Преводачът на болести

by Jhumpa Lahiri, Zornitsa Hristova (translator), Raycho Stanev (illustrator )

“Джумпа Лахири е един от онези писатели, които те карат да сграбчиш първия човек, когото срещнеш и да му кажеш: “Прочети това!” Тя е поразителен разказвач с ясно различим глас, око за нюансите и ухо за ироничното. Тя е един от най-големите майстори на краткия разказ, които съм чела.”
— Ейми Тан

“Лахири заявява себе си като един възхитително отличим нов глас. . . Тя е писател, притежаващ необикновена елегантност и уравновесеност. . . един неочаквано зрял дебют.”
— Мичико Какутани, The New York Times

“Лахири вдъхва непредсказуем живот във всяка страница и в края на всеки разказ на читателя му се иска да прекара цял роман с неговите герои. Няма нищо случайно в нейния успех: сюжетите и са конструирани елегантно като изящни математически доказателства.”
— Кейлъб Крейн, The New York Times Book Review

“Лахири притежава необикновен глас.”
— Салман Рушди

“Смайващо писане. . . Казано простичко, Лахири демонстрира удивителна зрелост и умението да си представя други животи. . . Всеки от разказите предлага нещо специално. Книгата ще възнагради своите читатели.”
— USA Today

“В езикът на Лахири няма нищо претрупано; тя използва метафорите пестеливо и богатствата се трупат неусетно.”
— Лора Шапиро, Newsweek

““Преводачът на болести” е произведение, което ни изпълва с удивление, възхищение и наслада, и което би трябвало да заеме своето място сред най-доброто в американската литература.”
– www.blogcritics.org

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, India, Book Club, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Literature

204 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri is a British-American author known for her short stories, novels, and essays in English and, more recently, in Italian.

Her debut collection of short-stories, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. The Namesake was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and was made into a major motion picture.

Unaccustomed Earth (2008) won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, while her second novel, The Lowland (2013) was a finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.

On January 22, 2015, Lahiri won the US$50,000 DSC Prize for Literature for The Lowland. In these works, Lahiri explored the Indian-immigrant experience in America.

In 2012, Lahiri moved to Rome, Italy and has since then published two books of essays, and began writing in Italian, first with the 2018 novel Dove mi trovo, then with her 2023 collection Roman Stories. She also compiled, edited, and translated the Penguin Book of Italian Short Stories which consists of 40 Italian short stories written by 40 different Italian writers. She has also translated some of her own writings and those of other authors from Italian into English.

In 2014, Lahiri was awarded the National Humanities Medal. She was a professor of creative writing at Princeton University from 2015 to 2022. In 2022, she became the Millicent C. McIntosh Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at her alma mater, Barnard College of Columbia University.

Reviews

[Jim Fonseca · Rating 5 out of 5]

How’s this for blurbs: when the female author published this collection of short stories at age 32 in 1999, she won the Pulitzer Prize, the Pen/Hemingway Award and the New Yorker’s Debut Book of the Year.

Like the author’s other collection of shorts that I have reviewed (Unaccustomed Earth, 2008) these stories are about Bengali immigrants in the US from the Bengal area of India, around Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). There are about 250 million Bengalis in the subcontinent, about 2/3 making up the Muslim nation of Bangladesh and about 1/3, mostly Hindus, in West Bengal, a state in India.



But, with the exception of two stories, these folks are not urban slum dogs --they are upper-income folks with PhD’s and MD’s who grew up speaking English in India and who came to the USA to be doctors, professors and engineers in the high-tech beltway bandit firms around Boston. They live in Boston townhouses and upscale suburbs. And there’s a twist to saying these stories are about “immigrants” because most folks in these stories were fully assimilated into the global upper class before they even arrived in the USA.

Here’s a sample of what the nine stories are about:

In the title story, a man who is an interpreter of native Indian languages for a doctor is also a tour guide for visitors to India. He tells this to a Bengali couple, with their kids, visiting from the states. The wife, desperate for someone to confide in, thinks he is like a psychological counselor and pours out her secrets, shocking the tour guide.

In “Mrs. Sen’s,” an eleven-year old boy learns the depth of the loneliness of a Bengali woman in Boston who desperately misses her native country and her large extended family back in India.

“A Real Durwan” is one of two stories set back in India, not in the USA. A poverty-stricken old woman, bent with age, has a job sweeping the stairwell in an apartment building. She sleeps on a pile of rags below the mailboxes. As improvements are made to the building the tenants decide they want a real concierge and toss her onto the street.

In “Sexy,” a young woman listens every day to her co-worker aghast at the infidelity of her cousin’s husband who has left his wife for a younger unmarried woman. Although she and the co-worker are best of friends, the woman can’t tell her that she herself is having an affair with a married Bengali man.

In “This Blessed House,” a young Bengali couple has just moved into a new home and they keep finding posters of Jesus behind closet doors, crosses, statues of Mary in the bushes and nativity scenes in nooks and corner. Over her husband’s objections, the wife collects these and displays them on the mantle. “ ‘We’re not Christian,’ Sanjeev said. Lately he had begun noticing the need to state the obvious to Twinkle.” Sanjeev is an introverted engineer. And it could just be that life-of-the-party Twinkle, despite her poor housekeeping skills, could just be the complementary partner Sanjeev needs if he has sense to hold on to her.

The stories in the author’s collection, Unaccustomed Earth, were very good but Maladies is excellent. No wonder it won so many awards.

I have read several other of Lahiri’s novels and collections of short stories. Below are links to my reviews of other books of hers:

The Lowland

Namesake

Whereabouts

Unaccustomed Earth – short stories

Map from portcities.org.uk

[Fabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know a book's good when someone asks you for a synopsis, or snippet, or impression, and all you can do is smile there, enveloped in some subtle magic that only you know about, & kinda forget what it, the book, was all about altogether. This happened with "Interpreter of Maladies", a perfectly-titled collection of short stories about Indian Americans in India or in the U.S. Their ages & experiences range from children to marrieds to 103 year-olds, from tourism in the old world to the natural assimilation to a new one.

The first story makes me shiver just thinking about it--I made my students read it as an example of the perfect short story. & the last one encapsulates the author's overall thesis perfectly. It's all a masterpiece. A privilege to read.

[Federico DN · Rating 2 out of 5]

Utter Sadness, minus one.

