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Book Review- INTERPRETER OF MALADIES
INTERPRETER OF MALADIES
Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri, born on July 11, 1967, is an Indian-American author. She was born Nilanjana Sudeshna, which she says are both "good names", but goes by her nickname Jhumpa. Lahiri's debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. Lahiri is a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama.
Born in London, Lahiri is the daughter of Indian immigrants from the state of West Bengal. Her family moved to the United States when she was three.
Lahiri graduated from South Kingstown High School and received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College in 1989. Lahiri then received multiple degrees from Boston University: an M.A. in English, M.F.A. in Creative Writing, M.A. in Comparative Literature, and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies. She took a fellowship at Provincetown's Fine Arts Work Center, which lasted for the two years (1997–1998). Lahiri has taught creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design.
In 2001, Lahiri married Alberto -Bush, a journalist who was then Deputy Editor of TIME Latin America, and who is now Senior Editor of Fox News Latino. Lahiri lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with her husband and their two children, Octavio (b. 2002) and Noor (b. 2005).
Lahiri's early short stories faced rejection from publishers "for years". Her debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, was finally released in 1999. The stories address sensitive dilemmas in the lives of Indians or Indian immigrants, with themes such as marital difficulties, miscarriages, and the disconnection between first and second generation United States immigrants. Lahiri later wrote, "When I first started writing I was not conscious that my subject was the Indian-American experience. What drew me to my craft was the desire to force the two worlds I occupied to mingle on the page as I was not brave enough, or mature enough, to allow in life." The collection was praised by American critics, but received mixed reviews in India, where reviewers were alternately enthusiastic and upset Lahiri had "not painted Indians in a more positive light." Interpreter of Maladies sold 600,000 copies and received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (only the seventh time a story collection had won the award).
In 2003, Lahiri published The Namesake, her first novel. The story spans over thirty years in the life of the Ganguli family. A film adaptation of The Namesake was released in March 2007, directed by Mira Nair and starring Kal Penn as Gogol and Bollywood stars Tabu and Irrfan Khan as his parents. Lahiri herself made a cameo as "Aunt Jhumpa".
Lahiri's second collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, was released on April 1, 2008. Upon its publication, Unaccustomed Earth achieved the rare distinction of debuting at number 1 on The New York Times best seller list. Lahiri has also had a distinguished relationship with The New Yorker magazine in which she has published a number of her short stories, mostly fiction, and a few non-fiction including The Long Way Home; Cooking Lessons, a story about the importance of food in Lahiri's relationship with her mother.
Lahiri's writing is characterized by her "plain" language and her characters, often Indian immigrants to America who must navigate between the cultural values of their homeland and their adopted home. Lahiri's fiction frequently draws upon her own experiences as well as those of her parents, friends, acquaintances. Her stories scrutinize the fate of the second and third generations. As succeeding generations become increasingly assimilated into American culture and are comfortable in constructing perspectives outside of their country of origin, Lahiri's fiction shifts to the needs of the individual. She shows how later generations depart from the constraints of their immigrant parents, who are often devoted to their community and their responsibility to other immigrants.
Interpreter of Maladies is a book collection of nine short stories by Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri published in 1999. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in the year 2000 and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. It was also chosen as The New Yorker's Best Debut of the Year and is on Oprah Winfrey's Top Ten Book List.
The stories are about the lives of Indians and Indian Americans who are caught between the culture they have inherited and the "New World."
The following paper studies Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel Interpreter of Maladies, 2006 edition, published by HarperCollins Publishers, India.
1. Interpreter of Maladies
Mr. and Mrs. Das, Indian Americans visiting the country of their heritage, hire middle-aged tour guide Mr. Kapasi as their driver for the day as they tour. Mr. Kapasi notes the parents’ immaturity. Mr. and Mrs. Das look and act young to the point of childishness, go by their first names when talking to their children, Ronny, Bobby, and Tina, and seem selfishly indifferent to the kids. Mrs. Das sits in the car, eating snacks she offers to no one else, wearing her sunglasses as a barrier, and painting her nails. When Tina asks her to paint her nails as well, Mrs. Das just turns away and rebuffs her daughter.
