Interpreter of Maladies - Supernormal Reads

Paperback, 198 pages

English language

Published April 20, 1999 by Mariner.

ISBN:: 978-0-618-10136-8
OCLC Number:: 759834673

(1 review)

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant.

27 editions

ralentina reviewed Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

A collection of excellent depressing stories

4 stars

Content warning Medium spoilers!

I inherited from @tascha a certain antipathy for Jhumpa Lahiri, which was increased by seeing her interviewed in an online event during which she came across as full of herself and patronizing. But no amount of antipathy can obscure the fact that this is a great book: subtle, gripping, thought-inducing. My favourite stories (in order of increasing heartwrenching-ness): - The title story, about an indian driver/tourist guide and his crash on a younger American mum, depressed and alienated by her own children. - "A Temporary Matter", a super-sad, sweet account of a breakup caused by the loss of a child. - "A Real Durwan", about a Bengali refugee who has found work as an informal cleaning lady / concierge in a low-middle class building, until the residents decide they need to climb up the social ladder of respectability and evict her.