Interpreter of Maladies

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant new voice in Immigrant writing
Review: Out and Out

Mr Kapasi, whose father was from Gujarat, lives in Puri. His gift for languages hasn't got him very far in life: he works during the week at a clinic, interpreting for the doctor's many Gujarati patients. At weekends, he acts as a driver cum tour guide. Today, his clients are the youthful Mr and Mrs Das, born and raised in America, and their three kids. It's been a long, hot and tiring day visiting the Sun Temple, even so the family agrees to Mr Kapasi's suggestion for a detour via Udaygiri and Khandagiri, hills where Jain monks of yore meditated in caves carved out of the rockface.

Interpreter of Maladies is the title story of Jhumpa Lahiri's first collection of short stories. Lahiri, born in London to Bengali parents, and raised in Rhode Island, is a remarkable new voice in immigrant writing. Controlled, never shrill, she nevertheless fleshes out her characters in vivid detail, a potpourri of smells, sounds, colours, and emotions. She has a sure eye for nuance, a sharp ear for cadence - whether in Calcutta, Boston and Beyond, the sub-title of her book.

For Lahiri, being on the outside, both culturally and in terms of open spaces, are keys to understanding the human condition and the inner world. Hardly a new concept, in Ms Lahiri's deft hands it acquires an original level rarely encountered in contemporary writing. In her stories, complete strangers are in reality soul-mates - their empathy facilitated by the outdoors. Not surprisingly, most of her main characters are women.

Mr Kapasi is an outsider twice removed: a Gujarati in Orissa, and a mere tour guide. But, as Mrs Das says, her interest lies in his other job. '"As an interpreter."' Perhaps a one-night stand can only be confessed to a one-day tour guide. For, tourism, like its elevated cousin anthropology, tells us at least as much about Us as it does about Them.

Back to Ms Lahiri. The lady is a foodie, undoubtedly! Almost all the stories set in America have Indian - nay, Bengali - food as a second helping to the main course. Meats, fish, vegetables, condiments, confection, wines, recipes, preparation, mealtimes - these are detailed so finely as to make one's mouth water. The aromas - redolent with spice and flavouring - linger long after the stories are over. Strangely, none of the three stories set in India are treated in quite this manner. It is as if for the immigrant food is the key to her patrimony, whilst in one's native land, it is just an everyday unremarked reality.

When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine is surely autobiographical, from the viewpoint of Lilia, a 10-year old girl, in 1971, her father a professor at a small university north of Vermont. Mr. Pirzada is from Dacca, in the US on a grant to study the foliage of New England. He's left his wife and seven daughters behind, and comes each evening to dine with her family, and watch the evening news. With no news from Dacca, the TV is Mr Pirzada's only connection with home, at a time when civil war is rending Pakistan asunder.

Kindly Mr Pirzada, never forgets to bring Lilia some confectionery or the other, taking a gentle interest in her well-being, with an affection that he cannot give to his children. Her concerns are more mundane, such as preparing for Halloween. Nevertheless, she worries about Mr Pirzada's family. One night she prays for their safekeeping. "That night when I went to bed, I only pretended to brush my teeth, for I feared that I would somehow rinse the prayer out as well."

Lahiri's Calcutta stories, continue with the theme of the outsider - literally as well - in that Boori Ma (in A Real Durwan) lives underneath the staircase, whilst Bibi (in The Treatment of Bibi Haldar) is banished by her family to the storage room on the roof of the building. In both stories, situations, which occur when the women step out of their worlds, lead to inescapable and drastic consequences. However, neither story rings entirely true. They are too like stories a child might hear on her grandparent's knees - stories from 'the Old Home Town'.

That and her occasional misspelling of Indian / Bengali names are the only jarring notes of an otherwise masterfully crafted collection. Although her prose quality is starkly restrained, it has the ability to take the mundane and infuse it with so much meaning that we are forced to confront and see our Self in the Other. Lahiri's storytelling totally lacks the need to construct artificial worlds to bring home the truth.

The final, resounding, narrative, Across Three Continents, tells of the relationship between a newly arrived young man from India and his octogenarian (or so he thinks!) Boston landlady. She's finicky, old-fashioned and ordered in her ways; he's nervous, doesn't quite know the right thing to do, the right thing to say. And so she instructs him, and when finally put to the test, he does not fail her. After the arrival of Mala, his new bride, from Calcutta, Mrs Croft becomes their guide to a New World, teaching them to admire their new country, both for its past traditions and its present achievements.

"Still," our young friend tells us after 30 moons in America, "there are times when I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, every person I have known, every room I have slept in."

And so it is with Lahiri - who takes us intimately into the lives of ordinary people everywhere, with so much candour and compassion. By doing so, she acts, like Mr Kapasi, as the interpreter of our maladies.

Rating:
Summary: delicious
Review: i don't remember last when i enjoyed reading a book as good as this. i had to ration myself to one chapter a day in order to draw out the pleasure of reading. Jhumpa Lahiri writes about the immigrant, specifically the Indian experience so well and with such insight that it is hard to belive that she is not an immigrant herself.

Rating:
Summary: T U R T L E N E C K - B A T I K - B L U E S
Review: Jhumpa Lahiri is a very clever writer. She is clever in her understanding of east-indian sensibilities, she is clever in grasping her own personality/culture confluences of America & India, she is very clever in succintly seducing the western reador with an easily comprehendable flavor of the east, she is clever in potraying herself as a beautiful & talented melangé of the east and west (turtle-neck profile with a batik backdrop on book-sleeve). In that aspect of a pyschologically gifted and intuitive writer, she deserves mention and merit.

