Cbr16bingo Bollywood (Bingo #1)
This debut collection of short stories from Jhumpa Lahiri won a Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Interpreter of Maladies contains nine stories that deal with topics such as troubled marriages, the difficulties of adjusting to life in the US for Indian immigrants, and women who are outsiders (and therefore problematic). I found myself deeply moved by these stories which, 25 years after their first publication, provide a compassionate and brutally honest view of their characters’ lives and choices. These are people who struggle with matters as weighty as separation from family and the Partition of India and as petty as superstition and differences in taste.
Four of the stories have couples at their center, and in all of them the relationships are strained. “A Temporary Matter,” which opens the collection, is set in Boston in a neighborhood experiencing scheduled nightly power outages. A young couple, which has experienced a recent trauma, has grown estranged. During the power outages, they begin to share dinners again and play a game where, in the dark, they tell each other things that the other never knew. In “Interpretation of Maladies,” a young American couple and their three children go on tour in India. Their driver/guide/interpreter Mr. Kapasi notices that the couple don’t seem very mature or very much in love with each other. When he reveals in the course of conversation that he also works as an interpreter at a doctor’s office, Mrs. Das becomes very interested and complimentary in her comments to Mr. Kapasi, leading him to imagine a very different life for himself until Mrs. Das reveals a secret to him. “Sexy,” set in Boston, is the story of a young woman named Miranda whose co-worker laments her cousin’s failed marriage. It turns out that the cousin’s husband has been unfaithful and left his family for the other woman. Meanwhile, Miranda is herself involved in an affair with a married man, but her view of that relationship takes a dramatic turn when she does a favor for her co-worker. “This Blessed House,” also set in Boston, is about newlyweds who discover Catholic/Christian tchotchkes hidden all over their new house. While the wife, Twinkle, thinks that they are fascinating and should be put on display, Sanjeev hates them with a white hot passion. As the two prepare for a house-warming party, the reader gets the details of how these two met and where they just might end up.
The pains of being separated from family and of the partition of India and its aftermath, provide the background for three other stories, which are among my favorites in the collection. In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” the narrator reflects on her childhood in Boston in 1971. Her immigrant parents were an academic and a homemaker, and they frequently invited other visiting academics from India to dine. Mr. Pirzada was separated from his wife and daughters due to unrest in India/Pakistan. He has no idea what has happened to them, and while he is concerned and watches the evening news diligently for details, he also is always pleasant and kind to the little girl, bringing her sweets and expressing concern about her safety. The narrator finds herself caring very much for Mr. Pirzada and prays for him and his family, something she has never done before. This story was just absolutely beautiful and was my favorite. “Mrs. Sen’s” was a poignant story of a young Indian woman transplanted to Boston due to her husband’s university job. We learn about her through a boy named Eliot, whom she cares for after school. Through his boy’s eyes we see Mrs. Sen’s struggle to assimilate and the pain she experiences at the separation from her family in India. This one broke my heart. “The Third and Final Continent,” which is the final story in the collection, is an uplifting story about a man who is reflecting on his life from the time he left India for university in London in the 1960s, to the time he left London for Boston at the end of that decade, to his current life there with his wife and son. The narrator meets some very interesting people, including his 100-year-old landlord, for whom he has great respect. We also see a case of a bride moving across continents to be with her husband in Boston even though she barely knows him and is unhappy at leaving her family. Here we see a case where husband and wife find a way to happiness. It’s a lovely story to close the book.
Finally, there are two stories about women in India who are outsiders and inconvenient for those who must deal with them. In “A Real Durwan,” Boori Ma is an old woman who acts as a gatekeeper for an apartment building. She is not paid, but the residents see her as a buffer between them and the outside world, and they allow her to sleep on the grounds. Boori Ma spends all day lamenting the world she left behind decades ago, before the partition; it would seem she came from a well to do family (or worked for one); most residents just ignore her. Life is going on as usual until one resident decides to engage in some home improvements. This spurs other neighbors to do the same, upsetting Boori Ma’s daily regime and leading to catastrophic consequences for her. “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar” is also set in India in a complex where everyone knows one another and no one’s business if private. Bibi is in her 20s and single. She is under the care of her cousin and his wife because of her illness; Bibi has episodes that seem something like seizures, but no one has been able to figure out their cause. Bibi is strange and can be difficult, so when one expert declares that the cure would be for Bibi to marry, she and her neighbors try to do something about that. Her cousin, however, throws up roadblocks, leading to some surprising consequences.
This is an excellent collection, and it is clear why it won a Pulitzer and garnered so much praise. The passage of 25 years in no way diminishes the impact of these stories.