{"id":1536,"date":"2009-04-13T00:01:48","date_gmt":"2009-04-13T04:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=1536"},"modified":"2018-01-15T19:15:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T23:15:33","slug":"jhumpa-lahiris-interpreter-of-maladies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2009\/04\/13\/jhumpa-lahiris-interpreter-of-maladies\/","title":{"rendered":"Jhumpa Lahiri: <em>Interpreter of Maladies<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=&#8221;no&#8221; equal_height_columns=&#8221;no&#8221; menu_anchor=&#8221;&#8221; hide_on_mobile=&#8221;small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility&#8221; class=&#8221;&#8221; id=&#8221;&#8221; background_color=&#8221;&#8221; background_image=&#8221;&#8221; background_position=&#8221;center center&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;no-repeat&#8221; fade=&#8221;no&#8221; background_parallax=&#8221;none&#8221; parallax_speed=&#8221;0.3&#8243; video_mp4=&#8221;&#8221; 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class=&#8221;&#8221; id=&#8221;&#8221; animation_type=&#8221;&#8221; animation_speed=&#8221;0.3&#8243; animation_direction=&#8221;left&#8221; hide_on_mobile=&#8221;small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility&#8221; center_content=&#8221;no&#8221; last=&#8221;no&#8221; min_height=&#8221;&#8221; hover_type=&#8221;none&#8221; link=&#8221;&#8221;][fusion_imageframe image_id=&#8221;20947&#8243; style_type=&#8221;none&#8221; stylecolor=&#8221;&#8221; hover_type=&#8221;none&#8221; bordersize=&#8221;&#8221; bordercolor=&#8221;&#8221; borderradius=&#8221;&#8221; align=&#8221;none&#8221; lightbox=&#8221;no&#8221; gallery_id=&#8221;&#8221; lightbox_image=&#8221;&#8221; alt=&#8221;&#8221; link=&#8221;http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews&#8221; linktarget=&#8221;_self&#8221; hide_on_mobile=&#8221;small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility&#8221; class=&#8221;&#8221; id=&#8221;&#8221; animation_type=&#8221;&#8221; animation_direction=&#8221;left&#8221; animation_speed=&#8221;0.3&#8243; animation_offset=&#8221;&#8221;]http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Header-2-1-e1493098728843.jpg[\/fusion_imageframe][fusion_title margin_top=&#8221;&#8221; margin_bottom=&#8221;&#8221; hide_on_mobile=&#8221;small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility&#8221; class=&#8221;&#8221; id=&#8221;&#8221; size=&#8221;3&#8243; content_align=&#8221;left&#8221; style_type=&#8221;underline solid&#8221; sep_color=&#8221;&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span style=\"color: #003366;\">Interpreter of Maladies<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em> <span style=\"color: #808080;\">by Jhumpa Lahiri (1999) <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #808080;\">Mariner Books (1999)<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #808080;\"> 198 pp<\/span><\/p>\n<p>[\/fusion_title][fusion_text]<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1545\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2009\/04\/13\/jhumpa-lahiris-interpreter-of-maladies\/interpreter-of-maladies\/#main\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/interpreter-of-maladies.jpg?fit=356%2C530&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"356,530\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"interpreter-of-maladies\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/interpreter-of-maladies.jpg?fit=356%2C530&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1545 alignright\" title=\"interpreter-of-maladies\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/interpreter-of-maladies.jpg?resize=356%2C530\" alt=\"interpreter-of-maladies\" width=\"356\" height=\"530\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/interpreter-of-maladies.jpg?w=356&amp;ssl=1 356w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/interpreter-of-maladies.jpg?resize=201%2C300&amp;ssl=1 201w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>[fusion_dropcap boxed=&#8221;no&#8221; boxed_radius=&#8221;&#8221; class=&#8221;&#8221; id=&#8221;&#8221; color=&#8221;#003366&#8243;]I[\/fusion_dropcap] still remember the first time I read &#8220;A Temporary Matter,&#8221; Lahiri&#8217;s opening story in her phenomenal short story collection <em>Interpreter of Maladies<\/em>. I was in a creative writing class (don&#8217;t expect anything from me, though) and the professor gave it to us as a treat.\u00a0When I\u00a0finished I\u00a0was devastated. It tapped into so many emotions hidden even from me. I paid no attention to technical merit of the piece.\u00a0I just read and then kept silent for the rest of the day.\u00a0It remains one of my favorite stories; more than that, it remains one of my favorite experiences with a work of literature. I remembered the story for years and finally got a hold of the whole collection.\u00a0I haven&#8217;t read Lahiri&#8217;s newest collection of short stories, but from what I&#8217;ve heard and from my own experience with Lahiri, it is surely a contender for this year&#8217;s Pulitzer.<\/p>\n<p>The book is composed of nine short stories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A Temporary Matter<\/li>\n<li>When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine<\/li>\n<li>Interpreter of Maladies<\/li>\n<li>A Real Durwan<\/li>\n<li>Sexy<\/li>\n<li>Mrs. Sen&#8217;s<\/li>\n<li>This Blessed House<\/li>\n<li>The Treatment of Bibi Haldar<\/li>\n<li>The Third and Final Continent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Several deal with first- or second-generation Indian immigrants to the United States.\u00a0Not having any first-hand experience of the kind, I&#8217;ve found the experience of a couple of my friends insightful.\u00a0One of my friends is a third-generation Indian-American, and, while he is not ashamed of his heritage by any means, he would not like that I just referred to him as an Indian-American. &#8220;When can I be just American?&#8221; he would ask. &#8220;You are not British-American or Scottish-American.