Rating: 
Summary: Impressive Collection of Stories
Review: I am not a reader who normally chooses from this particular genre. However, I was very pleased by this collection of short stories. I've just finished this book in about four hours. The characters make you long that there was a novel about each of them with which you could spend time. With the characterizations and attention to detail, this book should become beloved. Buy this book and relish it!
Rating:
Summary: What is there not to like?
Review: I absolutely enjoyed this book and was not unhappy to read the reviews of a few disgruntled readers. Why should she be compared to any of the other South Asian or Commonwealth writers? She has a clear and distinct voice: not trite but minimalist; not banal but earthy; never the overly selfrighteous Indian nor the simply practical American. Just go out and enjoy the beauty of Lahiri's book for what it is- just a simple pleasure of reading!
Rating: 
Summary: Simple yet True
Review: I fail to understand all the accusations about the book being too simple, the characters not having too much depth and about it not being worth the hype. I think people have got so used to literature that is full of complex subtleties, that when they come across something so startlingly simple, they just cannot digest it. So what if it is simple? The fact is, that it is so amazingly true and that's what makes the book so beautiful. Each of the stories are poignant in their own way. Leave alone the Indians in America, but the problem of being without roots is universal- in so many different contexts. In that sense, I think the book is universal in its appeal. People around us are really that simple - the experiences that they undergo seemingly ordinary, yet that is what is real and thats what is really fascinating to read about.
Rating:
Summary: enchanting
Review: this is the first collection of short stories i can recall reading, as they have never interested me before. i sought out the book based on a blurb in entertainment weekly, in an article related to jhumpa lahiri's winning of the pulitzer prize. once i had it in my hand, the short quote at the top of the front of the book sold me. it was written by amy tan, who is one of my favorite authors, and who has written what is perhaps my favorite book, "the joy luck club". i figured if she liked it, i would. i feel much more than that. these stories and characters moved me in a way i cannot readily explain. i experienced what someone else - i am sorry i cannot remember who - has felt. i would almost forget that i was reading, so immersed was i in ms. lahiri's gentle, vivid style. if only the stories had gone on longer. i was left with a desire for so much more, even though each story was a gem i cannot imagine any improvement upon. if this is what the short story is about, i believe i have found a treasure. i hope with all my heart to read more of jhumpa lahiri in the near future. this collection is on the shelf now, next to my treasured copy of "the joy luck club".
Rating: 
Summary: Good writing, but not a work of genius
Review: Maybe I'm being picky, but with so much good modern fiction, I just didn't think this book was that special. The writing was excellent and many of the stories were engaging, but they began to feel a bit formulaic after awhile. Another reviewer hit the nail on the head by pointing out the similarity to writing workshop stories. I'd take T. Coraghessian Boyle any day over her although since the book is short I didn't feel sorry I read it. In this same genre, I thought the Pakistani Funny Boy was even more compelling.
Rating:
Summary: Satisfying
Review: I'm not a fan of short stories in general but the stories in this book are so simply straightforward yet rich in character depth that they offered a very satisfying read. Looking forward to more from this writer!
Rating:
Summary: LOVED IT!
Review: This is Jhumpa Lahiri's first book and a great read. It contains 9 short stories, the first, A Temporary Matter, being my favourite and A Real Durwan being my least favourite. I just thought A Temporary Matter was a great idea for a short story...sad, romantic and well written. Sexy was another brilliant story - Witty and very clever! I eagerly await more from this author.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for the lover of short stories
Review: My only complaint with this book is that some of the stories were so good that I wanted them to continue. Each story was captivating and held my interest, and that is really saying something because I am not an avid reader.
Rating: 
Summary: banal
Review: I was disappointed with the book even before it'd won any awards. It's shallow, banal, trite. The characters are all two-dimensional without exception. Her style? Is missing. A sensitive chronicler of the immigrant experience? - I think not - both from the immigrant perspective, and from a writing perspective. I liken her writing to Bharati Mukherji's - another author who's received undue attention, praise and adulation, IMO.
Rating:
Summary: Exotically universal . . .
Review: I read A Temporary Matter on the NY Times First Chapters site and was immediately taken with the author's precise voice and her matter-of-fact ethnicity. When I got my hands on the book, the other stories showed the same deftness of delivery, the same luster. I finished the book far too quickly and wished for more. What stands out--besides Lahiri's writing skill--is her use of the exotic to display the universal. One of the hazards of ethnic writing is the temptation to focus on comparisons and dwell on differences. Even when cultures clash, very few good stories can stand on the novelty of conflict and unfamiliarity alone. Lahiri leaps over this trap entirely by giving us characters whose Indian heritage is woven like golden threads through the cloth of an expensive sari. Indian references add and accent but never do they overwhelm. Lahiri's characters are people first and even in their culural context, they vary in personality, circumstance, and outlook. She gives us perspectives as divergent as an elementary school-aged boy observing his baby-sitter's homesickness for India, a young woman recalling her parents' friend worried about his family back in war-torn Pakistan, an irrepressible and upwardly mobile new bride, and an older gentleman looking decades in the past to the first few years after his arrival from India. Even those voices farthest from my own--the tour guide whose other job was the eponymous "interpreter of maladies," and Bibi Haldar, a presumably epileptic woman dependent on the kindness of others--struck universal chords of desire, despair, and hope. This kind of accessibility and connection is what makes her stories stand out. My one quibble is that several of the stories seemed to end just a hair too soon, as if Lahiri were afraid of overstaying her welcome. This is, I fear, the trend in modern fiction, one I hope will soon pass. Still, she is so generous with all else, it is hard to hold a grudge. I hope the commotion attached to winning a Pulitzer Prize doesn't keep her too long away from whatever she has for us next.
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