Mr. and Mrs. Das ask the good-natured Mr. Kapasi about his job as a tour guide, and he tells them about his weekday job as an interpreter in a doctor’s office. Mr. Kapasi’s wife resents her husband’s job because he works at the doctor’s clinic that previously failed to cure their son of typhoid fever. She belittles his job, and he, too, discounts the importance of his occupation as a waste of his linguistic skills. However, Mrs. Das deems it “romantic” and a big responsibility, pointing out that the health of the patients depends upon Mr. Kapasi’s correct interpretation of their maladies.
Mr. Kapasi begins to develop a romantic interest in Mrs. Das, and conducts a private conversation with her during the trip. Mr. Kapasi imagines a future correspondence with Mrs. Das, picturing them building a relationship to translate the transcontinental gap between them. However, Mrs. Das reveals a secret: she tells Mr. Kapasi the story of an affair she once had, and that her son Bobby had been born out of her adultery. She explains that she chose to tell Mr. Kapasi because of his profession; she hopes he can interpret her feelings and make her feel better as he does for his patients, translating without passing judgment. However, when Mr. Kapasi reveals his disappointment in her and points out her guilt, Mrs. Das storms off.
As Mrs. Das walks away towards her family, she trails crumbs of puffed rice snacks, and monkeys begin to trail her. The neglectful Das parents don’t notice as the monkeys, following Mrs. Das’s food trail, surround their son, Bobby, isolating the son born of a different father. The monkeys begin to attack Bobby, and Mr Kapasi rushes in to save him. Mr Kapasi returns Bobby to his parents, and looks on as they clean up their son.
Analysis
The story centres upon interpretation and its power. The interpreter has a power of understanding. Mr Kapasi’s work enables correct diagnosis and treatment by understanding the pains and troubles of patients—effectively, he enables the saving of lives. Mrs Das looks for this understanding from him, seeking absolution for the secret of her adultery. Interpretation also becomes a means of communication and connection, something for which both Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das yearn. Both feel a disconnect from their spouses and their families, unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives.
Mr. Kapasi interprets her marital situation in relation to his own, and she asks him to interpret her secret marital violation as a connection exclusively between them.
Mr. Kapasi cares about this family he has only just met; he ponders over them and considers their situation. He also quickly begins to care about Mrs. Das, developing attentiveness to her every move. On the other hand, the Das parents exhibit complete carelessness, neglecting to keep an eye on their children, ignoring each other, acting completely self-centred.
In the story of “Interpreter of Maladies” each character has its own way of viewing each other. Mr. Das views the world through the lens of his camera. Since his camera is always around his neck, he sees even tough realities through the lens of his camera, which are not commented upon by other characters. For example, he takes pictures of the starving peasant, and doing so openly ignores the peasant's fundamental reality. Mrs. Das, always wearing her sunglasses, sees others through their tint and this blocks others from seeing her eyes. Furthermore, when in the taxi, her window does not roll down, so she can not directly see the world outside. Mr. Kapasi watches Mrs. Das through the rearview mirror, which distorts his view of her and prevents him from looking at her directly. All the children in the story are wearing a visor, this suggests that one day, their vision will be as distorted and deformed as their parents' visions are.
The language of the story is easy to understand. The writing style is very Indian. It helps us to connect with the present day situation where families live together but have less or no emotional bond.
Lahiri’s writing is beautiful and conveys this tangible sadness that few writers seem to understand or have the skill to express without making the work depressing. Her characters are real and flawed, with complex, delicate relationships, and the tension between their lives and identities as Indians in a changing world—or living in a foreign culture—is wonderfully executed.
2. The Third and Final Continent
In the story "The Third and Final Continent" the narrator lives in India, then moves to London, then finally to America. The title of this story tells us that the narrator has been to three different continents and chooses to stay in the third. The third continent is North America (the melting pot of the world). As soon as the narrator arrives he decides to stays at the YMCA. After saving some money he decides to move somewhere a little more like home. He responds to an advertisement in the paper and ends up living with an elderly woman. At first he is very respectful and courteous to the elderly woman. The narrator does not feel that he owes the old woman anything and does not really go out of his way for her. But after he discovers that she is one hundred and three years old, he then changes. He becomes more caring and even amazed that this old woman has lived for one hundred and three years. Because of this woman's age she is not accustomed to the modern times in which this story takes place. The narrator just like the elderly woman is not accustomed to the times in America but also America in general. So this may help the narrator to feel more comfortable in his new setting. After living with the elderly woman for about three months the narrator grows somewhat attached to her.