A collection of short stories by renowned Jhumpa Lahiri. Eight incredibly sad and nostalgic stories, with morsels of indian american culture. In a certain way this reminded me of Gabriel García Márquez, with that tragic mysticism that he used to imprint every single one of his tales. But the stories and novels of García Márquez, although mostly sad, are memorable, and impactful; they have closure, and overall end “well”, with a sort of tragic beauty. The stories of Jhumpa Lahiri are just tragic and mundanely depressing, leaving me only a feeling of profound sadness, and bitterness; minus one outstanding exception. Márquez I carry in my heart, and Lahiri, far from it. However, if you wish like feeling very depressed this is probably a perfect ten!

Go for the Best, consider the Good, whatever the Meh.

The Best :
★★★★★ "The Third and Final Continent." <-- This one is truly “Splendid!”

The Good :
★★★☆☆ "Interpreter of Maladies." [2.5]
★★★☆☆ "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine." [2.5]

The Meh :
★★☆☆☆ "A Real Durwan."
★★☆☆☆ "This Blessed House."
★★☆☆☆ "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar." [1.5]
★★☆☆☆ "A Temporary Matter." [1.5]
★☆☆☆☆ "Sexy." [1.5]
★☆☆☆☆ "Mrs. Sen's."

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PERSONAL NOTE :
[1999] [198p] [Collection] [Not Recommendable] [Outlier]
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★★★★★ The Third and Final Continent
★★☆☆☆ Interpreter of Maladies
★★★☆☆ Unaccustomed Earth

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Completa Tristeza, excepto uno.

Colección de cuentos cortos de la renombrada Jhumpa Lahiri. Ocho cuentos terriblemente tristes y nostálgicos, con bocaditos de cultura india americana. En cierto modo me hizo recordar a Gabriel García Márquez, con ese misticismo trágico que solía imprimirle a cada uno de sus relatos. Pero los cuentos y novelas de García Márquez, aunque trágicos, son memorables, e impactan; tienen cierre, y dentro de todo terminaban “bien”, con una especie de belleza trágica. Los cuentos de Jhumpa Lahiri son sólo trágicos y mundanamente deprimentes, dejándome sólo una sensación de profunda tristeza, y amargura; menos una única sobresaliente excepción. A Márquez lo llevo en el corazón, y a Lahiri, lejos de ahí. Sin embargo, ¡si tenés ganas de deprimirte mucho esto es probablemente un perfecto diez!

Ir por lo Mejor, considerar lo Bueno, loquesea lo Meh.

Lo Mejor :
★★★★★ "El Tercer y Ultimo Continente." <-- Este es verdaderamente “¡Espléndido!”

Lo Bueno :
★★★☆☆ "El Intérprete del Dolor." [2.5]
★★★☆☆ "Cuando el Señor Pirzada Venía a Cenar." [2.5]

Lo Meh :
★★☆☆☆ "Un Durwan de Verdad."
★★☆☆☆ "Esta Bendita Casa."
★★☆☆☆ "El Tratamiento de Bibi Haldar." [1.5]
★★☆☆☆ "Un Asunto Temporal." [1.5]
★☆☆☆☆ "Sexy." [1.5]
★☆☆☆☆ "En Casa de la Señora Sen."

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NOTA PERSONAL :
[1999] [198p] [Colección] [No Recomendable] [Minoría]
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[chai ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can officially attest that Interpreter of Maladies more than merits the rave, rapturous reviews printed on the back–this is a stunning success from Jhumpa Lahiri.

In Lahiri’s rich, delicate, precise voice, the miniature stories in this collection tingle on the skin. They are moving, disquieting, and, in some cases, brutally devastating. How Lahiri manages to atomize these incredibly full, dense lives into short form, moving her characters around Boston and Bengal with the ease of a fish through waves—I don’t know. What I do know is that one does not so much read this collection as live in it.

Lahiri writes in language that is alive and unexpected. My initial guesses at what was coming continuously went through some rather severe adjustments. Lahiri was, I quickly learned, always just one step ahead. Yet, at the same time, each unexpected outcome somehow also felt inevitable: the characters in these stories seem to carve out their own patterns, impervious to the shape of the narrative. I never knew where each story was going, and that too felt like life.

There are nine disparate stories in this collection. Together, they form a complete, cohesive, emotionally legible whole. They are stories about loss, exile, and dispersion, and, in any such stories, they are also about love. In tragic, lyrical strains, Lahiri expresses the transient, exilic intimacy that emerges from shared uprootedness and promises to dull the habitual estrangement of everyday life. Against the background of a foreign, sometimes less than caring world, the characters in these stories stretch themselves to reach for one another and hope for understanding. But the attachments they form are not always easy or uncomplicated. This kind of diasporic intimacy is fragile, fraught, and haunted by dreams of home and homeland. It cannot retrieve the past, nor can it anesthetize against the pain of displacement, and in most cases, it cannot last forever. Yet, as Lahiri shows us, the transient, imperfect quality of these pockets of intimacy does not diminish the power of the characters’ encounters and collisions with one another: in the intricacy that transforms stories into histories, we are, in some impossible-to-measure way, always already intertwined.

Perhaps that is why “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “Mrs. Sen’s,” and “The Third and Final Continent” are the stories I return to the most. They are stories about the people who pass through our lives like a vision, but nevertheless leave indelible traces. People whose presence makes it easier to not only endure but inhabit our experiences of exile. Each story trails off into afterimages of a closeness that can no longer exist, an intimacy that was always already forfeit—and each ending stole my breath.

I loved Interpreter of Maladies, and I am convinced that an encounter with one of these stories will not leave you unchanged.

[Brina · Rating 5 out of 5]

2024: Reading leads to rereading leads to writing. Anna Quindlen notes this in one of her essay collections that I have read multiple times- I will have to check my reviews and notes to verify which specific book. Each year thousands of books get published, each attempting to stand out from its peers. As a moderator in multiple group, I am always on the lookout for new books that I think the members of these groups will enjoy. As a reader, I rarely read new publications; at times ten or more years might elapse before I get to what was once a can’t miss novel. My 2024 reading theme has been reading upper echelon authors who are considered the masters of their craft. Unlike other years where I piece together new to me books for an enriching reading year, my 2024 includes a number of rereads of favorites across many genres. October was supposed to have been my challenge to read spooky books, but the best laid plans often fall short. This has been a month of family time and a lot of rereads, which have been both comforting and enriching. One author who inspires me as she has crafted an award winning career writing in multiple languages and genres is the esteemed Jhumpa Lahiri. Her first Pulitzer winning book sits on my shelf urging me to read it. After eight long years, I picked up her short story collection and savored every word, thinking how can she be a debut author. After following Lahiri’s distinguished career and returning to this first book, I see how Interpreter of Maladies was just the start; each book stood out more for its depth of language usage. These nine stories put Lahiri on the literary fiction map, and I enjoyed them more a second time around.

