INTERPRETER OF MALADIES [Import] [Paperback]

Jhumpa Lahira (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company; First Edition edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0002259001
• ISBN-13: 978-0002259002
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (517 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,938,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jhumpa Lahiri was born 1967 in London, England, and raised in Rhode Island. She is a graduate of Barnard College, where she received a B.A. in English literature, and of Boston University, where she received an M.A. in English, M.A. in Creative Writing and M.A. in Comparative Studies in Literature and the Arts, and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies. She has taught creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Her debut collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It was translated into twenty-nine languages and became a bestseller both in the United States and abroad. In addition to the Pulitzer, it received 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. Lahiri was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002. The Namesake is Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel. She lives in New York with her husband and son.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 124 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Story telling at its best..., June 26, 2000

By 

Mekhala Vasthare - See all my reviews

This review is from: Interpreter of Maladies (Paperback)

I loved reading Jhumpa Lahiri's 'Interpreter of Maladies'.

Being an Indian myself, I'm tired of reading books that package India's 'exoticism' to the West. Jhumpa Lahiri's stories do not revolve around the "Indianness" of the characters.India is always in the background, but the characters and their emotions are simply human.

In the 'Interpreter of Maladies', Ms. Lahiri's breathtakingly beautiful, yet simple style of storytelling tells you a story about people who just happen to be Indian.The narrative she employs is very humane, with a lot of attention to detail. The stories are strong and delicate at the same time.

I particularly enjoyed the title story 'Interpreter of Maladies' and the last story 'The Third and Final continent'.

Another aspect of her writing I particularly liked is that she doesn't drown the story in style. The narrative occupies centerstage and the story telling is natural, not contrived.

Looking forward to her next book

Mekhala Vasthare

62 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Defining moments, November 20, 2003

By 

S. Park (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Interpreter of Maladies (Paperback)

Structure-wise the book is a showcase of point of views, which makes one feel as if the book was intended as a study on writing styles. Stories are written in the first person voice (as a Indian girl, as a just married Indian man), in third person voice, and as an intrusive author (in "the treatment of Bibi Haldar"). Events mostly take place in the greater Boston area (which may explain the book's popularity in New England) and Bengal, India. The WSJ review on the back cover is misleading in that not all stories concern immigrants (two short stories concern Indians living in India). However each story has at least one Indian protagonist.

The stories concern snapshots of lives, defining moments of characters. By "defining moments" I do not mean anything grand. These are moments that occur in everyday life, events so banal that they seem negligible at first sight. Yet those moments impact the protagonists in the way that life becomes no longer the same for them. By confessing that their miscarried baby was a boy over a forced (the electricity went out) candle-light dinner, a deteriorating marriage is salvaged (in "a temporary matter"); a seven year old boy's compliment "you are sexy" induces her relationship with a married man to end (upon hearing it she suddenly realizes she is not unique -- in "sexy").

Lahiri is a meticulous writer. You will almost be able to smell her egg curries and feel her bright colored saris. But it is really her quiet, suggestive prose that makes one want more.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every me and every you, April 7, 2000

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Interpreter of Maladies (Paperback)

This collection of stories taking place either in India or New England explores the differing ways people can be foreigners in strange or familiar ways and lands. Lahiri's eloquent storyweaving is full of humor and confusion, and is an utter joy to read. I look forward to a full novel by her.