Oct 12, 2007 03:10 AM
8502 Views
I have been on a spree of reading books of the pulitzer prize winners since 1992, starting with The thousand acres by Jane Smiley. I have religiously read most of them almost every year, more to know their strong contents than out of curiosity.And believe it or not, the best I have read so far has been Jhumpa Lahiri'sInterpreter of Maladies, definitely not because she is from India, but because I have never been touched so much by any piece of fiction, though I have read a lot being in the teaching profession.
The narration, the style of writing, the little detailed descriptions, the characterisations, everything is way too perfect. As I always have taught my students that everything has to be'show not tell' when it comes to stories, poems or any piece of art, Ms.Lahiri has a good job of this. She definitely makes you feel that you are part and parcel of the story, the setting and the background.
Come to think of all those persons leaving their country to come and settle in a new country and adjust and adapt to everything there. Ms. Lahiri has been out of the country herself and so identifies with her characters well, taking into consideration as what is it that we miss the most of our country-the food, the emotional support and the togetherness.Every person who yearns for another person, every person who yearns for his/her country, every person who must have missed something in life, felt sad about it, every oneof these persons are present in her stories and so you relate to them in one story or the other.
I would not want to go into details of the stories as they have to be read to get the essence and the beauty of them. Just me telling you the synopsis of each short story and rating them as good or bad, would definitely prejudice your view of the book and hence would not want to guide or misguide you. But one thing is for sure, if you haven't read this book of short stories, you have sure missed something.She has a story for every individual, every country, every religion in this compilation of stories.
It touched me. It touched him/her. It touched them. It would definitely touch you. Hats off to Jhumpa Lahiri, a true writer born.(Don't even think of forgetting her The Namesake-another excellent book.)