Once his wife who he was set up to marry arrives in America he then decides to move to a bigger home. Upon this decision he also realizes that he is going to have to look out for and nurture his new wife. After living with his wife for some time whom he barely knows: he soon finds out that the elderly woman with whom he had once lived with is now dead. This hurts him because she was the first person in America towards whom he had felt any feelings for. After the woman's death he then becomes more comfortable with his wife. Not because the woman died but because of the time he is spending with his wife. Just like his relationship with elderly woman the more time he spends with a person the closer he gets to them. After sometime the narrator falls in love with his wife and constantly remembers the elderly woman whom he had once lived with.
Analysis
In contrast to depictions of resistance to Indian culture found in several of the stories in Lahiri’s collection, "The Third And Final Continent" portrays a relatively positive story of the Indian-American experience.
In this story, the obstacles and hardships that the protagonist must overcome are much more tangible, such as learning to stomach a diet of cornflakes and bananas, or boarding in a cramped YMCA. The protagonist’s human interactions demonstrate a high degree of tolerance and even acceptance of Indian culture on the part of the Americans he meets.
The language used is extremely easy to read but at the same time it is elegant and it brings out all the emotions in such a way that we can at once relate to the people and the situations in the story.
Lahiri's stories show the diasporic struggle to keep hold of culture as characters create new lives in foreign cultures. Relationships, language, rituals, and religion all help these characters maintain their culture in new surroundings even as they build a "hybrid realization" as Asian Americans.
By ending on a cultural tone of social acceptance and tolerance, Lahiri suggests that the experience of adapting to American society is ultimately achievable.
Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri, born on July 11, 1967, is an Indian-American author. She was born Nilanjana Sudeshna, which she says are both "good names", but goes by her nickname Jhumpa. Lahiri's debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name. Lahiri is a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama.
Born in London, Lahiri is the daughter of Indian immigrants from the state of West Bengal. Her family moved to the United States when she was three.
Lahiri graduated from South Kingstown High School and received her B.A. in English literature from Barnard College in 1989. Lahiri then received multiple degrees from Boston University: an M.A. in English, M.F.A. in Creative Writing, M.A. in Comparative Literature, and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies. She took a fellowship at Provincetown's Fine Arts Work Center, which lasted for the two years (1997–1998). Lahiri has taught creative writing at Boston University and the Rhode Island School of Design.
In 2001, Lahiri married Alberto -Bush, a journalist who was then Deputy Editor of TIME Latin America, and who is now Senior Editor of Fox News Latino. Lahiri lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn with her husband and their two children, Octavio (b. 2002) and Noor (b. 2005).
Lahiri's early short stories faced rejection from publishers "for years". Her debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, was finally released in 1999. The stories address sensitive dilemmas in the lives of Indians or Indian immigrants, with themes such as marital difficulties, miscarriages, and the disconnection between first and second generation United States immigrants. Lahiri later wrote, "When I first started writing I was not conscious that my subject was the Indian-American experience. What drew me to my craft was the desire to force the two worlds I occupied to mingle on the page as I was not brave enough, or mature enough, to allow in life." The collection was praised by American critics, but received mixed reviews in India, where reviewers were alternately enthusiastic and upset Lahiri had "not painted Indians in a more positive light." Interpreter of Maladies sold 600,000 copies and received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (only the seventh time a story collection had won the award).
In 2003, Lahiri published The Namesake, her first novel. The story spans over thirty years in the life of the Ganguli family. A film adaptation of The Namesake was released in March 2007, directed by Mira Nair and starring Kal Penn as Gogol and Bollywood stars Tabu and Irrfan Khan as his parents. Lahiri herself made a cameo as "Aunt Jhumpa".
