Dear Jhumpa Lahiri,
It’s not you, it’s me. Let’s never forget what we had.
Cordially,
Jenny
One of the greatest pleasures of book blogging, for me, has been the reassurance that I am not alone. No matter what obscure thing I read, someone else has read it; no matter what classic I’ve neglected, someone else has been meaning to get around to it. My tastes don’t align with everyone else’s, but I generally find that whether I love a book or hate it, I have company.
Not this time. I read Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer-winning debut story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, and it just didn’t work for me. Having taken a quick survey of both professional reviewers and bloggers (and, of course, the Pulitzer committee), I seem to be the only person currently living on earth who didn’t like this book much.
The nine stories all take place in the US or India, and they have to do with the emotional and physical alienation that takes place when people no longer feel at home, either because of the uprooting effect of immigration or because of a more spiritual drift. A couple whose marriage has grown distant because of the stillbirth of their baby plays a game in the dark to reveal secrets whose intimacy is ultimately more than their fragility can bear. A mistress learns more than she wants to about the consequences of adultery on the family that’s left behind. A woman with epilepsy sets her mind on marriage, and instead reaps rejection, until she finds a cure for her loneliness. The stories are deftly done; there aren’t any extraneous frills. These people are flying apart at the speed of sound, and none of them can hear or touch each other.
The problem for me was that I wasn’t much impressed or moved by the stories. Most of them felt like something I’d read before (like in M.G. Vassanji’s work, for instance, dealing with cross-cultural issues of alienation.) I often have difficulty entering into modern literary fiction, with its slice-of-life everyday-epiphany style, and that might have been part of the problem here. It all just felt tired to me, with no real drive behind it. The prose was clean and simple, and it didn’t get in its own way, but I didn’t find it especially moving or elegant. (By “elegant” I don’t mean that it had to have fancy stylistic flourishes to please me, but I didn’t find either the stories or the writing itself particularly original or interesting.)
My favorite story in the collection was “This Blessed House.” It shows a newly-married couple, the conservative Sanjeev and the whimsical, ebullient Twinkle. As they move in to their new house, Twinkle makes one discovery after another of religious kitsch from the previous owners: posters of Jesus, religious snow globes, that sort of thing. Sanjeev is appalled; Twinkle is charmed, and the tangle of misunderstanding grows deeper. This story almost made it for me. There was so much possibility in it, so many cultural problems ready to spill out. But not quite. The story remained superficial, and we were told instead of shown how Sanjeev decided to feel at the end.
Here’s the thing: it’s obviously me. When the consensus is so clear that this is a stunning book, and it’s award-winning, and every single review is positive, then it’s me. You should read it! I’m sure you’ll like it.
I too read this book after hearing so much about it but I really liked it. That isn’t to say that I liked every single story and, as you said, there were echoes of other writers and stories in Lahiri’s tales. But I find with short story collections that it’s often a mixed bag. My favourite tale was the one about Mrs. Sen and her driving lessons.
You’re right that story collections are often mixed successes. This one just didn’t have any big hits for me. I didn’t hate it, I just didn’t like any of them above “meh.”
I love this author who had worked at my library when she was in high school…..LOL very talented.
How interesting that she worked at your library!
I read three books this month that other people simply love, but I just couldn’t get into. I felt a bit bad, but on the other hand, I know it is just me and not the books themselves because so many people do like them…
In most cases, there’s a lot of mixed opinion out there. This just seemed to be pretty monolithic!
I loved some of the stories (This Blessed House was one of them) but not all of them. Short story collections are tough — I agree, they’re usually a mixed bag. I think I enjoyed The Namesake more simply because it was a full novel — I enjoyed getting to know the characters better. I wish some of the stories in Interpreter of Maladies had been expanded into full novels.
That’s a good point, that perhaps some of the stories would have been better off expanded. There was a sense of incompleteness to some of them for me. I might try The Namesake for that reason alone.
Haha- I liked this book but I had this same reaction to The Namesake. I did not like that book much at all! (And, being Indian, I feel like anyone who has ever read The Namesake TELLS me that they have read The Namesake and then looks at me as though they fully understand Life as an Indian in America.)