Standout stories:
When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine: The protagonist is a ten year old, first generation American born girl. Her parents were among the first wave of Indian immigrants, the father clinging to his native culture, the mother attempting to assimilate. Lilia is among the only non white children in her school. She learns American history and takes yearly field trips to Plymouth Rock, but these forays do not teach her about her own culture. Until Mr Pirzada joined her family for dinner, Lilia knew nothing about the India-Pakistaní war over a disputed region that the English neglected. Mr Pirzada fretted over the fate of his wife and seven daughters left behind in Dacca. Her brought Lilia nightly gifts, and she prayed for the well being of his family. He action comes to a climax on Halloween, when Lilia narrates words that are wise beyond her years. I picture Lilia as a young Lahiri because this along with the other stories occur in New England, mirroring Lahiri’s upbringing near Providence, Rhode Island. One could see that these stories fostered a kernel that became The Namesake, a full length novel discussing the Indian immigrant experience, a novel I now long to revisit.

Sexy features Miranda who engages in an affair with Dev. While the affair takes place, Miranda’s coworker Laxmi soothes her cousin, whose husband is concurrently engaging in an affair. Miranda listens to Laxmi’s phone conversations and questions her own doings and how they affect Dev’s wife. The events expose Miranda to immigrant culture, whereas before before meeting both Laxmi and Dev, she stuck to her own kind. And surprisingly, Miranda found herself enjoying aspects of other cultures, even stopping by an Indian grocery store after work a few times. It is Miranda rather than Dev who shows empathy and wonders if the affair is morally right. She sees what happens to Laxmi’s cousin and her son, both spiraling into depression. Gradually, she decides that her affair with Dev could ruin lives and slowly ends things, revealing both introspection and empathy of the human mind.

The Blessed House stood out the first time for its humor, and it touched me this second time in a similar manner. Mrs Sen’s reveals the difficulties faced by first wave immigrants who generally joined their spouses on college campuses. Mrs Sen was isolated from everyone she knew in a remote college campus, her entire family back in Calcutta. She could not drive and had no desire to do so whereas her husband was at wit’s end with what to do with her. In an isolated area with little public transportation and few Indians to befriend, Mrs Sen’s entire world was preparing supper in her university issued apartment. It made me wonder if Lahiri’s parents experienced similar early years in the United States and how they eventually adapted to life in a new county. Mrs Sen’s experience contrasts with that of the narrator and his wife in The Third and Final Continent. They arrive in Boston just as man arrives on the moon for the first time. Although they prefer tea to coffee and other reminders of Indian, this new couple makes the best of their life in America, eventually moving to the suburbs and having a son who enrolls in Harvard. This family does not forget where they came from but both work hard to achieve the American dream.

Lahiri’s work contrasts Indians in both India and the United States and how one’s origins effect their experience. This first book of hers was considered unique because in the late 1990s, the first wave of first generation Indian Americans born in the United States began to come of age. Lahiri’s family arrived earlier than most, and, through her writing, exposed other groups of Americans to the Indian American immigrant experience. Many immigrant groups experience similar feelings as they arrive in the melting pot that is the United States. The generation gap felt by Indians is hardly unique; what stands out for me in all of Lahiri’s work is the depth of her writing. These stories range from fifteen to thirty pages in length. The characters are well crafted and could easily develop into a full length novel. One could see how Lahiri ideas for the stories that became both The Namesake and The Lowland began here. It takes a special writer to craft short stories that engage the reader as well as a full length novel. Lahiri is one of the best. She is now focusing on translation of works in three languages and shorter nonfiction pieces involving these said languages. Although I am more drawn to nonfiction, she is one writer who I will stop everything for when she publishes new fiction. Her writing makes me smarter, so hopefully it will not take eight years to revisit this story collection that marked her as one of the best authors alive today, in any language.

2016: In 2000 Jhumpa Lahiri became the first Indian American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her short story collection The Interpreter of Maladies. In these nine poignant stories, Lahiri relates the Indian immigrant experience, connecting the tales and creating one voice for them. The stories shared a sadness of being separated from one's family by thousands of miles, yet also offered a glimmer of hope for their lives in India or the United States.

Not generally a reader of short stories, this year I read two powerful novels, Homegoing and The Book of Unknown Americans, which told one story in vignettes. Unlike these two books, however, Maladies is nine separate stories which share one overarching theme. The characters never meet even if they came from the same city in India to the same city in America, craving the company and friendship of other Indian Americans. Lahiri does a masterful job of giving purpose to her protagonists even if in some cases we only get to know them for fifteen short pages. As each story begins in a negative light and ends positively, the reader looks forward to each successive story in the collection.

Even though each story is brilliant in its own right, three stand out in creating an upbeat environment upon conclusion: the keynote story The Interpreter of Maladies where Mrs. Das comes to terms with herself as the story ends; The Story of Bibi Haldar where the title character is ostracized and desires to marry above all else; and the ending story The Third and Final Continent with an unnamed protagonist who looks back on his first days in America thirty years later. All share the theme of Indians who find it easier to hang on their customs than assimilate, creating people proud of their culture yet longing for their old country. This did not seem all too different to me than immigrants from other ethnicities and Lahiri does a superb job of making the Indian experience stand alone.

Lahiri was raised in suburban Boston in Rhode Island and appears to create her characters from childhood memories. Whether it was two Indian girls going trick or treating or a newlywed couple grappling with whether to observe Hinduism or Christianity, the stories are written in a labor of love. Each story is penned with the details of the color and texture of the women's saris to the brand of tea that the characters drank. From reading the stories of of these immigrants, I felt empathy with their lives as second half twentieth century arrivals to America.

Jhumpa Lahiri has weaved together stories of sadness yet has her readers leave feeling positive about her characters. Although short in length, each story is powerful from start to finish and has the readers desiring to know more about the characters' lives. A collection worthy of the Pulitzer, I look forward to reading more of Lahiri's work. Interpreter of Maladies rates 5 bright stars.

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing short stories is not easy. A novel is an easier literary form in a way - it allows you the space for character and plot development and gives you the space to slowly fall in love with it.

Short story, on the other hand, is like literary speed dating; it only has so much time to set itself apart and make a somewhat decent expression. It's much easier for me to think of good novelists than good short story writers. Let's try - Hemingway, Poe, Bradbury, Chekhov, maybe a few more. Well, I guess Jhumpa Lahiri can join the exclusive club. Her novel The Namesake left me wanting more, but her short stories are very well-done. Apparently the Pulitzer people thought the same thing.