Lahiri's second collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, was released on April 1, 2008. Upon its publication, Unaccustomed Earth achieved the rare distinction of debuting at number 1 on The New York Times best seller list. Lahiri has also had a distinguished relationship with The New Yorker magazine in which she has published a number of her short stories, mostly fiction, and a few non-fiction including The Long Way Home; Cooking Lessons, a story about the importance of food in Lahiri's relationship with her mother.
Lahiri's writing is characterized by her "plain" language and her characters, often Indian immigrants to America who must navigate between the cultural values of their homeland and their adopted home. Lahiri's fiction frequently draws upon her own experiences as well as those of her parents, friends, acquaintances. Her stories scrutinize the fate of the second and third generations. As succeeding generations become increasingly assimilated into American culture and are comfortable in constructing perspectives outside of their country of origin, Lahiri's fiction shifts to the needs of the individual. She shows how later generations depart from the constraints of their immigrant parents, who are often devoted to their community and their responsibility to other immigrants.
Interpreter of Maladies is a book collection of nine short stories by Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri published in 1999. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in the year 2000 and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. It was also chosen as The New Yorker's Best Debut of the Year and is on Oprah Winfrey's Top Ten Book List.
The stories are about the lives of Indians and Indian Americans who are caught between the culture they have inherited and the "New World."
The following paper studies Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel Interpreter of Maladies, 2006 edition, published by HarperCollins Publishers, India.
1. Interpreter of Maladies
Mr. and Mrs. Das, Indian Americans visiting the country of their heritage, hire middle-aged tour guide Mr. Kapasi as their driver for the day as they tour. Mr. Kapasi notes the parents’ immaturity. Mr. and Mrs. Das look and act young to the point of childishness, go by their first names when talking to their children, Ronny, Bobby, and Tina, and seem selfishly indifferent to the kids. Mrs. Das sits in the car, eating snacks she offers to no one else, wearing her sunglasses as a barrier, and painting her nails. When Tina asks her to paint her nails as well, Mrs. Das just turns away and rebuffs her daughter.
Mr. and Mrs. Das ask the good-natured Mr. Kapasi about his job as a tour guide, and he tells them about his weekday job as an interpreter in a doctor’s office. Mr. Kapasi’s wife resents her husband’s job because he works at the doctor’s clinic that previously failed to cure their son of typhoid fever. She belittles his job, and he, too, discounts the importance of his occupation as a waste of his linguistic skills. However, Mrs. Das deems it “romantic” and a big responsibility, pointing out that the health of the patients depends upon Mr. Kapasi’s correct interpretation of their maladies.
Mr. Kapasi begins to develop a romantic interest in Mrs. Das, and conducts a private conversation with her during the trip. Mr. Kapasi imagines a future correspondence with Mrs. Das, picturing them building a relationship to translate the transcontinental gap between them. However, Mrs. Das reveals a secret: she tells Mr. Kapasi the story of an affair she once had, and that her son Bobby had been born out of her adultery. She explains that she chose to tell Mr. Kapasi because of his profession; she hopes he can interpret her feelings and make her feel better as he does for his patients, translating without passing judgment. However, when Mr. Kapasi reveals his disappointment in her and points out her guilt, Mrs. Das storms off.
As Mrs. Das walks away towards her family, she trails crumbs of puffed rice snacks, and monkeys begin to trail her. The neglectful Das parents don’t notice as the monkeys, following Mrs. Das’s food trail, surround their son, Bobby, isolating the son born of a different father. The monkeys begin to attack Bobby, and Mr Kapasi rushes in to save him. Mr Kapasi returns Bobby to his parents, and looks on as they clean up their son.
Analysis
The story centres upon interpretation and its power. The interpreter has a power of understanding. Mr Kapasi’s work enables correct diagnosis and treatment by understanding the pains and troubles of patients—effectively, he enables the saving of lives. Mrs Das looks for this understanding from him, seeking absolution for the secret of her adultery. Interpretation also becomes a means of communication and connection, something for which both Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das yearn. Both feel a disconnect from their spouses and their families, unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives.
