Customer Reviews

The Middleman and Other Stories

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

Even after five years. A real author's author, Mukherjee's prose deserves wider recognition. When I read this collection, I got the sense that she could write the next Great American Novel.

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."

I read this book and the Interpreter of Maladies back to back and though there are similarities as to subject they are very different writers. Mukherjee's story's snap and pop while Lahiri's sparkle. These are great stories about being in a new place told from various viewpoints. My favorite was about a Catholic woman introducing her Afghan botfriend to her parents at thanksgiving. It was uncomfrtably like being there. Enjoy!

Most of the characters in Bharati
Mukherjee's The Middleman and
Other Stories are displaced,
foreign born people living in
America. They feel odd, out of
touch with the world in which
they live, yet out of touch with
the world from which they came.
I can easily see why Mukherjee
won the National Book Critics
Circle Award for these stories.
Highly recommended.

Any reviewer who finds this book boring probably has never read Don Quixote (the world's first novel) let alone much else, and is therefore hardly qualified to comment on the basis of such limited experience. In any case neuro-science tells us that brain-sculpting theta waves predominate during boredom, indicating that learning (whatever one's subjective feeling of lassitude) is in fact taking place.

While this is sometimes a shocking book, only the severely culture-bound and those with no sense of humour will find it boring. I would rate it as an update on Kafka's 'Amerika' - a modern vision of the USA by the latest underclass of arrivals, struggling to carve out their identity in the land of [for them] little peace and [frequently] not much glory. It'll make you laugh and cry - but you'll never see yourself as others see you unless you try .

I think this a really good book for Indians or any immigrant group who has recently traveled to the US. It shows the life in the US and how people live here. i realli liked this book ad i suggestest everyone read it even though there is alotta sex related things in it!

I recently had to read this book for college. It is probably the worst book that I have ever read. It is so boring all of the stories usually feature a character sitting around not doing anything. There are hardly any events, this book is so slow and boring. I started reading it in June and finished in September and the book is only 197 pages. This was a great waste of my summer. I hate this book.