while feeling like they are at home, among family members or friends would enjoy this novel. In one way you feel like you are learning about another culture, Indian society, traditions, beliefs, etc., people so different from yourself with so different experiences, but you are tied by the sameness of human desires, mainly to be loved and appreciated for who you are. People will argue over their favorite story, some will think the title story, a poignant story of a yearning heart, but I have a very quirky sense of humor and "This Blessed House" had me laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of it all, especially since it had a "happy" ending.