If I were to describe the stories in Interpreter of Maladies in a single word, it'd be "melancholy". They are permeated by quiet, subdued, rich, and almost beautiful sadness; sorrow that paradoxically sometimes seems almost uplifting, even cathartic. The stories are slow to unfold, contemplative, intensely lyrical, nostalgic, and quietly moving.

"Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."

Lahiri writes about India and Indian heritage, be it Indian immigrants to American university towns or people in India. The country itself, its culture, its beliefs, its traditions, and the pain of missing it are ever-present in her fiction. The Namesake dealt with exactly the same premise, and the similarities between that novel and these stories are profound. The similar theme, repeating over and over in the stories, makes you anticipate the storylines, but somehow it does not detract from enjoyment of the prose and the stories. It's not about the plot; Lahiri's storytelling hinges on the inner world of her characters, their hopes, dreams, and memories.

"Whenever he is discouraged, I tell him that if I can survive on three continents, then there is no obstacle he cannot conquer. While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and certainly I am not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."

Overall, I enjoyed this story collection quite a bit. I chose to ration it over a few days rather than swallow them all at once, and it was a good experience. I definitely recommend this book and easily give it 4 stars. Now I'd be curious to see if and how Lahiri can expand her themes and touch on the subjects other than immigrant experience.

[Always Pouting · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually don't enjoy short stories that much. Collections of short stories tend to have stories that are really strong mixed together with ones that aren't and this was no exception. I do think the foreward for the kindle edition that I had contributed a lot to my enjoyment of the stories. It really helped frame a connecting thread through out each story and tied it back to the title of the collection. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed the stories as much without having the foreward highlight the themes to look for or without it explaining what made the collection great. I find that often that is the case, like i definitely wouldn't have understood the significance and enjoyment of Don Quixote without the foreward. I do find short stories a lot less satisfying than novels though, they lack a certain build up and depth usually that I would get with a novel, and I tend to find the endings to them to feel much less strong. I don't think the last story, The Third and Final Continent, was that great and definetly felt like one of the weakest. I did like The Treatment of Bibi Haldar, This Blessed House, Mrs. Sen's, Interpreter of Maladies, and When Mr.Pirzada Came to Diner to name a few. I might be forgetting some. Anyway the book definitely did a good job exploring themes of cultural differences, living in diaspora, and a general malaise of life. A 4.5 stars for this one.

[Pakinam Mahmoud · Rating 4 out of 5]

ترجمان الأوجاع..مجموعة قصصية رائعة للكاتبة الأمريكية الهندية الأصل جومبا لاهيري و قد احتلت مكانة متميزة بين الأدباء الأمريكيين بهذه المجموعة التي تعد أول أصدراتها الأدبية...

الكتاب عبارة عن ٩ قصص قصيرة بتتكلم فيهم الكاتبة عن تفاصيل حياة الهنود المغتربين في الولايات المتحدة ومحاولتهم للتأقلم كما إنها تلقي الضوء علي إختلاف الثقافات ،الإغتراب ومشاكله الحنين للوطن ومحاولات البحث عن الهوية في مجتمع جديد..

إسلوب السرد رائع..الشخصيات مرسومة بعناية..الترجمة كمان ممتازة و علي غير العادة في في القصص القصيرة تتميز هذه المجموعة بإن معظم القصص حلوة جداً و متنوعة و حتلاقي نفسك مستمتع جداً أثناء القراءة خصوصاً في قصة شأن مؤقت،ترجمان الأوجاع،عندما أتي السيد بيرزادة و امرأة مثيرة...

يُقال عن جومبا لاهيري إنها نوع من الكُتّاب الذين يجعلونك ترغب في أن توقف أول شخص تراه وتحثه علي قراءة كتابها ..وأعتقد إن عندهم حق:)

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love an unpopular opinion, but...

i have to admit this just is as good as everyone says it is.

that's the review.

---------------------
tbr review

actually reading books i was assigned in school but never picked up in order to achieve genius status

[Dolors · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Interpreter of maladies” evokes that space in limbo, that straddling identity of immigrants trying to start a new life abroad and the cultural displacement they suffer both in their native and adopted countries. Enriched with colorful details of the Indian tradition, cuisine and celebrations, this collection of nine stories addresses the universal struggle of getting adapted to the ways of a foreign homeland without losing one’s original roots.

Lahiri’s prose is fluid and simple, but it more than meets the challenge of building a bridge between two different worlds with amazing precision, delineating a tight-knitted atmosphere that serves as common ground for all the stories. Men and women who strive for balance in arranged marriages, resisting the strain of prolonged homesickness, isolation and guilt; feelings deeply rooted in the complex web of human relationships that alter the way time, place and expectations are perceived.
The characters that populate Lahiri’s world live in the tense duality of being exiles, but proud to have left India to build a prosperous life in the West. Their Indian heritage acts as a catalyzer for all the events that seem to unfold in slow motion like a sequence of images that uphold the solitary confinement of the characters, leading up to an anticlimactic outcome that is muffled by the mundane quality of the troubles that haunt them.

The succinct, restrained expression of Lahiri’s storytelling is gradually accumulated and acquires the poetic force of what has been hinted at but not completely articulated into words; a full world of possibilities that amounts to a summation of silent questions that don’t aspire to be answered.
The future is put on hold in that familiar sensation of not knowing what is going to cross our paths next, maybe an opportunity, maybe a reversal, maybe a caressing whisper that assures us that everything is going to be alright. Or maybe all at once, making a perfect conjunction of imperfect circumstances, just like it happens more often than not in everyday life.
Maybe that’s the reason why Lahiri’s stories sound so intimate and real; because they tell our life stories with all their mundane struggles without dismissing the beauty of their ordinariness.

[Andy Marr · Rating 4 out of 5]

That horrible glitch in the Goodreads app caused my review for this book to be deleted as I tried to update my rating.

This is the fifth time this has happened to me, and i know plenty of other users who have been similarly affected. Sort it out, Goodreads.

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story a day keeps boredom away and makes you genius.

✿ Day 1 :-Temporary matter - 3.25 stars
pretty mediocre in my opinion but it's my first time reading Lahiri books and she has a flair for words.

✿ Day 2 :- When Mr. Pirzada came for dinner - 4 stars
well well well that was sad and sweet.
Ps:- I like smart kids.

✿ Day 3 :- Interpreter of maladies - 4.25 stars
it was literal until it transcended to sophisticated level

✿ Day 4 :- The real durwan - 3.75 stars
poignant and left me with a question "what could have happened next?"