But in the wake of a burgeoning South-asian ethnic writing landscape, I would think, a writer of such talent, should be tempted to identify her niche that would distinguish herself as a writer and not succumb to the glamorous genre of post colonial, fashion-centric, youthful, indo-american themes that involve love, lust and flouroscent gum.

While I read "When Mr Phirazda came to dine", I was deeply touched by the little girl trying to hold on to her candy in her fear of distilling a prayer and I think I trace Ms Lahiri's soul seeping into the story just as much as I suspect it being somewhat sublty autobiographical. Which makes me contemplate that a flavor of the true writer reveals itself only in the absense of a tight and a temptingly contrived theme. This story shimmers in its delicacy, rhythm and balance.

For a first book, I am in full praise for Ms. Lahiri's efforts. Though I would, as a reader, hope that in her forthcoming works, she attempt to pinpoint her strengths and steer forward with a distinct voice and elan she seems to be so capable of.

Good luck to you,

Lokesh

Rating:
Summary: I wanted to love it
Review: I recently heard Ms. Lahiri read and I was so impressed with her that I went out and bought the book. The story she read riveted me but when I re read it (the title piece 'The Interpreter of Maladies') I found it was nowhere as enjoyable as it had been when delivered by Ms. Lahiri in person. I read a lot of current fiction and these stories fall squarely in the tradition of the new short story writing that is in such vogue. Like Nathan Englander's work they are tight, controlled pieces that evoke a somewhat "exotic" [to the average urban US reader] world and deliver a well-timed punch that is easy to understand. Ms. Lahiri guides her reader to the finish line showing you when and how to understand the plot. There is little complexity or subtlety to her characters or her plots. Like some of her other reviewers I agree that these are enjoyable stories, worth taking out from the library but they are not vital or original. Perhaps one day Ms. Lahiri will write something that will justify the hype but this collection hasn't quite done it.

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Summary: connecting the pieces of the puzzle
Review: i really enjoyed this book. i think lahiri's book can be added to the vibrant post-colonial literature that is out there right now. this book reminds me that post-colonial writing is not about writing of one place and time, but many -- and how they affect one another. lahiri's book lets readers explore how growing up in the U.S. with immigrant influences really affects a person's perspective on life. India is viewed not as an exotic vacation destination, but a country existing today -- in the late 20th century, just like the U.S.! -- whose diaspora lives among us. in lahiri's book, the diaspora takes the form of such New Englanders Shoba and Shukumar in "A Temporary Matter" and Lilia in "When Mr. Prizada Came to Dine" -- whose lives down to the foods they eat are a reflection of East and West brought together! In the Halloween candy and the chicken curry, one feels New England and Calcutta in the same thought. i am glad that ms. lahiri has taken the effort to bring to light such characters. they are as real is gets!

Rating:
Summary: Great Literary Debut
Review: Upon reading about this book in Time magazine, I had only hoped the Lahiri could keep me as thoroughly entertained as Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni...and she definitly did. I loved the flow of her stories, and as the significant other of an Indian man, it helped me to understand some of the finer details of a culture which I am learning more about every day. The descriptions she used helped me to see deeper into the less obvious parts of Indian culture. I can hardly wait to delve into her next publication.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing Exceptional.
Review: Not quite worthy of all the hype, but enjoyable nevertheless. Lahiri should stick to writing about the US, the stories set in India are vastly inferior to the others.

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Summary: This book is as remarkable as it is unpretentious.
Review: Avoiding all trace of muscle or empty rhetoric, the author uses a careful, caring, and sometimes wistful eye for detail to examine subtly poignant moments in the lives of her characters. In the stories that take place in America, the lingering awkwardness of the immigrant condition, even at its most assimilated, is beautifully captured. I found this book a trove of simple, small pleasures, the literary analogue of lying in bed in the stifling heat and turning your pillow upside down to find it cool.

Rating:
Summary: A rounded cast of characters that really rings true
Review: Having just finished Interpreter of Maladies, and being someone who also "has read a lot," from Bharati Mukherjee to Ernest Hemingway, I have to wonder how anyone could lambast this book in the way some reviewers have done. Perhaps this isn't fair, but I have to wonder if they read it correctly. Short fiction as a genre is distinct from the novel form, and it doesn't allow for intricate plot development. That is what makes it such a difficult form in which to write, and I believe Jhumpa Lahiri has done a masterful job at it! True, her elaborate use of detail may not be to the liking of all readers, and may detract emphasis from what I think is skillful story development.

But overall, I believe she captures the truths behind a variety of Indian-American "types," types that I know to be quite real, at least in my experience as a 2nd generation Bengali-American. From the story of a young man whose new bride leaves everything behind to join a stranger in America (for whom my parents could have served as models), to the tale of a more westernized young couple dealing with the "loss" of their child as well as their love, there is a distinct flavor of authenticity, not cliche, running through most of these stories.

If you read her work expecting to peer in from the outside upon the literary grace and style of Arundhati Roy, simply admiring it from afar, you will be disappointed, but due to no fault of the author. To appreciate this book, you must be willing to enter it, to try to truly connect with and understand the lives of these characters. It's your prerogative if you don't care to do so, but don't blame her work.

Rating:
Summary: A book that I finished despite suffering from ADD
Review: I liked this work. I would definitely recommend this book. I liked 'When Mr. Pirzada came to dine', 'Sexy', 'Mrs. Sen's', and 'The Third and final continent' the most. I didn't like 'Real durwan' at all as I couldn't see the point. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see Ms. Lahiri's knowledge of Bengal, Bengali culture, and little bitty Bengali things (e.g, refugees from East Bengal being nostalgic about their glorious past life before partition; making a hole in the middle of a pile of rice to put lentils; Bengalis' typical love of fresh fish etc.)

It was a pleasure reading. It made me want to go home and see all my relatives I grew up amongst and who I left in Calcutta.