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Interpreter of Maladies
Interpreter of Maladies
Interpreter of Maladies
Audiobook6 hours

Interpreter of Maladies

Written by Jhumpa Lahiri

Narrated by Matilda Novak

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

()

About this audiobook

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of cultures and generations.

In A Temporary Matter, published in the New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth, while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession.

Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant.

Editor's Note

Stories that linger…

Lahiri is a sensitive observer of the micro relationships that form between strangers in different situations: a tour, a dinner party, a tutoring session. These are stories that linger, that become a part of you.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 13, 2005
ISBN9781598875096
Author

Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri has been a Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, but is currently teaching in New York. She has published her fiction in various US journals including the New Yorker, and has won several US prizes for her work.

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Reviews for Interpreter of Maladies

Rating: 4.294314381270903 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lovely, rich writing that pulls you into each story.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I was very disappointed with this collection of short stories. I went into this thinking that as a Pulitzer Prize Winner, this had to be a book I would enjoy. I was very wrong. While the author is obviously a skilled writer, I was not blown away by the writing style. With maybe one exception, the stories were all depressing and left me feeling sad or apathetic toward the characters. I felt like many of them were left without a resolution, and I wanted more closure. My guess is that these stories were written in this way on purpose, but I found the read very unsatisfying.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Larhiri's short stories take place either in the Boston area or in India. Most of them are melancholy. I liked them, but they didn't blow me away, just made me a little sad. The narrator seemed unfamiliar with the pronunciation of place names like Filene's and Mapparium. No problem with Nickelodeon though (I'd almost forgotten about that place!)