✿ Day 5 :- Sexy - 2 stars
it was flat for me compared to other stories that I have read!

✿ Day 6:- Mrs. Sen - 2.75 stars
all bout attire and cooking, I don't mind but its like repititive

✿ Day 7:- The blessed house- 2.5 stars
started really great but then went downhill and the ending ruined it all

✿ Day 8:- Treatment of Bibi Halder - 3.5 stars
pretty intriguing and interesting, every Indian can relate

✿ Day 9:- The third and final continent - 3 stars
a perfect end to the book

Overall = 3.2 stars ~ 3 stars

[Nishat · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this stirring collection of short stories, Jhumpa Lahiri displays the diasporic struggle of men, assailed by nightmares of home, over the dilemma of assimilating into the new world or holding on to the past culture.

The author exhibits her majestic power of story telling with such grace and allure that the most wonderful thing happened to me today. I seemed to have lost the sense of 'time' while reading this splendid depiction of the plight of the homeless. This doesn't happen often.

I was put into a trance by Lahiri's portrayal of the bereaved couple lamenting the death of their unborn child and confiding their frightful secrets in the dark during an electrical outrage. When Mr. Pirzada came to dine, I as well prayed for the conflicts to come to an end and for the rightful birth of my country. When Miranda wronged a stranger, the vermillion, promising marital bliss threatened me too. Along with the girl once gripped by a mysterious ailment, I was cured. Like the interpreter of maladies, I have dreamt of settling disputes of which I alone can understand. After all, home has beckoned us all.

My thoughts have been vigorously rejigged. Lahiri's steadfast curiosity about human valor and her beautiful drawing of human spirit have left me stunned.

[Jr Bacdayan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are certain things in life that bewilder and baffle us with their staggering normality. Things so simple yet unmistakably captivating, common-place yet elegant, subtle yet profound. Jumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories is one of those things. She writes with a grace and an elegance that transforms her simple stories into a delicate myriad of words and feelings. Each story transforming you into a singularity bound to its harmonious beauty. The different stories somehow seem to be explicitly woven together to make a sari of the most beautiful kind. I felt this cumulative effect of an interconnection between all these produced feelings. This delicious melancholy that only the deepest parts of our soul can feel.

“She watched his lips forming the words, at the same time she heard them under her skin, under her winter coat, so near and full of warmth that she felt herself go hot.”

“It was only then, raising my water glass in his name, that I knew what it meant to miss someone who was so many miles and hours away, just as he had missed his wife and daughters for so many months.”

Her stories transcend the cultural & ethnic aspect of things, any person can relate to all these experiences. For me, Interpreter of Maladies is a humanistic book that highlights the common experiences of all people, not just the Indians, while at the same time show-casing a rich culture that some people are not familiar with. She made me feel attached and connected to these characters that had few similarities with me. She made me feel the bond with these people, their experiences, their sadness, their joys, their pain. She made me understand. She made me long for home. She made me feel human.

“Eventually I took a square of white chocolate out of the box, and unwrapped it, and then I did something I had never done before. I put the chocolate in my mouth, letting it soften until the last possible moment, and then as I chewed it slowly, I prayed that Mr. Pirzada’s family was safe and sound. I had never prayed for anything before, had never been taught or told to, but I decided, given the circumstances, that it was something I should do. That night when I went to the bathroom I only pretended to brush my teeth, for I feared that I would somehow rinse the prayer out as well. I wet the brush and rearranged the tube of paste to prevent my parents from asking any questions, and fell asleep with sugar on my tongue.”

This book shines a light into the dark recesses of our lives. Into those places where we keep our darkest secrets, those places that even we may not be aware of. It shines a light, not a glaring white light from a bulb or a fluorescent, but rather a small light. A light from a candle that illuminates only the most necessary of things. Those things we often neglect when the bright light showcases everything around us. The weak candle-light casts a melancholy feeling only to these important things. But really, maybe that melancholy light is all we need to notice things that really matter.

"In the dimness, he knew how she sat, a bit forward in her chair, ankles crossed against the lowest rung, left elbow on the table."
"They each took a candle and sat down on the steps."
"Something happened when the house was dark. They were able to talk to each other again."
"Once it was dark and he began kissing her awkwardly on her forehead and her face, and though it was dark he closed his eyes, and he knew that she did too."
"As he watched the couple, the room went dark and he spun around. Shoba turned the lights off. She came back to the table and sat down, and after a moment Shukumar joined her. They wept together, for the things they now knew."

As I end, let me borrow from the book's goodreads summary. I do believe that this paragraph captures that very essence of Ms. Lahiri's beautiful craftsmanship.

"There are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept." In that single line Jhumpa Lahiri sums up a universal experience, one that applies to all who have grown up, left home, fallen in or out of love, and, above all, experienced what it means to be a foreigner, even within one's own family.

"As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."

[JimZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just superlative. Her writing transported me immediately into whatever world she had created.

I was fully immersed with every story. Her writing is not flowery or verbose. At the end of each story, I “got it”. I understood the point she was making. I did not walk away from a story asking “what did I just read? I don’t understand the point of this story”. Some of the stories had sad endings, some had hopeful endings. But regardless of the tone of the ending, I felt satisfied—that I had read another good story.

I just finished a story a couple days ago that won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and I could not understand why it merited such an award from that prestigious institution. Well, this collection won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000—I could fully understand the deserving recognition this author got. A superb job. I will want to read more of her. I just read a very nice book review by a GR reviewer, Glenn, of her collection of essays on book covers, The Clothing of Books (2016), so that will certainly be on my TBR list!

In looking at one of the reviews for this book, I couldn’t put it any better than they did: “Within a short number of pages, Lahiri successfully articulates characters that are multifaceted, dynamic and wholly original. Her prose in general is on point—simple yet rich.”
https://www.booknookrevs.com/nook/rev...

Stories in order of their appearance and where they were initially published (last story was apparently new for this collection) and my ratings:
• "A Temporary Matter" (previously published in The New Yorker) — 5 stars
• "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine" (previously published in The Louisville Review) —4 stars
• "Interpreter of Maladies" (previously published in the Agni Review) — 10 stars if I could
• "A Real Durwan" (previously published in the Harvard Review) — 4 stars
• "Sexy" (previously published in The New Yorker) — 4 stars
• "Mrs. Sen's" (previously published in Salamander) — 3.5 stars
• "This Blessed House" (previously published in Epoch) — 5 stars
• "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar" (previously published in Story Quarterly) — 3.5 stars
• "The Third and Final Continent" — 7 stars if I could

Reviews:
• https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytim...
• http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/p...
•https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream...