Mr. Kapasi interprets her marital situation in relation to his own, and she asks him to interpret her secret marital violation as a connection exclusively between them.
Mr. Kapasi cares about this family he has only just met; he ponders over them and considers their situation. He also quickly begins to care about Mrs. Das, developing attentiveness to her every move. On the other hand, the Das parents exhibit complete carelessness, neglecting to keep an eye on their children, ignoring each other, acting completely self-centred.
In the story of “Interpreter of Maladies” each character has its own way of viewing each other. Mr. Das views the world through the lens of his camera. Since his camera is always around his neck, he sees even tough realities through the lens of his camera, which are not commented upon by other characters. For example, he takes pictures of the starving peasant, and doing so openly ignores the peasant's fundamental reality. Mrs. Das, always wearing her sunglasses, sees others through their tint and this blocks others from seeing her eyes. Furthermore, when in the taxi, her window does not roll down, so she can not directly see the world outside. Mr. Kapasi watches Mrs. Das through the rearview mirror, which distorts his view of her and prevents him from looking at her directly. All the children in the story are wearing a visor, this suggests that one day, their vision will be as distorted and deformed as their parents' visions are.
The language of the story is easy to understand. The writing style is very Indian. It helps us to connect with the present day situation where families live together but have less or no emotional bond.
Lahiri’s writing is beautiful and conveys this tangible sadness that few writers seem to understand or have the skill to express without making the work depressing. Her characters are real and flawed, with complex, delicate relationships, and the tension between their lives and identities as Indians in a changing world—or living in a foreign culture—is wonderfully executed.
2. The Third and Final Continent
In the story "The Third and Final Continent" the narrator lives in India, then moves to London, then finally to America. The title of this story tells us that the narrator has been to three different continents and chooses to stay in the third. The third continent is North America (the melting pot of the world). As soon as the narrator arrives he decides to stays at the YMCA. After saving some money he decides to move somewhere a little more like home. He responds to an advertisement in the paper and ends up living with an elderly woman. At first he is very respectful and courteous to the elderly woman. The narrator does not feel that he owes the old woman anything and does not really go out of his way for her. But after he discovers that she is one hundred and three years old, he then changes. He becomes more caring and even amazed that this old woman has lived for one hundred and three years. Because of this woman's age she is not accustomed to the modern times in which this story takes place. The narrator just like the elderly woman is not accustomed to the times in America but also America in general. So this may help the narrator to feel more comfortable in his new setting. After living with the elderly woman for about three months the narrator grows somewhat attached to her.
Once his wife who he was set up to marry arrives in America he then decides to move to a bigger home. Upon this decision he also realizes that he is going to have to look out for and nurture his new wife. After living with his wife for some time whom he barely knows: he soon finds out that the elderly woman with whom he had once lived with is now dead. This hurts him because she was the first person in America towards whom he had felt any feelings for. After the woman's death he then becomes more comfortable with his wife. Not because the woman died but because of the time he is spending with his wife. Just like his relationship with elderly woman the more time he spends with a person the closer he gets to them. After sometime the narrator falls in love with his wife and constantly remembers the elderly woman whom he had once lived with.
Analysis
In contrast to depictions of resistance to Indian culture found in several of the stories in Lahiri’s collection, "The Third And Final Continent" portrays a relatively positive story of the Indian-American experience.
In this story, the obstacles and hardships that the protagonist must overcome are much more tangible, such as learning to stomach a diet of cornflakes and bananas, or boarding in a cramped YMCA. The protagonist’s human interactions demonstrate a high degree of tolerance and even acceptance of Indian culture on the part of the Americans he meets.
The language used is extremely easy to read but at the same time it is elegant and it brings out all the emotions in such a way that we can at once relate to the people and the situations in the story.
Lahiri's stories show the diasporic struggle to keep hold of culture as characters create new lives in foreign cultures. Relationships, language, rituals, and religion all help these characters maintain their culture in new surroundings even as they build a "hybrid realization" as Asian Americans.
By ending on a cultural tone of social acceptance and tolerance, Lahiri suggests that the experience of adapting to American society is ultimately achievable.