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had forgotten how lovely short stories could be! However, I wasn’t keen on the audio book reader - the mispronounciation of Indian cities and references was a little irritating.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was so surprised that when I started to read this book that it went as quickly as it did. I expected because of the Pulitzer Award of the cover I would have to plod through it - but it was a really quick and enjoyable read. I particularly enjoyed the stories that took place in the Boston area - but found that they were all really interesting and very easy to relate to .
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A gifted author, top 10 of the last 10 years. The lost art of the short story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I read this book a long time ago and loved it! Thought I’d listen to it and regretted it. The accent used by the person reading this is embarrassingly bad. She can’t pronounce basic words and names. It’s so jarring. That’s not the fault of the writer of course. Better to read this one than listen.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Writes well but only three stories really do it for me - probably the content rather than the writing. In the other tales many of the characters do not have an internal logic. They come across (to me at any rate) as stupid, selfish, unaware. The stories that I like give the characters an internal logic for their actions - in the others characters come across as patronised by the author, or perhaps stereotypes. The ones I really like are:
    Sexy
    Mrs Sen's
    The Third and Final Continent
    (plus an honourable mention for This Blessed House)
    Interesting that all these are in the latter half of the book.....
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The author writes in an unusual but extremely pleasurable style. All the stories within this book give, in a very sensitive way a closer look at the hopes, sorrows, and love in the lives of immigrants from India in the USA as well as some Indians living in India. It is a treat to read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I usually don't read short stories but thought I would check this one out. I now feel like I have had a small glimpse into Indian culture. Even though they portray different age groups and situations, each story delves into another side of the flawed human nature. I found each one interesting and thought provoking.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Every word left me deep sense of appreciation for the things l have always taken for granted, like friendship and family...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Fiction short stories with lots of Indian/Bengali/American perspectives (international author) [pulitzer 22]
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    These short stories are mainly set in America, but sometimes in India, and feature mostly Indian-Americans, but sometimes Indians. I found them moving and gentle, although fairly sad. They made me want to try mustard oil!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interpreter of Maladies is a collection of short stories dealing with Indian-Americans for the most part. A few stories take place in India, but most are placed in New England. They relate the immigrant experience, the dislocation felt by those born in another country and by those born here visiting back in India. There's different views on raising children, marriage (both arranged and otherwise), and dealing with differences between the sexes. The stories are well-written and, as with all collections, some stand out better than others depending on the reader. I enjoyed A Temporary Matter and Interpreter of Maladies the most, but all of the stories were enjoyable.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fabulous Read. The descriptions are realistic and she has her own style of developing scenes from description of material aspects.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This one was recommended to me with the words "she tells world's most beautiful stories". I am not sure if I agree.I admit that there was a couple of stories that stuck with me, mainly the first; "A temporary matter", about a young couple on the brink of divorce. But this story also shows what I see as the main failing of these stories, namely that they are all told from an all-knowing point of view. Nothing is hidden, which takes away much of the tension in the stories. The stories are small slivers of common lives, but since we in most of the stories get an "infordump" in the beginning, all the "why"s disappear, there is no real conflict and there is nothing to build a character on.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved several of these short stories (including the first two, which was what sucked me in!) and found the writing to be beautiful and evocative throughout. Several of them (the titular "Interpreter of Maladies", "A Real Durwan", "Mrs. Sen's") were a bit too bitter/unresolved for me to really *enjoy*, but they have continued to ripple through my thoughts, and I think perhaps I need a bit more time to fully decide how I feel about them. My overall favorites were "This Blessed House" and "The Third and Final Continent."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Moving and carefully constructed stories, totally believable, well drawn characters
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A brilliant collection, well deserving of the Pulitzer it won. Each of the nine stories is deceptively dense; they all read easily yet are intricately plotted. It's the best kind of writing: so carefully layered as to appear effortless. All the stories were good, but my favorites were "Sexy," "Mrs. Sen's," and the title story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beautiful stories of ordinary people, most of them lonely and estranged. The characters, particularly the children, are often endearing. I loved Twinkle in "This Blessed House," but I can understand why her husband found her somewhat irritating. Lahiri explores cultural differences between India and the United States, but without passing judgment on either country. She writes exceptionally well--clear, understated, some humor.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fantastic and intimate stories.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beautiful intimate voices of people I have known across many lives.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very clear why this won the Pulitzer Price for Literature. The plights of the main characters in every short story are quite compelling.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Another great book of short stories. I have heard that shorts are harder to write than novels and the author has surely perfected the craft of story writing. I can't wait to read one of her novels.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The stories "When Mr. Prizada Came to Dine," "A Real Durwan," "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar," and "The Third and Final Continent" would be most useful in a high school ELA classroom. "When Mr. Prizada Came to Dine" and "The Third and Final Continent" both explore the immigrant experience of Indians in America, while "A Real Durwan" and "The Treatment of Bibi Halder" are set in India and would therefore be useful in exploring Indian culture and societal norms, particularly from the female point of view. "When Mr. Prizada Came to Dine" would fit nicely into a historical perspective approach as it lends itself to exploration of India-Pakistan relations.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A simple writing style. The conventional shock of recognition. As if these stories are deserved, not earned. The stories are neat, a little too neat maybe. The symbols and metaphors are chaste, a little too chaste. The stories are well-written, blameless and a little too polished. "Written" as such, they lacked the haphazard beauty of imperfection. The art of living that does not strive for peace of mind, but for a calmness born of awkward harmonies. There is a sense of being propelled, goaded, into submission. The stories leave one gasping for hope, even when, in a story, it is hope itself that was lost. My favorite story in this collection is the last one ("The Third and Final Continent"), which sums up everything into wholeness and brings into perspective the malaise and maladies interpreted for the reader. I also liked "This Blessed House" which has an element of improvisation to it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed each of these stories about the joy and heartbreak of everyday life with an Indian influence. The immigration experience is explored through the eyes of the different characters of a variety of ages and circumstances. My only complaint is the lack of depth, but that's why I primarily read novels as opposed to short stories. As others have said, the writing is simply beautiful.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I really loved this book that contains nine short stories, and I can see why it won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000. These stories share the theme of individuals who are working to marry their Indian culture with their American lives. The writing is elegant but not overly embellished. The speakers are ordinary people who are navigating two cultural divides and looking for middle ground, for harmony - people who struggle with finding their own voice in a world that is full of noise. Like an album whose layout has been carefully planned so that each song fits perfectly into place, creating pacing and progression that gives the album added depth and dimension, this collection of stories has a flow from beginning to end. There is not one false note here, and the result is simply breathtaking. The very last story The Third and Final Continent was my favorite, but I also truly loved Mrs. Sen and This Blessed House."While the astronauts, heroes forever, spent mere hours on the moon, I have remained in this new world for nearly thirty years. I know that my achievement is quite ordinary. I am not the only man to seek his fortune far from home, and I am certainly not the first. Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept. As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it is beyond my imagination."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The stories, on the surface, are simple storytelling, but breathtakingly beautiful at the same time. It is an extremely talented author that can take short vignettes about regular people, and make it so authentic and beautiful.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a lovely collection of stories, that are mostly from the third-person, but have two that are from the first person. The overriding theme is seperation and the inability of people to understand each other - whether it is a bewildered immigrant, a husband and wife, a young boy and his divorcing parents, etc. It is melancholy, with personal tragedies, but it is well-written and compelling, and you feel for each character, who are made distinct from those in the other story, though you can tell they inhabit the same universe.