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection pf short stories that won the Pulitzer in 2000. Lahiri's limpid text evokes the sadness and nostalgia of being an ex-par - something I can definitely identify with. She has a wonderful word palette allowing her to create these small snapshots of life as a Bengali. My favorite was the title story about a part-time taxi driver taking an American family around to see temples near Calcutta. The driver interprets for country people at a medical clinic as he studied languages that are no longer widely spoken. The way in which the author invokes the cultural distance between the driver and the tourists and his infatuation with the mother/wife of the family is beautiful without being sappy - and sincere enough that the woman actually confesses an infidelity to him. The saddest story I felt was that of Mrs. Sen who takes brief care of little Elliot for a short time in which he learns about frailty and loneliness (mirrored between that of his mother and that of Mrs. Sen). The last story is the most positive and demonstrates how love can evolve from arranged marriages - sometimes due to the most unlikely circumstances.

This is a beautiful book (and completes my reading of all Pulitzer winners between 2000 and 2016) and makes me want to read her longer fiction such as The Namesake.

[Sawsan · Rating 4 out of 5]

أول مجموعة قصصية للكاتبة جومبا لاهيري
أسلوب جميل وهادئ في الحكي عن مشاهد من حياة المغتربين الهنود
تجمع لاهيري التفاصيل الخاصة والعامة لترسم عوالم الشخصيات
في كل قصة صورة من العلاقات والهموم والمشاعر وضغوط الواقع
وتتناول خلال السرد مفردات الهجرة.. الاغتراب والحنين والثقافات المختلفة

[Laysee · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Interpreter of Maladies’ is a collection of nine short stories that depict the lives of Indian nationals who live and work overseas or Indians born in foreign lands and have no knowledge or experience of life in India. The stories record the struggles of some adapting to the new culture and missing the old. A common theme is cultural displacement and alienation.

Each story touches on a malaise of sorts: estrangement between couples, infidelity, isolation, homesickness, and economic hardship. Lahiri interprets these ‘maladies’ to us with understanding and compassion.

What I enjoyed the most is how these stories acquaint the reader with Indian traditional practices: food (e.g., egg curry, mango chutney) and its preparation; clothing (e.g., flowing saris); Hindu marriage rituals (e.g., application of Sindoor, vermillion powder applied to hair parting of married women); home practices (e.g., floor-sitting for meals).

This is a remarkable debut work by Jhumpa Lahiri. It won the Putlizer Prize for Fiction and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in the year 2000.

I appreciate Lahiri’s simple and lucid prose and skilful storytelling.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

“He learned not to mind the silences.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies



Some of the stories were brilliant, some were very good and only a couple were meh. This novel captures for me the right tension between foreignness and loneliness and those small wires, crumbs of connection that bridge people and cultures. Yeah, I dug it.

Personally, I don't care about awards (See William H. Gass). And I really don't care that she's a woman (other than the fact that I'm trying to read more women this year) or that she's Indian American (although both are a significant part of this collection).

I don't believe she was subsidized for either being a woman or being Indian, of if she was I really don't care. Everybody is subsidized by something. White men get the white men subsidy. The rich get the rich subsidy. The educated get the educated subsidy. The poor and broken get the helluva life story subsidy. If I could sum it up, I'd guess that this book probably won the writer lottery: the right good book gets published at the perfect momemnt.

The stories themselves gave me the same temperate, nuanced, soft vibe I get when I read Kazuo Ishiguro or Julian Barnes. So, at least in my mind, she fits/resonnates more into/with the: über-educated, upper-middle, British/East Coast US, 'outsider now inside' club(s) more than the female writer or even Indian American clubs. But then again, I could be wrong.

Anyway, I don't have to say that this was her first published book and she still ended up writing (from what I've heard) solid, serious fiction. So that.

Brilliant stories:

A Temporary Matter
Interpreter of Maladies
Mrs Sen's
This Blessed House

Good stories:

When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine
Sexy
The Third and Final Continent

Meh stories:

A Real Durwan
The Treatment of Bibi Haldar

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

We all have the same sorts of stories

🇮🇳 I love reading stories that are birthed in other cultures. I grew up eating Ukrainian and German dishes because my father’s family line was from Ukraine and my mother’s from Germany (though somehow Switzerland figured in there too because mother’s mother at one time carried a Swiss passport). In the same way, in this collection of short stories, they are eating the cuisine of India as they make new lives for themselves in America.

So, even though it is easy enough for anyone to eat East Indian cuisine in most cities in North America, it is a different thing to grow up with it, and the language, and the different clothing and customs. Just as I grew up with Ukrainian and German words, clothing and traditions. The thing is though, as I find whenever I read stories from other cultures, we all have the same sorts of stories.

Here we find stories of marriage, difficult or pleasant, stories of illness, family tragedies, death and grief. Things we all understand and have experienced regardless of our bloodlines or nationalities. Here we also find stories of love found, joy found, careers enjoyed, the blessings and struggles of births and childhood.

We also are invited to explore the different beliefs of the characters in these stories. One of the most enjoyable and amusing in this regard is This Blessed House where a Hindu couple discover their new home was previously owned by Christians who left many religious artifacts behind. The wife loves them and displays them while the husband dislikes them and wants to toss them: “We are Hindu!” You can read the story to find out who has their way.

🇮🇳In any collection like this, some tales will appeal more than others or appear better written. Nevertheless, much can be gained by reading all of them (or most of them if you choose to skip those that don’t suit you). The entire book can be read and absorbed in a few hours. I will likely seek out other books by the author.

[Adina ( back from Vacay…slowly recovering) · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of short stories, mostly concerning the experience of Indian emigrants in America. I do not usually read short stories but I saw many good reviews about this collection and I decided to give it a try. I am glad I did and it made me want to read more short stories in the future. All stories are a little bit bittersweet, some even made my cry.

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published in 1999, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction 2000 has nine short stories: A Temporary Matter, When Mr Pirzada Came to Dine, Interpreter of Maladies, A Real Durwan, Sexy, Mrs Sen's, This Blessed House, The Treatment of Bibi Haldar and The Third and Final Continent.

The stories talk about how we get caught up in our lives and missing out on the genuine pleasures of life which we keep denying ourselves of, immigrants and culture mix, sentiments and emotions, our beliefs and unsettling human nature, marriages and relationships, memories and moments that matter, home and belongingness.

I read this collection two years ago; I reread it again and it still stands good as one of the best short story collections ever written.

