INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BOOK
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date : January 2000
Format: Hardcover, paperback, audiobook, and ebook
Print length : 208 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction - Short Stories
WHY DID I GET THIS BOOK?
I read this book in Spanish (my native language), and it was given to me by my father while I was visiting Panama. We were talking about books and what we were reading, and he recommended this book to me. He had read all the books written by Jhumpa Lahiri and proposed this book as my first one by the author.
I brought the book back with me to the U.S., and since it is a collection of short stories, I took my time, and it took me several months to finish it.
MY PERSONAL OPINION: “THE INTERPRETER OF MALADIES”
This book is a compilation of short stories, all related in some way or another to India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. Some of the stories are set in India, and some of them in the U.S.A. Some stories stayed with me for a long time, forcing me to think about the characters, the end, and the story itself. The majority of the stories are character-driven, and they were incredibly beautifully written, making a simple narration an artistic expression of human action and sentiment.
The stories center on theme changes, from love to work to family; the author transports us to the reality of our human ability to adapt, to fear, to love, and to be present in the small moments that build a life.
A truly touching, moving, caring, and funny story that is relatable to all of us. A five-star read, and I definitely understand why my father recommended this book to me. This book represents, to me, the story of the human soul.
PREMISE OF THE BOOK AS FOUND IN AMAZON / GOODREADS:
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. She is an important and powerful new voice.
MY RATING: 5.0
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JHUMPA LAHIRI
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London and raised in Rhode Island. Her debut, internationally-bestselling collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award, The New Yorker Debut of the Year award, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Addison Metcalf Award, and a nomination for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It was translated into twenty-nine languages. Her first novel, The Namesake, was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, and selected as one of the best books of the year by USA Today and Entertainment Weekly, among other publications. Her second collection, Unaccustomed Earth, was a #1 New York Times bestseller; named a best book of the year by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, among others; and the recipient of the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Lahiri was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2012.
BOOKS BY JHUMPA LAHIRI
- The Namesake
- Unnacustomed Earth
- Roman Stories
- Whereabouts: a Novel
- The Lowland
- In Other Words: a Memoir
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