Book Review: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

 

Thanks to the Downtown Book Club at the Nashua Public Library, I just reread this book and what a treat it was. 

Let me say that I joined Downtown Book group because, while I have led some book clubs, I have never been simply a participant. I felt that I could gain some perspective from the other side of the cover - so to speak. 

Now about this particular book. I read this YEARS ago, shortly after it came out (around 20 years ago - wow). This book of short stories left the flavors of each story in my mouth but the details had escaped. I am happy to say that Interpreter of Maladies was just as good 20 years later. 

BUT THEN... I went to the Downtown Book Club and the book came alive. The stories in this book are set in India or have characters that were first or second generation emigrants from India. Two of the women in the book club have also come from India - one many years ago and the second recently. These two women offered so much information about India and the experience of being in a new place. Many of the immigration themes are common across cultures - living between two places, missing the old, reaching for the new, language loss in offspring... But many of the details shared by these women were new to me. The conversations in this little group made this book come alive for me in a new way.

Thanks