Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A collection that has aged well

Interpreter of Maladies: Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

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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 […]

“How Many Times Does a Person Write his Name in a Lifetime—a Million? Two Million?”

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

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I finished listening to this audiobook (beautifully narrated by Sarita Choudhury) months ago, but couldn’t bring myself to write a review. And I’m not really sure why, because it’s not like I didn’t like this book. In fact, I loved it: it is one of my favourite books that I’ve read/listened to in quite some time. I’m also so sure that I’ve seen Mira Nair’s film adaptation of this novel at some point, and yet I can barely remember anything about it. Time for a […]

Fay – Larry Brown (2000) and Whereabouts – Jhumpa Lahiri (2021)

Fay by Larry Brown

Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri

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Fay – 4/5 Stars I read a lot of Larry Brown in college, but I don’t think I was ever assigned this one. It came out right as I was beginning, so I think it was still marinating in the minds of my professors. Later of his novels were more or less rejected as worthy, especially the last two. This novel clearly takes some things that work in his other novels and expands on them. There’s also some drawing back to his short fiction as […]

I kind of want to read a book about this book

In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri

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…But to be fair, a lot of this book is kind of a book about this book. Ok, bad way to start a review. Let’s back up. Jhumpa Lahiri’s third language is Italian, learned in adulthood, and this book was written by her in Italian, and translated by another writer into English.  There are some short stories here, but most of the book is about the act of writing in another language, and the author’s relationship to Italian. It shouldn’t work, but it does. The […]

The notice informed them of a temporary matter.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

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I have liked each of Jhumpa Lahiri’s books of fiction, but this has always been and remains my favorite, and my argument for the best of them. I hope she gets back to writing fiction, but I recognize she seems to be exploring something quite important to her through translating Italian. The title story in this collection is about a guide following a young Indian-American family visiting India and taking on a translator and guide. In his everyday life he works for a doctor translating […]

A primer in immigration and the understanding of other: a second look at The Namesake

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August 2018 Review The Schaumburg library chose this book for a communitywide book for the fall, and thus it is also on my book club list. I read it five years back but decided to give it another go to have a refresher before the discussion. This go round, I “read” the audio format. First of all, I am SO PUMPED to live in a place that picked such a book to foist on the community. What an enlightening and refreshing book. It’s almost a […]



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