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Interpreter of Maladies, written by Jhumpa Lahiri, features nine different short stories that all that all include some form of connection to India, Pakistan, or just that general part of the world. They give us a glimpse into the lives of different people who share a connection to that part of the world, but those people do not necessarily live there. Lahiri, who was only 32 years old when she published this book, which happens to be her very first one, won a Pulitzer Prize for her work just one year after the book was published.
The huge success of the book and the win of the Pulitzer Prize show us that what Lahiri is sharing in these fiction stories are what readers are eager to read. I looked up the reviews of the book on Amazon. One reader writes, “Each story was different enough to keep my interest while each tugged at the heart in one way or the other as well (Landes, 2014).” Yet another one writes, “After having read all the stories in this collection, I have a more expansive view about life as an Indian, especially those living in the West.
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The narratives were warm, intriguing, compelling and honest (Elstrom, 2014).” Reviews like these show the fascination and interest in Lahiri’s stories that are read from a Western perspective.
Lahiri does a good job of explaining the Western world’s perspective in her own stories, even if it is indirectly. There are many reasons why one may be interested in reading them and one of them is just sharing an interest in what is far away and unknown.
Many people do not venture far and one of the best ways to gain knowledge and understanding is to read about those faraway places. It’s safe to say that the interest is also valid from the people who are living in those faraway places. One example is Mr. Kapasi in the story “Interpreter of Maladies.” In the story, Mr. Kapasi, who lives in India, has two jobs, one of which is driving foreigners to tour sites. In the story, Mr. Kapasi becomes captivated by Mrs. Dav, a woman from New York, and fantasizes what life would be like with her. He himself is a lonely man with a troubled marriage and has “never seen his own wife fully naked (Lahiri, 122).” His only exposure to the Western world is through tourists and what he sees on television and reads on the news. He quickly learns of Mrs. Dav’s secret of having a child with someone other than her husband and it’s as if his eyes open and see a light he has never seen before. He sees the betrayal and the guilt, and even though his own love life is broken, it’s as if what he has learned is unthinkable and unimaginable for him to understand.
The Western world can be portrayed as a land of milk and honey, where everyone can begin a new life and do better than in the world that one has come from. Such is not the case in the story of “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine.” Mr Pirzada comes from Dacca to Boston while Dacca is in a turmoil and there are rumors of war with Pakistan and India. Mr. Pirzada works in Boston because of a grant which is “a great honor (54)” yet his heart is in Dacca where his wife and children are. This story is compelling in that we have an image of someone from a less fortunate area staying in one of the greatest cities in America, yet his desire is to be back where the turmoil is happening because his family is there. This shows that perhaps our land of milk and honey is really an illusion to those whose roots are deeply connected somewhere else despite the hardships that exist there.
Another great example of the interest in what is far away and unknown is the captivating story “Sexy.” In this story, we read about a young woman, living in Boston, who is in her twenties and becomes captivated by a man from India. She begins a relationship with him even after she finds out that he is married. They continue to sleep together even after the man’s wife comes from New Delhi for a visit. This woman gains an interest in India after getting close with the man. She begins to go to Indian restaurants, Indian stores, and even starts to imagine what the man’s wife looks like. She decides that she is beautiful after seeing a video at an Indian store of Indian girls dancing at the beach. This story is full of betrayal and confusion, but it’s almost as if one can’t help but root for the young woman in the story despite how twisted everything is. There is a story within this story of another woman whose husband is having an affair with another woman, and our young woman in the story can’t help but notice the similarities to her own situation. She sees how wrong the husband is, yet is blinded by her own adultery. However, in the end of the story, she comes to peace with her situation by letting the man go, even though it’s painful and hard. If Lahiri took out parts of the story that give any cultural details, such as connections to India, it would still be a captivating story, showing us common humanity and themes that run in every culture. We all want to be loved.
Lahiri’s nine short stories are “warm, intriguing, compelling and honest (Elstrom, 2014)” and show us the rawness of the people who are either from that part of the world or exposed to it. The very first story in the book, “A Temporary Matter”, is one of realness and grief. In this story, a young couple drifts apart after their baby is born dead. When it comes to grief, no matter what part of the world, it exists. Maybe this couple, if not from another culture, would have dealt with the grief differently. However, this story, even with an unexpected ending, gives the readers empathy to a grief so strong and so unimaginable for some. We see a young couple connecting after their loss and opening to each other, yet all that comes crashing down after the wife shares that she is moving on with her life alone without her husband. In fact, that closeness and connection is what the wife uses to completely cut off her husband at the end. This tragic story can touch anyone who has encountered any form of grief.
Another example of a story that brings empathy to the reader is “A Real Durwan.” In this story is a 64-year old woman, deported from her home, who struggles and is considered an outsider, a refugee who no one wants anything to do with. Her story is one of struggle, yet she is a survivor. Her way of getting through her hardships is to talk about the better days, those days of owning her own land and having riches. It’s hard to tell whether the days she is talking about are true or not, but it’s clear that even if those days aren’t real, they are real enough to her to make it through the hard times that she faces in the story. In the story, she is practically homeless. At the end, she really is homeless, because she is kicked out after others accused her of exposing their homes to robbers. A reader can feel the anguish that our character feels through her struggles. In the Western world, our government provides funding for the elderly, though it’s less than ideal at times. However, it’s a lot more than what our character has in the story.
In conclusion, Lahiri really shows the common humanity throughout the stories, yet she also shows the beautiful differences in the different worlds presented in the stories. She brings her book’s reading audience to nine different compelling stories that “chronicle her characters' lives with both objectivity and compassion while charting the emotional temperature of their lives with tactile precision (Kakutani, 1999)”. These stories are of a world that so few of us know, yet one that we can relate and empathize with through insight and understanding.
Analysis of "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri. (2021, Aug 06). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/analysis-of-interpreter-of-maladies-by-jhumpa-lahiri-essay
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