The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. It’s a collection of 9 short stories shedding light on what it is like to be an outsider. Several of the stories feature newly immigrated people from India trying to adapt to American life. Before I read this book, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to go to a new country, where everything is different, and try to assimilate with the culture. Lahiri offers a glimpse into the emotional upheaval and confusion that accompanies individuals in this situation.
Of the 9 stories, my favorites are two contrasting stories that share the overall theme of being an outsider. The story titled “Sexy” cuts into the life of a single woman involved with a married man and her day of babysitting a child who opens her mind and her heart to other possibilities. “Mrs. Sen’s” features a woman who followed her husband to America for a job and ends up babysitting a young boy for a neighbor. The story is told from the young boy’s perspective and how he gradually sees how unhappy Mrs. Sen is in her new circumstances.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to like a collection of short stories instead of an actual novel. There were stories that left me wishing for more, but overall each story offered a different sense of enlightenment.
Book Rating: * * *
I first heard about Dorothy Day when I added a book to my Wishlist on Amazon. Her works came up in one of those “Other people who bought this were also interested in …” lists. I did some research and learned that she was a Catholic social activist during some of the most difficult times in US history, including the Depression and the World Wars. Her story is an amazing one in which a young woman who came from some priviledge turns away from it all and voluntarily takes on a life of poverty. The Long Loneliness is her autobiography but I have to admit it isn’t much of a read. I enjoyed the first half that talks about her life as a social activist before she becomes a Catholic and her gradual conversion. Having been brought up Catholic, I related to a lot of her experiences in the church. But the second half of the book is hard to get through. She writes the first half in more of a spiritual awakening. The second half … is a factual list of things that happened in her life as part of the founding writers of The Catholic Worker. For a historical perspective, it’s worth the read but other than that I can’t recommend it very much.
I’m not quite sure why Betty Smith’s amazing novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn didn’t win a Pulitzer Prize. It was my pick for our book club … it’s one of those books I’ve always wanted to read but never got around to it (being nearly 500 pages and all!).