The writing is unique, beautiful and has a voice like it doesn't need many words.

The stories have a deeper meaning to each and are told in a way that you would want more when they end.

This book still stands out bold today. If at all, you've been looking for a short story collection, pick up this book. It has lots to offer.

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب مترجم دردها نوشته جومپا لاهیری، مجموعه‌ای از نه داستان کوتاه است که تجربیات زندگی هندی‌ها و هندی-آمریکایی‌ها را بیان کرده و چالش‌های هویتی و فرهنگی آن‌ها را به تصویر می‌کشد .
داستان‌های کتاب دارای ویژگی‌ها و خصوصیاتی هستند که نه تنها زیبایی ادبی آن‌ها را برجسته کرده، بلکه به عمق و غنای آن نیز افزوده.
شخصیت‌های داستان‌ها معمولاً بین دو فرهنگ متضاد شرقی و غربی گرفتار هستند و این تنش‌های فرهنگی بر شکل‌گیری هویت آن‌ها اثر گذاشته و چالش‌های متعددی را ایجاد می‌کند. لاهیری با خلق این شخصیت‌ها نشان می‌دهد که چگونه مهاجران تلاش می‌کنند در دنیای جدید خود جا بیفتند و هویت خود را حفظ کنند . لاهیری به خوبی توانسته تنهایی، عشق، سردرگمی و ناامیدی را در میان شخصیت‌های داستان نمایش دهد.
موضوعات داستان‌ها معمولاً عمومی هستند، مانند جستجوی هویت، چالش‌های خانوادگی، تلاطم‌های عاطفی و تمایلات انسانی. این موضوعات تنها به زندگی شخصیت‌های داستان‌ها و یا ملیت خاصی محدود نمی‌شوند، بلکه می‌توانند برای هر فردی و هر فرهنگی مرتبط و قابل درک باشند.
داستان‌های کتاب به‌خوبی تضادهای موجود در زندگی را نشان می‌دهند. این تضادها شامل تضاد میان نسل‌ها، فشارهای اجتماعی، و انتظارات فرهنگی است که شخصیت‌های داستان در تلاش برای سازگاری با آن‌ها هستند. لاهیری به احساسات و تجربیات درونی شخصیت‌ها پرداخته و تلاش کرده تا تنهایی، پریشانی ، خستگی عاطفی ، سردرگمی و ناامیدی را در میان شخصیت‌هایش نشان دهد .
نویسنده با انتخاب واژگان مناسب و جملات مؤثر، فضای احساسی داستان و احساسات شخصیت ها را به مخاطب منتقل می‌کند. توصیف‌های دقیق او از محیط و جزئیات زندگی روزمره، به متن زیبایی بخشیده و فرهنگ غنی و سنت های پیچیده هندی ها رابه خاطر خواننده می آورد .
داستان‌های کتاب مترجم دردها را می‌توان دلنشین و تأثیرگذار توصیف کرد. این داستان‌ها با روایتی جذاب، تجربه‌های انسانی را به‌ زیبایی به تصویر می‌کشند . لاهیری با مهارت در انتقال احساسات و دغدغه‌های شخصیت‌ها، داستان‌هایی آفریده که نه‌تنها خواندنی و گیرا هستند، بلکه موجب تفکر و تأمل در مورد هویت، فرهنگ و روابط انسانی نیز می‌شوند.

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection won the Pen/Hemingway Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and— most impressively—the New Yorker Debut of the Year. When a book receives this amount of awards, it’s a) lazy—why give two prestigious prizes to the SAME book? b) going to give the reader unrealistic expectations and c) a conspiracy of critics. This collection arrived at a time when an Indian writer hadn’t been given a Pulitzer or important award, and the committee wanted to expand its reach outside middle-class white male Americans. The stories, mercifully, still contain American settings, but have enough watered down Indianness in them to appeal to a mass market, and enough simple sentiment and sentence structure to universalize love loss sadness relationships and so on. Also, Jhumpia is a woman, and a woman hadn’t won in a while. The stories in this collection are fine but all utilise the same straightforward, overly descriptive, consciously “traditional” narrative voice, one that doesn’t take risks or explore interesting forms or ideas, falling back on saccharine or poetic tropes to go for the heartstrings and not the intellect, using human dramas in far-off homelands to manipulate the immigrant reader rather than new or novel techniques. This is not to say she isn’t a talented writer. Only I feel violently this mode of writing is beating a middlebrow, Oprah-shaped drum, and doesn’t do much except warm a heart or state the obvious.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is interesting to reflect on the fact that humans are so mismatched to the lives and people they choose for themselves!

A collection of short stories, navigating the intricate web of cultural clashes in India, UK and USA, moving back and forth in history, from the trauma of the Partition to the moon landing and beyond that, circling around families for twenty pages just to let go of them when the reader thinks the narrative starts to create a pattern of sense, this is a wonderful reading experience! And bizarrely, the loosely connected short stories seem to match well in their description of misfits.

Why do we live with people we don't feel belong to us, with people who try to suppress what we value as treasures rather than celebrating with us?

Why is a close relationship so often similar to an act of slow suffocation?

Can we blame it on the custom of arranged marriages, which appear in some of the stories? Hardly, for the marriages that were founded on physical attraction generate the same issues. Can we blame it on the institution of marriage itself? Hardly, for the role of mistress is just as difficult to bear. Can we make it a gender issue? Hardly, for husbands are not exempt from the suffocation, even though they may have slightly more freedom of movement. Can we blame it on a specific culture? Hardly, for humans are humans whether they live in deepest poverty in Calcutta or in brilliant luxury in a university town in New England.

Funnily, the character who seemed to develop the most strength and inner happiness in the end was the sick young woman in India who was rejected by everyone, even her family, and who found herself pregnant and forced to raise a child on her own in "disgrace".

She was "cured".

Cured of her seizures, cured of the pressure to adapt to the expectations of others. Cured of trying to be matched, she formed her own pattern.

Brilliant stories, wonderfully human!

[Dream.M · Rating 5 out of 5]

به قدری از داستانهای این کتاب لذت بردم که وسوسه شدم از زن عموم بپیچونمش. ( خودم براش خریدم)
خدا اگر کمی انصاف داشته باشه، باید دزدهای کتاب رو به جای خنک‌تری از جهنم بفرسته یا اگر خیلی مهربون باشه میتونه مارو بفرسته به جای گرم و خشک‌تر بهشت. خلاصه کاش حساب مارو با بقیه دزدها یکی نکنه .
......
درباره خود کتاب هم که مجموعه ۹ داستان کوتاهه با تم فاصله. ( این کلمه رو از یه ریویوو کش رفتم) و راوی های داستانها در همه شون مهاجران بنگالی_هندی هستن .
خیلی خوبن آقا

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, extraordinary - there aren't enough superlatives for this one!

