Rating: 
Summary: Interpreter of Melodies
Review: I never knew that a chopping blade could be described in such lively detail. I never imagined that the activity of slicing fish deserved such eloquent attention. I had never seen a reed broom in such vivid light before.An earthy melody flows through all the stories and Lahiri does an impeccable job of interpretation--of melodies. Her language is simple and never draws undue attention to itself--a skill that many writers take years to achieve and some never do. Ordinary chracters become extraordinary human beings when seen through the author's eyes. Being an Indian and a Bengali myself, the stories probably struck some chords very close to my heart, but there's no reason why anybody else should find it difficult to relish the tunes that underlie each story. I have a small complaint. A couple of names could've sounded more authentic if spelled differently. Shoba could've been Shobha (A Temporary Matter). Mukhesh (the renowned singer) should definitely have been Mukesh (The Third and Final Continent).
Rating: 
Summary: Breathtaking Stories
Review: Jhumpa Lahiri has given us a breathtakingly beautiful collection of stories that certainly deserves the Pulitzer Prize. She writes like a dream and brings you into the worlds of her stories so effectively. She certainly is a writer of enormous talent and I only hope she gives us more work soon. All the stories in this collection concern the culture clash between America and India. Clash is perhaps too strong a word. It is more like the two worlds are bumping into one another, trying to make some sense of the other. As with any collection, some stories are stronger than others (although none are weak). The first and last were my favorites. The first--A Temporary Matter--deals with a young couple coping with the stillbirth of their first child and the disintegration of their marriage during a week of hour long blackouts. The last--The Third and Final Continent--is told by an Indian man of his first days in Boston, before and after he brought his new bride to the country. All of these stories are beautifully rendered. I highly recommend this collection.
Rating:
Summary: Highly-seasoned stories.
Review: I arrived at this Pulitzer-Prize-winning collection of nine short stories after first reading a couple of them in "The New Yorker" magazine. Lahiri's stories are seasoned with Indian spices. Her characters are both interesting and real. For instance, in the opening story, "A Temporary Matter," we meet a married couple who have become "experts at avoiding each other" (p. 4) as their marriage crumbles, sharing secrets and weeping together in their dark house. In "Mr. Pirzada," we find the narrator carving a Halloween pumpkin while India and Pakistan grow closer to war. The girl tells us, "I prayed that Mr. Pirzada's family was safe and sound," while pretending to brush her teeth, "for I feared that I would somehow rinse the prayer out as well" (p. 32). "I could tell you stories," one character confesses in the book's darkly moving title story (p. 63), "a woman not yet thirty, who loved neither her husband nor her children, who had already fallen out of love with life" (p. 66). In another story, "Mrs. Sen's," we meet a "responsible and kind" professor's wife learning to drive so that "everything will improve" (p. 119) in her new American life, and so that she may drive herself to the market to purchase "a whole fish." She dreams of maybe even driving all the way back to Calcutta, "ten thousand miles, at fifty miles per hour" (p. 119). Lahiri feeds her characters well by serving up page after page of exotic Indian food, and lots of it: peppers marinated with rosemary, boiling pots of tomatoes and prunes (p. 7), "bright paprika stew" (p. 10), shrimp malai (p. 20), fried spinach with radishes, pickled mangoes (p. 25), "lentils with fried onions, green beans with coconut, fish cooked with raisins in a yogurt sauce" (p. 30), "tortes of pesto and mascarpone cheese" (p. 93), purple eggplant, and stew with fish and green bananas (p. 133). Some stories here are stronger than others. But as a collection, you won't go away from Jhumpa Lahiri's book hungry for good fiction. "Splendid!" G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: wonderful, truly beautiful
Review: As I finish this book, the feeling of astonishment comes over me. This debut novel by Ms. Lahiri is beautifully written. It captures such depth and emotions, a real tribut to Indians who live abroad and also to Americans who want to explore themselves. The characters come alive on paper. Each story takes the reader through diverse emotions:happy, sad, understanding, longing. Despite Ms. Lahiri's young age, she has a mature understanding of life and relationships of people at many stages of life. Her writing flows and urges you on. Each story is a wonderful surprise. I will read this book over and over again. It is a book to recommend to anyone who searches for the meaning of life through relationships. Ms. Lahiri absolutely deserves this years Pulitzer Price.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but maybe not Pulitzer Prize Worthy
