I also recently read Interpreter of Maladies, a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri. This Pulitzer Prize winning collection has nine fabulous stories about the Indian and Indian American experience. The stories capture a certain quality, poignancy, and magic about relationships coming together and relationships falling apart. My favorite piece, "A Temporary Matter," caught my breath with the beauty of its sentences and the simplicity of the situation - two people talking in the dark. Lahiri's writing is light, graceful, and musical. She caresses each word and sentence, understanding and exploiting the details - sounds, words, phrases. Although I found the overall collection to be a little heavy for me on immigrant issues, I also know that there is little Indian American literature and this provides a breath of fresh air, flooding us with numerous facets of a world to which we have little exposure. She avoids stereotypes and creates meaty, curious characters in engaging situations.
Image shown under Fair Use, from Wikipedia.
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