Aarti, this comment made me laugh right out loud. I’ve read A Suitable Boy! I know your pain!
I haven’t read this collection, so I can’t get all indignant about you not liking it… but what I can say is that part of why I haven’t read this collection is because I read Lahiri’s second collection of stories a few years back and was SUPER underwhelmed by them. Like, I thought Lahiri was a fine writer, but her stories seemed so uninspired and repetitive and didn’t say anything interesting or new to me. So I do think I see where you’re coming from and I think that I probably wouldn’t care for this collection very much!
Aw, Steph, thanks for having my back! That sounds like just my reaction to these. Maybe I’d like the novel better?
Aw, don’t say that! Your opinion is 100% valid, even if it is unpopular.
Well, my opinion (“I didn’t like this book”) is a valid statement of how I felt about the book. But an opinion like “This isn’t a good book” might not be. Just because, for instance, I didn’t like The Great Gatsby in high school doesn’t make it a bad book, and consensus of opinion made me re-read it later (and incidentally love it.) So I guess popularity sometimes matters!
Sorry to hear you didn’t like it. It’s been on my TBR for AGES. Nothing like a bad-ish review to spark my curiosity ;)
Oh, good! I hope you love it!
I read this collection and liked it but didn’t love it. I did, however, love her only novel, The Namesake, and perhaps you’d fare better with it too.
My favourite story from The Interpreter of Maladies was “A Temporary Matter”, which I thought dealt with the limitations of communication very well.
See, I thought “A Temporary Matter” was just okay. I agree it was one of the better stories in the collection, but it felt a little gimmicky to me, and a little tired. Again! Just me!
“One of the greatest pleasures of book blogging, for me, has been the reassurance that I am not alone”-I agree so much with this-I read one of her stories not long ago-dailylit.com had one online-I really like it and hope to get to the full collection soon-I enjoyed your post very much
I hope you love the collection, Mel. I really look forward to hearing what you think of it.
Haha, I know the feeling, Jenny. One feels, “How could so many people have bad taste?” :-)
If it makes you feel any better my mother-in-law disliked this book as well, for (as I recall) similar reasons to yours – the stories just felt a little tired and generic to her.
Heh — well, I try to be humble! And it sounds as if at least your mother-in-law has taste. :)
I read this in my early early days of blogging. I wonder what I’ll think when I reread it!
I read your review as part of my informal survey! If you do reread it, I’ll be interested to see what you think the second time around.
Now I don’t feel so guilty about being the only person who can’t stand Barbara Pym!
Sometimes we just have to say ‘not my cup of tea’ and move on …
You can’t be the ONLY person who doesn’t like Barbara Pym…? Oh, well, perhaps you are. :) And yes, sometimes it’s best just to give up!
Might you perhaps enjoy her novel more? I haven’t read anything by her so far, but I tend to enjoy full-length books more than short stories. And slice-of-life stories not at all.
Well, I can like slice-of-life fiction if there’s something else, something original, a twist, or wonderful writing. By itself it just doesn’t grab me much. That might be the problem here. It was solid enough, it just didn’t rise above the OK level. But maybe a novel would give her space to expand.
I did enjoy The Namesake quite a lot, but I was surprised to learn after I read it that Lahiri had won a Pulitzer. For me, it fell in the good solid read category, but not the super-artful and original category. I had assumed (and possibly others had told me) that she really shines in the short story format, so I had assumed her stories are more original and exciting. But maybe not. I have An Unaccustomed Earth and will give it a try one day. (I do think I like the everyday-epiphany slice-of-life lit fic more than you do, Jenny.)
Yes, I think you do, too — though as I said to Other Jenny, I can love it if there’s something else wonderful about it, like wonderful writing or an original character or story element. I can think of many such examples. Most contemporary lit fic seems very static to me, though, and this did as well.
Must be an enjoyable read Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. loved the way you wrote it. I find your review very genuine and orignal, this book is going in by “to read” list.
I enjoyed reading this wonderfully put-together book. Each family’s story captivated a unique perspective on Indian immigrants. In addition, Lahiri’s writing style beautifully weaves all these characters into a common journey of self identity and preservation of culture.