Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Usually, I’m not a huge fan of short story collections. They seem lonely to me. But in Interpreter of Maladies, that sense of being out-of-place is made beautiful. Each of Jhumpa’s narrators is adrift in some way. This one is an immigrant trying to feel at home in a foreign culture. That one returns to his ancestral home to visit family but no longer relates to them. Still another one has drifted apart from his wife and yet another lives on the fringes of her own society. All of them are united, and unite us, in the universal longing to be understood.
Interpreter of Maladies is also a subtle commentary on globalization. Jhumpa explores what it means to be Indian in the modern world and how that meaning changes depending on your location of residence, your peer group, and social position. All of these influences interact with the basic human condition and the result is not a book about what it’s like to be Indian. Instead it’s utterly relatable as a book about being human in a global culture. Now, don’t get me wrong. There is no message the book is trying to convey. These things are merely explored and the conclusions drawn by each of the narrators is individual and deeply personal. The prose is hypnotically beautiful. The ordinary crises of everyday life become the epic struggles that define our humanity.
Interpreter of Maladies the perfect Anti-beach read. While everyone else is absorbed in tawdry romance or chic-lit, the more thoughtful, mindful reader can enjoy The Interpreter of Maladies. Take in a story or two and when it’s time to leave, toss the book in your beach bag. The next chapter will be waiting for you next weekend without the story going stale.
Next week: Perseus in the Wind by Freya Stark
Read ~ Write ~ Wander
~Angie