Everyone who hasn’t yet read Interpreter of Maladies should go find a copy now. But if you need more convincing, you can read my post about it over at the American Literary Review (ALR) blog.
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning short story collection Interpreter of Maladies (1999) is our highlight this week at the ALR blog. Fans of Lahiri’s first published story collection will also want to read her novel The Namesake (2003) and her most recent publication of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth (2008) to follow her map of questions about self and family. A story is a series of sentences, one after another, but it does not follow that perfect sentences make a perfect story. While the smooth, minimalist sentences of Interpreter of Maladies can feel unemotional, the stories gather a pathos that will certainly move readers. Her exploration of the Indian-American experience, especially the effect of immigration on the different generations, provides a study of human nature that transcends age, gender, and nationality: everyone hopes and everyone grieves. The nine stories in this collection model for writers the truth that there is no more compelling subject than human relationships.
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