The Middleman and Other Stories (Paperback)

by Bharati Mukherjee (Author) "THERE are only two seasons in this country, the dusty and the wet..." (more)
Key Phrases: Aunt Lini, Ted Suminski, Ann Arbor (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Told by fictional immigrants, the tales of arrival and survival spun by Mukherjee's protagonists often paralyze the reader with their realism. They come from Italy, Trinidad, Israel, Vietnam, Afghanistan, the Philippines and elsewhere to build new lives in such places as Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Manhattan and Miami. For all the troubles the immigrants endure, Mukherjee's portrayal of them as dauntless participants in the American experiment serves to empower them. Even as she's being raped by her employer, Jasmine, a housekeeper from Trinidad, ponders that she has "no nothing other than what she wanted to invent and tell." The Middleman won the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
As evidenced in her first short story collection Darkness and two novels, The Tiger's Daughter and Wife, Mukherjee's central preoccupation is the problematical nature of personal encounters between East and West. These expertly crafted tales continue to have that focus; all turn on recent Third World immigrant experience in or closely affected by North America. Mukherjee makes the ambitious attempt to narrate through the voices of characters as diverse as a middle-class Italian-American suburbanite, a Sephardic mercenary from Smyrna by way of Flushing, Queens, a Trinidadian mother's helper and an Atlantan investment banker. But in striving for extended range she sometimes undercuts the authenticity and immediacy of her stories. The most successful tales are those told from the point of view of characters from the Indian subcontinent, especially women. It is Mukherjee's keen eye for telling and sensuous detail that make these stories rewarding. Her limpid prose has a capacity to surprise with trenchant wit and delight with finely calibrated lyricism.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Grove Press Pbk. Ed edition (September 14, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802136508
• ISBN-13: 978-0802136503
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #402,638 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding and unique volume., May 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Middleman and Other Stories (Mass Market Paperback)

White trash meets film noir meets a rainbow of multiculturalism in this volume's stories. Mukherjee has a keen eye for the intersections of sex and race, and tells it with a tone that (at her best) has echoes of Raymond Chandler. I walked away from it muttering, "Yeah, it's all just weird enough to be real."

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Collection of Diverse Stories, September 7, 2005

By	Richard Kurtz (NYC<P>NYC, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Two of my most prominent reading passions are Asian books and, in particular, those set in India or concerned with the Indian sub- culture (e.g. any of Rohinton Mistry's books, The Namesake, Death of Vishnu, Red Carpet, etc) and collections of short stories.
But what makes this collection so special is that Ms. Mukherjee does not focus on her Indian roots, though several stories do concern people of Indian heritage, but cover many diverse cultures -- Italian- Americans, An Iraqi Jew, a Vietnam veteran in Florida and express a wide range of "voices." These stories are particularly effective in that you find yourself involved in the characters and their circumstances almost instantly. It is as if you had prior knowledge of them as you begin to read any one of the stories.
She also has a literary "trick" of sorts that I really enjoyed in that she will make reference to some little item --almost as a throwaway that was featured in an earlier story in the collection. It is very subtle but a nice little device that I caught on to and served to enhance the experience even more.
And though this collection was published sometime ago I found these wonderful stories still timely. I would highly recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys this genre.
Now on to purchase soem of her other works.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST INDIAN WRITER BY FAR, February 14, 2002

By A Customer

You can hardly call her a "Indian women writer" that seems too narrow. She writes boldly and assumes roles that only a cosummate writer can do. Her Middleman story set the stage and then each story just got better. Forget Divakurani whose books are overarated, if you want to read "Indian women writers", then Bharti Mukherjee has no equal in this genre. She is astounding, fresh, and tanscends her category.