Interpreter of Maladies | 
 enlarge | Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Rating:  459 reviews
Sales Rank: 636
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 039592720X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
UPC: 046442927208
EAN: 9780395927205
ASIN: 039592720X
Publication Date: June 1, 1999
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Mr. Kapasi, the protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri's title story, would certainly have his work cut out for him if he were forced to interpret the maladies of all the characters in this eloquent debut collection. Take, for example, Shoba and Shukumar, the young couple in "A Temporary Matter" whose marriage is crumbling in the wake of a stillborn child. Or Miranda in "Sexy," who is involved in a hopeless affair with a married man. But Mr. Kapasi has problems enough of his own; in addition to his regular job working as an interpreter for a doctor who does not speak his patients' language, he also drives tourists to local sites of interest. His fare on this particular day is Mr. and Mrs. Das--first-generation Americans of Indian descent--and their children. During the course of the afternoon, Mr. Kapasi becomes enamored of Mrs. Das and then becomes her unwilling confidant when she reads too much into his profession. "I told you because of your talents," she informs him after divulging a startling secret. I'm tired of feeling so terrible all the time. Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I've been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better; say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy. Of course, Mr. Kapasi has no cure for what ails Mrs. Das--or himself. Lahiri's subtle, bittersweet ending is characteristic of the collection as a whole. Some of these nine tales are set in India, others in the United States, and most concern characters of Indian heritage. Yet the situations Lahiri's people face, from unhappy marriages to civil war, transcend ethnicity. As the narrator of the last story, "The Third and Final Continent," comments: "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. --Alix Wilber
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 454 more reviews...
 Dark and macabre July 17, 2008
Barbara Marucco
The book was very well written, but I found it to be a little too dark and macabre for my tastes - not exactly something you'd want to curl up and sink into...
Some great stories, others not memorable July 17, 2008
K. Noe
I liked most of these stories. The first story, "A Temporary Matter," made me cry and lament a tragic failure of people to communicate and understand one another. The last story, "The Third and Final Continent," was equally moving, and restored my faith that there is innocence in love.
Overall, Lahiri's keen understanding of the nuances of relationships is impressive. In her brief stories, the complicated relationships between the characters are remarkably well-developed. She is equally deft at capturing the nuances of the human personality- her characters often can't be labeled as protagonists or antagonists. Rather, they exist in the same gray moral area as the typical reader.
The main fault I find with this collection, however, is a lack of consistency. It is easy for me to pick out the stories that were extraordinary in the book and, as for the rest, they tend to be somewhat forgettable. To be honest,I was also a bit put off by the sparsity of Lahiri's writing and the absence of figurative language which, for me, is a beautiful and important element of short fiction. Metaphor and other figurative techniques can add, succinctly, a deeper layer of meaning which Lahiri's stories lack somewhat.
Interesting tales about life... July 15, 2008
J. Bluhm (Flint, MI, USA)
After reading, "The Namesake" I could not hardly contain my excitement to read, "Interpreter of Maladies." When I heard that it was a Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories, I assumed that it would be an excellent read. And I can say that it was very good, but it did not live up to the hype, in my opinion that it was given. In fact, I felt at times that Lahiri's description was too much. It felt forced like she was trying very hard to make sure that the reader could visualize what she was trying to portray. I found this to be irratating honestly.
However, there where some very memorable charcters from this collection of stories. Mr. and Mrs. Das, first generation US citizens born to immigrant parents, Mr. Kapasi, Miranda, Mr. Pirzada, Lilia, Mrs. Croft and the narrator of, "The Third and Final Continent." Mr. Kapasi, Mr. Pirzada, Mrs. Croft and the narrator because kindness to others is interwoven within their plot lines, Mr. and Mrs. Das because of their struggle to embrace their Western and Indian identities and Miranda and her struggle as the woman that the married man she is having an affair with is in love with and her pain of knowing inside her she can never be with him.
Of course there where other moments that where memorable and the stories themselves are excellent. The book was a very quick read and enjoyable for the most part. Of course I mentioned my one problem with the writing, but over all the stories where enjoyable and the charcters memorable.
If I could offer one piece of advice to readers, read this collection before reading, "The Namesake." When you finish the short stories and move on to her first novel, you can really see Lahiri's growth as a writer as her descriptions don't feel so forced.
 An eternally exquisite collection July 2, 2008
Doc Occula (pasadena, ca United States)
I feel privileged to have read Ms. Lahiri's collection of stories which place me so firmly within the imagined and real aspects both of the world she delineates so beautifully. In an age where so many authors seem to think it's OK to muddy the waters of their work with lame pop culture references and dragging, trendy dialogue, 'Interpreter of Maladies' is almost as refined and restrained as a nineteenth-century work of literary art.
Mending and Blending Cultural Mores..... June 18, 2008
Savvy-Suz (Seattle)
The beautifully crafted tales in the INTERPRETER OF MALADIES by Jhumpa Lahiri are easily embraced and full of genuine empathy..
The collection of richly elegant stories all deal with the lives of Indian emigrants in the New World as they cope with their culture's strict traditional beliefs.
Ms. Lahiri's writing is a soft suggestive prose style that speaks to the reader stirringly.
The descriptions are so clear that the reader's senses awaken to the sounds, smells, and bright colors of rich eastern intrigue and heritage.
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