Author Birthday: Jhumpa Lahiri

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From today's Writer's Almanac:

Today is the birthday of Jhumpa Lahiri (books by this author), born in London (1967). Her parents were Bengali immigrants from India. When Lahiri was two years old, her father got a job as a librarian at the University of Rhode Island, and they moved to America. On weekends, the whole family would get together with other Bengali families, sometimes driving for hours to other states for a party. The adults cooked Bengali food and spoke Bengali and reminisced; the kids all watched television together. And even though she's lived in America from toddlerhood, she struggles with not feeling American. "For me," she says, "there is sort of a half-way feeling." 

Throughout her childhood, Lahiri wrote stories to entertain herself. She went to college at Barnard, then to graduate school at Boston University. She was on the verge of going to work in retail when Houghton Mifflin agreed to publish her first book for a small advance. That book was The Interpreter of Maladies (1999), a collection of nine stories about Bengalis and Bengali-Americans living in suburban New England. The publishers didn't expect to sell many copies so they only released it in trade paperback. As expected, it didn't get much notice at first, but one day she got a phone call from a woman from Houghton Mifflin, asking a lot of questions about Lahiri's background. Lahiri assumed it was for promotional materials. "And then she said, 'You don't know why I am calling, do you?'" Lahiri recalled. "And I said, 'No, why are you calling?' And she said, 'You just won the Pulitzer.'" It was the first time a trade paperback had ever won the Pulitzer Prize.

Over the last few years, Jhumpa Lahiri has become a favorite author and I credit her with my recently developed love of short stories. Unaccustomed Earth was on my 'Best of' list several years ago and it lead me to the audio version of Interpreter of Maladies. I also enjoyed her novel, The Namesake, and hope another novel or short story collection will be published soon.

Interpreter of Maladies: an audio review

Interpreter of Maladies

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Narrated by Matilda Novak

HighBridge Audio

6 hours 19 minutes

I primarily listen to audiobooks when I'm alone in the car, but with sixteen year old twins learning to drive this summer, there has been very little of that! I listened to Interpreter of Maladies back in May, and hadn't even attempted to start another until a few days ago (Little Bee by Chris Cleave). However, I didn't want fall to begin without at least mentioning this book.

Interpreter of Maladies, published in 1999, is a collection of nine short stories that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. I chose to listen because it was offered in a 3-for-2 promotion at audible.com, and I was so taken with Lahiri's more recent collection, Unaccustomed Earth.

The stories are set in India or the US and, again, involve characters of Indian descent. Lahiri packs so much emotion and feeling into each story. In "A Temporary Matter", an especially poignant story, we observe a young couple whose marriage is disintegrating after the birth of a still born child.

"When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine" is told through they eyes of a young girl. It spotlights a Pakistani man in the US, a frequent dinner guest in her household, who watches a civil war unfold, night after night, on her living room television while his wife and seven daughters remain at home in Pakistan.

The title story, "Interpreter of Maladies", is set in India. Mr Kapasi works as a translator for a doctor who is unable speak the language of some of his patients. He supplements his income by acting as a driver for tourists. One day, he develops an 'interest' in a young American woman of Indian descent traveling with her husband and three children. As he imagines their relationship, she misunderstands his primary job and begins to confide her unhappiness to him. A very touching story...

The reader did a very good job in this production, however I did find some of the musical interludes annoying. Overall, I was impressed with Lahiri's writing and enjoyed listening to this collection. However, I liked Unaccustomed Earth even better.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
2008, Alfred A. Knopf
333 pages

Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri, is the first book completed for My Year Of Reading Dangerously challenge. Short stories have seemed 'dangerous' since high school, but this year I'm making an effort to include more in my reading. Unaccustomed Earth is a collection of eight short stories; the last three are connected by character and have the feel of a novella. The book's epigraph, from "The Custom-House" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, provides the title and sets up a common theme.

"Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted
and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn out
soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their
fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed
earth."

One or more character from each story is indeed on unaccustomed earth, yet the immigrant experience is not really what these stories are about. Instead, it serves as a backdrop to larger, more universal themes of love, relationships, and communication. Lahiri's prose is crystal-clear and full of wisdom and insight.

Each story is something special, but my favorite is the book's title story. Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father. Since the death of her mother, Ruma has felt a duty toward her father and considers asking him to move in. Her father, however, has a new relationship that has been kept secret. During the course of his visit, Ruma's father transforms the backyard into a beautiful garden. The project provides him an opportunity to form a strong bond with his young grandson and to strengthen his relationship with Ruma. The ending of this story was an uplifting expression of love and acceptance.

I highly recommend this collection even if, like me, the short story is not a form that you feel completely at home with.