The first story, A Temporary Matter tells of a young married couple who must endure a one hour power outage for five consecutive nights. They determine that in the darkness they will tell each other something they've never before told one another. In just a few pages Lahiri exposes the secret feelings of these individuals. And then she ends the story in a completely unexpected way. Rarely will I gasp while reading, though shedding tears is commonplace. I did both.

Lahiri also has a way of seeing and describing ordinary objects in a new and different way - new to me anyway. In a later story, this sentence I read and reread:

The beach was barren and dull to play on alone; the only neighbors who stayed on past Labor Day, a young married couple, had no children, and Eliot no longer found it interesting to gather broken mussel shells in his bucket, or to stroke the seaweed, strewn like strips of emerald lasagna on the sand.

Emerald lasagna is such a perfect description. Never again will I see seaweed without thinking of this story of Eliot and Mrs. Sen, who wouldn't learn to drive, who chopped vegetables with her special knife from "home" and who wanted whole fish to cook.

Each of the nine stories in Interpreter of Maladies shares people in slightly different situations. Lahiri's characters are ordinary people made extraordinary. They lead simple lives, but see life as special. She makes it special for me.

[Greta G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone who hasn’t heard about Jhumpa Lahiri’s award winning collection of short stories yet, hasn’t been paying attention. This is the 9.178th review on the book, and I’m the 140.434th Goodreads member to rate it. My review will probably land somewhere on the 30th spot. Not at all because it’s good, but because I was lucky to have found supportive friends, who understand how important it is for a person to get a little attention and to be able to share their experiences with others. We understand each other; reading is a solitary occupation and being able to share that in a group of like-minded people makes it a less solitary experience.
And that’s exactly what these stories are about; the sense of belonging. Feeling that you belong is as important as the need for food, or sleep, or even breathing. It gives value to your life ; finding a supportive community, or having supportive friends, family or neighbors, and being able to be a supportive member of such a community yourself, helps you to find meaning in your life.
The main characters in these stories, all of Indian origin, and most of them migrants in America, struggle with this sense of belonging. The melancholic stories deal with love and loss, marriage and relationships, bonding and fitting in with others, receiving some attention and being valued. Whether you’re rich or poor, married or single, migrant or nonmigrant, sick or healthy, introvert or extrovert, male or female; we all crave belongingness. Jhumpa Lahiri’s emotional stories convey this need brilliantly and won’t leave you unaffected.
So if you push that ‘like’ button, it means much more to me than a position among the 9.179 reviews on this book. In fact, that position is totally irrelevant. What it really means to me is that you’re giving me a real sense of belonging to this community of readers, and a sense of being valued. And I’m immensely grateful to each one of you for that. Belonging is not competing for a ranking, but nevertheless for many people it’s a daily fight. And this book reminded me of the importance of belonging.

[Heba · Rating 4 out of 5]

هنا بنعومة شفيفة يصلك الأنين الخافت لهذه المجموعة القصصية المتميزة عن المهاجرين من الأصول الهندية والبنغالية في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية...
وإذ بالصوت السردي الهادىء يصطحبك برفقته لتتأمل حياة هؤلاء المغتربين عن أوطانهم ، تتوالى أمام ناظريك صور حياتهم اليومية بكل تفاصيلها الدقيقة بألوانها المتباينة ، زواياها الخفية ،و تمزق أرواحهم بين الغياب والاغتراب...
شيء ما يتوارى وراء جدار الصمت يوخزك ألماً...يباغتك رابطة الصداقة التى قد عقدتها مع جميع الشخصيات بلا استثناء...
تجمعك بهم مشاعر حميمية دافئة ، تراك تنصت لأوجاعهم ، وإلى ذاك الانكسار في نبراتهم...تتملى في ابتسامتهم المتجمدة التي تخشى أن تذوب فتكشف عن ذاك الحزن الدفين بدواخلهم...، ملامح وجوههم التي تأبى أن تلين إلا لما كل ما هو تقليدي ينتمي لموطنهم الأصلي..
ونظراتهم الحائرة التي تبحث عن مكانٍ تلوذ به ذواتهم في أرض غريبة مجهولة....
هنا عندما تشحن ظلك إلى أبعد نقطة بالعالم لانقاذ شيء ما تجهل ماهيته غير أنك تتوق دوماً لروحك التي غادرتها هناك..
عندما تقودك الحياة لمسارات لم تكن لتتوقعها...
عندما تنتظر رسائل الأهل وتفض أغلفتها وتبادر بقراءتها فإذا بدموعك تريق الكلمات ويغدو كل شيء متناهي الصغر لا يسع حنينك الجارف لموطنك...
أخيراً..هنالك أوجاع تفقدك الاحساس بالحياة بأسرها ، وبينما تحاول أن تُلملم الكلمات من هنا وهناك لصياغتها ، تراك عاجزاً عن تقديم تفسيراً لها و تتمنى لو أن هنالك ترجمان للأوجاع يتولى المهمة عنك وبينما تتمسك بطوق النجاة تتساءل :
" أليس هناك ما تقوله..؟ ".....

[Kavitha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once again, a very depressing storyline from yet another author of Indian origin. Remember! I am not being parochial here, I am Indian myself. Being very familiar with Indian cinematography and screenplays, I know that Indians are prone to over emphasizing on family sentiments and emotions. But what I fail to understand is how authors based out of other countries too have the same idea of applying sentiments in a very negative sense to their stories. It also beats me how this won the Pulitzer, just the same way it does to think that God of Small Things won the Booker!

But to Lahiri's credit, her prose is very simplistic and is a pleasure to read, contrary to Roy's. Also, Lahiri's vivid descriptions of life of immigrants in the US is very realistic. But again, I am not sure if I should be giving her too much credit in this regard. She is based out of US and she knows the nuances of life in US (the peanut butter and jelly combination etc.). So, that probably never involved too much research. Real credit goes to authors who write about lifestyles that they are totally unfamiliar with.Take Yann Martel (Yes!He is one of my favorite authors!) for example, his description of life in India in his award winning book, Life Of Pi, is commendable. Unfamiliar with India as he was, he sure did his homework before he wrote the book.

I am currently reading The Namesake by Lahiri to see if I can change my opinion on her writings. After all, reading one book isn't always enough to rate an author who has worked so hard on writing full fledged books!