Interpreter of Maladies

Rating:
Summary: The stories read like refined sugar. Extremely tasty-candy?
Review: The stories are excellent, like Jordan Almonds. It is hard to criticize for they are perfect. No small achievemnt. JL has made way for other Indian writers if the want to stir plots and cook some books with Indian consciousness as the main ingredient. How does JL do it. In silence she seems to have opened doors and glimpsed what no one had bothered to notice. True greatness in a writer. The stories are perfect. No edges, angles or untied thoughts. It is like a finely made quilt, each story is. The right color, the right design. Wonderful reading on the whole. Congratulations JL!

Rating:
Summary: AN UNEXPECTED DISSAPOINTMENT!
Review: Upon my return from a fabulous trip to India, and Bangladesh, I was in the mood from something from that side of the planet.

I bought into the design of the cover, and the way it reminded me of some of the souvenirs that I brought back, then I started to read "sexy" while I stood and waited for my turn at the check-out counter! the title caught my eye but took me for ever to get interested in the story.. What a bore..too many irrelevant characters, ... with each story that I read with the greatest torture, I kept asking myself: "what's the point?", "Is this going somewhere?" "what???????"

I am very dissapointed, infact so much that I don't think I'll try her again -.- And I certainly won't be recommending this one to anyone!

Someone should have helped her polish up her stories, they are absolutely boring, and punchless! Thank goodness this is a combination of short stories, should this have been one story, I don't think I could have kept up with one quarter of it!!

I know now to Never again Judge a book by its cover ever again!!!!! I can't imagine why anyone would even want to publish THAT! And No I am not a wannabe author, but I read a great deal, and this is the only non-5 star review that I have EVER written...

Rating:
Summary: Mixed
Review: Ms. Lahiri is clearly someone whose future work will be a pleasure to read. Some of her stories are masterpieces - as good as the best of William Trevor. But some, particularly the ones based in India, display elements of superficiality. I particularly disliked the title story, and one about an old woman who looked after an apartment building.

Rating:
Summary: subtle, beautiful, and surprising
Review: If you like short stories and you don't have an axe to grind, you will likely love this book.

If you are small-minded and your life centers around proving the validity of your cultural or ethnic resentments, you won't like the book. The book is neither hackneyed nor predictable, unfair comments notwithstanding. Believe the hype.

Rating:
Summary: Whatever has the New Yorker descended to?
Review: Lahri is fatiguing in her unoriginality and banality

Rating:
Summary: Great Read.....
Review: Consumer Perspective: Great read! I enjoyed killing time seeing through her eyes and those of her characters.....

Critic's Perspective (there's one in all of us): You can get lost in the details. Stories ended up following a pattern. Most stories always had a little twist in the end which sometimes made them predictable.

My perspective: Wicked stuff by a foxy author.

Rating:
Summary: Hackneyed!
Review: Boring and trite in terms of both ideas and language

Rating:
Summary: Just Loved This Book - Read it !!!!!
Review: This must be about the best book I've read by a South Asian author in a long time. Jhumpa's intelligent, senistive, and crafty literary style capture the nuances of being asian in america - without an overload of sentimentality. The stories are well observed, nuanced, and extremely well paced. Jhumpa has a way of looking at things that is extremely realistic and often cold and calculated - but also sensitive. The stories tend to move you along a tapestry of thought - that only the best writing in any language weaves. Overall a really stunning debut - I cant wait for her first novel. On the negative side though - the stories set in the USA - specifically around Boston - are far more moving than those set in India - which are much more literary in flavor. Jhumpa writes best when she covers people closest to her - in this case Indians living in the USA.

Like the reviewer in the New York Times - my overall reaction to the book was Wow !!!

Rating:
Summary: Delicate and moving
Review: Like many other reviewers here, I first saw Ms. Lahiri's work in the New Yorker; I, however, was not the least bit disappointed by Interpreter of Maladies, and found the stories very enjoyable. Perhaps I'm not as jaded by the supposed onslaught of Asian and Asian-American writers as other readers seem to be, or perhaps I didn't expect as much from this collection, but I found very little to dislike in this book, and quite a bit that moved and delighted me. The closing paragraph of "The Third and Final Continent" is a small gem in itself, reminiscent of the best in the fictional-memoir tradition of writers like Marcel Proust and James Agee.

So... if you're looking for some light but well-crafted summer reading, I highly recommend Interpreter of Maladies.

Rating:
Summary: Cancel your subscription to the New Yorker!
Review: It is truly a wonder to see the hype that can be created around utter mediocrity! "The Interpreter of Maladies" is average at best; stereotypical, insensitive, and superficial at its worst. Lahiri sheds little or no light on any major issues surrounding the Asian American community other than the belabored "immigrating to the West" catchprase that has faded with use. It is so surprising to me that this legacy left by Rushdie/Naipaul/Desani has spawned an incredibly large amount of peripheral writing from "new Indian writers" that misses the point entirely, or repeats ad nauseum how life has changed with annoying melodrama. And because of all the attention the media has focused on Lahiri's subject matter (which happens to be fashionable, hip, and trendy right now), they have overlooked the importance of good writing plumbing deep and sensitively into its subject matter. To me, Lahiri's stories say nothing (and I'm Indian!) and I can't see how anyone who has given the diaspora any serious thought can vouch for her empathy in matters related to it. The tag of "Indian writing" should not have carte blanche access to the club of serious fiction. And in the case of "Maladies," (with no personal affront to the writer...), the credit given to the offering is in gross disproportion to its merit.