&#8221;\u00a0His hyphenated identity troubles him.\u00a0I have another friend, however, who would be ashamed to drop the hyphen and refer to himself as\u00a0&#8220;merely&#8221; American.\u00a0The first\u00a0feels his identity is reduced when he is hyphenated; the\u00a0second feels his identity is reduced when he is not. I am baffled by the wealth of experience outside of my grasp.<\/p>\n<p>Lahiri&#8217;s stories, however,\u00a0let me feel some of these experiences.\u00a0She creates compelling dramas between characters we come to know (it seems) intimately.\u00a0We come to pity poor Mr. Pirzada who, during the war between Pakistan and India in the early 1970s, left his\u00a0family\u00a0in Daka, under Pakistani rule.\u00a0Lilia, the narrator, remembers the time when she was young and he would\u00a0come over to her house to dine and watch the news about the wars going on in his homeland. To Lilia, Mr. Pirzada was wonderful; she loved his treats and prayed every night for his family. However, she remembers his strangeness.\u00a0He was not of the same religion. She did not know Asia. To him, however, the visits were &#8220;a piece of home.&#8221;\u00a0Lilia recognizes a cultural barrier but is more baffled by an even larger gap:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #003366;\">No one at school talked about the war followed so faithfully in my living room.\u00a0We continued to study the American Revolution, and learn about the injustices of taxation without representation, and memorized passages from the Declaration of Independence.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The gaps notwithstanding, in this story Lahiri invites us (and gives herself license) to continue.<\/p>\n<p>Not all of the stories are about immigration per se.\u00a0Some take place on the Indian subcontinent, but still manage to show the plight of a people torn from theirs. In &#8220;A Real Durwan,&#8221; a sweeper of a stairwell laments her losses:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #003366;\">In fact, the only thing that appeared three-dimensional about Boori Ma was her voice: brittle with sorrows, as tart as curds, and shrill enough to grate meat from a coconut. It was with this voice that she enumerated, twice a day as she swept the stairwell, the details of her plight and losses suffered since her deportation to Calcutta after Partition.\u00a0At that time, she maintained, the turmoil had separated her from a husband, four daughters, a two-story brick house, a rosewood <em>almari<\/em>, and a number of coffer boxes whose skeleton keys she still wore, along with her life savings, tied to the free end of her sari.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Lahiri also raises interesting\u00a0insights about women in particular: mapping (or partitioning)\u00a0in &#8220;Sexy,&#8221;\u00a0for example,\u00a0ties into her theme of the Indian-American but shows ties to a woman&#8217;s experience with the body.<\/p>\n<p>All of this brings me to an important point: I hope by pointing out some of the great insights in this book that I&#8217;m not making it seem simple, like it can be reduced to a few talking points. On the contrary, the stories are rich and deep, personal even when explaining things that I could never experience. All stories have elements that touch on personal emotions. Bringing me to the first: &#8220;A Temporary Matter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is a story where it seems the Indian origin of the main characters is incidental.\u00a0They could be any young couple working through a very difficult time in their marriage.\u00a0Shoba and Shukumar receive a notice of a temporary matter: &#8220;for five days their electricity would be cut off for one hour, beginning at eight p.m.&#8221; Lately the couple have been going their separate ways, working late into the night in separate rooms, the husband in the unborn and not-to-be-born child&#8217;s room, knowing she will not disturb him there.\u00a0The nightly power outage forces the couple to confront each other again.\u00a0Though third-person, the narrative focuses on the husband&#8217;s perceptions as he navigates his way back into the intimacies of this failing relationship.<\/p>\n<p>Just writing about it brings a lot of it back to me.\u00a0And that&#8217;s the power of this book: it sticks with you, becomes a part of you and the way you see the world.\u00a0What more can one want?<\/p>\n<p>[\/fusion_text][fusion_builder_row_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=&#8221;1_2&#8243; layout=&#8221;1_2&#8243; background_position=&#8221;left top&#8221; background_color=&#8221;&#8221; border_size=&#8221;0&#8243; border_color=&#8221;&#8221; border_style=&#8221;solid&#8221; spacing=&#8221;&#8221; background_image=&#8221;&#8221; background_repeat=&#8221;no-repeat&#8221; padding_top=&#8221;&#8221; padding_right=&#8221;&#8221; padding_bottom=&#8221;&#8221; padding_left=&#8221;&#8221; margin_top=&#8221;&#8221; margin_bottom=&#8221;&#8221; class=&#8221;&#8221; id=&#8221;&#8221; animation_type=&#8221;&#8221; animation_speed=&#8221;0.3&#8243; animation_direction=&#8221;left&#8221; hide_on_mobile=&#8221;small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility&#8221; center_content=&#8221;no&#8221; last=&#8221;no&#8221; min_height=&#8221;&#8221; hover_type=&#8221;none&#8221; link=&#8221;&#8221; border_position=&#8221;all&#8221;][fusion_text]<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=as_ss_li_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=mookse-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=039592720X&amp;asins=039592720X&amp;linkId=9546b84ae0834dd4531fd30f4e4e0287&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>[\/fusion_text][\/fusion_builder_column_inner][fusion_builder_column_inner type=&#8221;1_2&#8243; layout=&#8221;1_2&#8243; background_position=&#8221;left top&#8221; background_color=&#8221;&#8221; border_size=&#8221;0&#8243; border_color=&#8221;&#8221; border_style=&#8221;solid&#8221; spacing=&#8221;&#8221; 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