| | Interpreter of Maladies |  | Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Publisher: Turtleback Books Distributed by Demco Media
Category: Book
Buy Used: $72.99
Used (1) Collectible (1) from $72.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  468 reviews
Sales Rank: 2314585
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0606207279
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780606207270
ASIN: 0606207279
Publication Date: February 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: hardcover and dust jacket in good condition
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| Customer Reviews:
 Every me and every you April 8, 2000
23 out of 25 found this review helpful
This collection of stories taking place either in India or New England explores the differing ways people can be foreigners in strange or familiar ways and lands. Lahiri's eloquent storyweaving is full of humor and confusion, and is an utter joy to read. I look forward to a full novel by her.
One worth more than Amazon sells it for! March 5, 2000
20 out of 21 found this review helpful
Jhumpa Lahiri writes with such vision and clarity of prose, it seems the stories she writes could not have been written another way. The stories and characters are so alive that I felt I was no longer reading, but rather witnessing them...standing just a few steps away from the characters.
 Huge dissapointment and reason not to rely on reviews! December 30, 1999
19 out of 40 found this review helpful
I have been recently exposed to a whole world of SA writers and this has got to rank on the bottom of the list! Never have I found reading so predictable and contrived as Luhiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" I was sorely dissapointed. I purchase books by SA female writer irrespective of the reviews because I feel its one way to support and encourage more SA females to write. Never have I been more dissapointed...especially in light of the hype the Western media has endowed upon Lahiri. Her style of writing is banal and her content, cliche. After I read her book, I switched to non-SA writers. It saddens me that the current SA writers hype after Rushdie and Arundhati Roy's "God of Small Things" the western media would celebrate such a cliche writer in the midst of amazing SA writers (Rohington Mistry, Rushdie, R.K.Narayan, etc). I would not recommend this to ANYONE! If you are truly interested in good SA writers, read ANYTHING by Rohington Mistry, R.K.Narayan, A.Roy, G.Mehta, or C.Banarjee. I would never read anything by this author and would rank her writing on the bottom of the tons of books I have read by SA writers.
Interpreter of Maladies... A gentle breeze January 4, 2000
18 out of 24 found this review helpful
During the last few months, this book by Jhumpa Lahiri has become one of the popular gift items in our family. And this is for a very good reason. Reading this book was like a gentle breeze with a familer fragrance brushing the sweet memories of a world with hidden treasures. In her stories, Ms. Lahiri has created a magical world with her eloquent and skillful writing. She seems to have an insight into human characters and a capacity of describing a situation to its very essence. Creations and portrayal of characters such as Mr. Pirzada, Mrs. Sen, Mr. Kapasi, Sanjeev, Miranda, Bibi etc, are so realistic that one is tempted to look for them among the acquaintances. She has created stories of unusual depths around insignificant circumstances and with insipid, ordianry but realistic characters. She is a writer with eyes of an artist, who with her skillful descriptions, can create vivid images in the mind of a reader, who is almost transported into the story. As a writer, her strength is in her ability to tell a story and no doubt, she has demonstrated it very well. I have many favorite pieces of her stories, but I like to mention the following excerpts in which I was impressed with her abilites to relate to the minds of the characters she created. In " When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dinner", the child of the host family, wondered about something closer to his world. " Before eating, Mr. Pirzada always did a curious thing. He took out a plain silver watch.....". The child hears about a distant world with all its unrest and war, but cannot relate to it. He tries to find a clue to Mr. Przada's actions which seem strange to him. Another part is the description of the chopping blade in "Mrs. Sen". Through eyes of Eliot, the little boy, the writer describes the blade. This is a superb description, through the eyes of someone who is not familier with the details of the usage of an Indian domestic kithen tool and describes it in his own way. In the final pragraph of "Interprter of Maladies", the writer skillfully ends the story, but leaves the readers to draw their own conclusions about the Das Family and their sense of importance and priorities. ".. the slip of paper with Mr. Kapasi's address on it fluttered away into the wind. No one, but Mr. Kapasi notices." It is hard to interpret the slight ache in this reader's heart that she felt. Was it for Mr. Kapasi or Mrs. Das? Or, was it for Mr. Das? Or was it for Bobby who got abused by the monkeys? My congratulations to Ms Lahiri for her work. I look forward to her future work.
 Don't read this review, read the book April 20, 2000
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
I don't want to give five stars to Jhumpa Lahiri because I feel that if I do, there will be no place left for improvement (not that there is). "Interpreter of Maladies" is probably one of the best short story collections I have ever read in my life. Unlike many of my other favorite authors (let's say Marquez), Lahiri is consistent in her quality of writing throughout the book. At a first glance her themes seem very commonplace, but her language is so eloquent, her sense of mood and detail so subtle, that everything simple turns into profound. The next day I had finished reading Lahiri's book, she won the Pulitzer Prize -- but again, who cares. The only thing that matters to me is that Lahiri has given me a new hope in modern literature. Enjoy!
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