The ?Interpreter of Maladies? is a gorgeous and heartbreaking collection of ordinary short stories written brilliantly by Jhumpa Lahiri. Each of the stories is rich and unique in their own ways as it provides importance to the remotest and the root common themes that occurs in everybody?s lives.
These stories are light hearted and humorous describing incidents and circumstances of life that could leave profound influence on the reader, probably making them more understandable, sensible and kind. This work was her debut; a collection of short stories which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000.
The stories bring into light the life and the culture shock of the first generation Asian-Americans in the early 1960s. Be it the story of a young couple who exchange confessions as they struggle to cope with the loss of their baby and their weakening marriage or the story of Mr. Pirzada who is constantly worried about his family back in Bangladesh; another story on a young western lady who has a passionate affair with a married Bengali or that of an Interpreter who also works as a guide on weekends guides an American Indian family on vacation in India and stumbles upon a startling news or be it the story of the anxious Mrs. Sen who should learn to drive if she is to continue her job caring for the eleven-year-old Eliot after school or the story of Indian man who admires the strict 103 year old American lady with whom he lived as a tenant.
With a cogent language, these short stories unravel strong emotions with delicate routes connecting traditions and compassion. As far as I am concerned, the book is superb but I am quite sure that it wouldn?t be appreciated by many a readers as this kind of work is distinctive in nature.