Review: I like the story, The Third and Final Continent, which was published in the New Yorker Magazine summer fiction edition last year. I was really excited to hear a few months later that the author won the Fiction Pulitzer Prize for her book of short stories which included this one; so much so that I immediately went out and bought the book. However, much to my dismay, it didn't live up to my expectations. It seems like the two stories, 'The Third and Final Continent', and the title story, 'Interpreter of Maladies', were the only ones that were thoroughly written from beginning to end. It seems like Ms. Lahiri forgot to write conclusions for the other seven stories. At the end of some of the tales, I said to myself, "That's It! " Stories like 'A Temporary Matter', 'When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine', and 'Mrs. Sen's' end so abruptly that it almost ruins the whole story. I am giving the book four stars instead of three because all of the stories do have good concepts, even though Lahiri fails to follow through to the end. I am not sure now why the author won the Pulitzer and other awards. Maybe this is the mainstream literary world's attempt to find the next Salman Rushdie, like they are doing with Zadie Smith (author of White Teeth). However, if literary critics gave her the award for a good first attempt at writing, then maybe this is a good sign of what is to come. I hope Lahiri does better next time.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect shorts
Review: Lahiri achieves the difficult goal of encapsulating a character's life with all its complexity of emotion in a brief narrative. Not since John Cheever have I enjoyed short stories so much. Like Cheever, Lahiri gives the reader a peek into the personal lives of characters, who are surprising just like us, suffering or celebrating their circumstances. The author writes simple, but pentrating prose. Contrast with Annie Proulix's Wyoming Stories, which are also very good but so heavy and intense.
Rating: 
Summary: Very readable, OK .... but not fantastic
Review: I enjoyed some of the stories a great deal and found others rather boering and not well thought out or researched. The stories of contemporary Boston were the worst, Ms. Lahiri attempted to fill these with details, the fact that she got a great many of these facts wrong, detracted from the book. In general the stories where she allowed her vived imagination to do the work and concentrated on personal detail instead of the place detail were the best. I enjoyed the stories set in India the best with the exception of the title story. These were in general very sensetive well written and were easy to read. I found the charachters in Interpreter of Maladies unrealistic and very cardboard, she even managed to do that with the children who only feathured in the background. Mrs. Sen and The Third and Final continent are 2 stories that i really enjoyed. I found them to be at far higher standard than the rest of the book. They came across preceptive, sensitive and insightful. These stories are truely well woth reading. Mr. Prizada was also an excellent story Sexy was by far the worst story in the book full of stupid mistakes and out of charachter behavior. I found it difficult to understand how an avid runner is also an heavy smoker, and how come 2 people who both work in downtown Boston could not arrange meetings during the week. ALso Ms. Lahiri ought to know that the Boston Symphoney does not have saturday matinee concerts and public radio voulnteers not employees do most of the fund raising. I have no doubt that Ms. Lahiri will produce great fiction in the future, this is OK but not that great
Rating:
Summary: Global Lives: Interpreted
Review: One who is interested in sharing stories of people who have left homes in serach of new homes, people who move from place to place in search of jobs, cultures and meanings, this is the book. This collection of short stories tells us of our own conditions, of our own lives that have become global. Written in unpretentious prose and with disarming charm, we see reflections of our own transcultural experiences, our nostalgia, and our yearning for a new home. The story "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine" is my favorite. The story questions difference from the vantage point of an innocent girl. It recounts a terrible war that traumatized an entire population - young and old, men and women, parents and children. It is an attempt to understand the agony of a man over his family, far away from his homeland from the eyes of a little girl. I saw a faint shadow of Tagore's "The Man from Kabul" in this story. It is a story of empathy, love and the courage to overcome differences that divide rather than give us a sense of independence. The other stories, say "A Real Durwan" brings a Calcutta neighborhood to a larger audience. In this story class, caste and gender are all blended to present a composite culture with its warts and all.It is a book that does not hide or romanticize the gloom, loneliness,and the pangs of homesickness yet promises hope. The young author is an interpreter of cultures and compassions. Themes that endure in literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Underwhelming
Review: These short stories just aren't as good as pulitzer winning, new yorker published ones ought to be. They are well plotted and crafted, but if you are looking for an absolute literary star, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Vivid stories that stay with you...
Review: I found these short stories to be near perfection -- an authentic and original voice, absorbing plots, intriguing characters, and superb development. Months later, each story has stayed with me, and tweaked my imagination. I have recommended this book to several other individuals, and each has the same one-word descriptor: "Wow!"
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