Thursday, July 19, 2012

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

The latest book I've finished reading is Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. It's a book filled with a collection of nine short stories and published in 1999. 

In 2000, Interpreter of Maladies won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and according to Wikipedia, Interpreter of Maladies "was also chosen as The New Yorker's Best Debut of the Year and is on Oprah Winfrey's Top Ten Book List."

Although I feel that Jhumpa Lahiri is a good writer, I wasn't overly impressed by her writing. I was surprised after reading Interpreter of Maladies that it won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and also chosen as The New Yorker's Best Debut of the Year as I have a higher expectation for books that win prestigious awards and are selected as the best of anything in prominent magazines.

I felt that most of the stories in Interpreter of Maladies were too sad/depressing for my taste. I don't plan to read anything else written by Jhumpa Lahiri in the future.

When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, The Treatment of Bibi Haldar & The Third and Final Continent were the best stories in this collection of short stories in my opinion.


Sexy was a bit bizarre to me. The kid in this story gave me the creeps. I felt sorry for him, but he was too demanding personality wise.

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