This week, we will read the book Interpreter of Maladies which is written by the American author of Indian origin Jhumpa Lahiri. The book talks about sensitive dilemmas of the lives of Indian immigrants. Therefore, I want to introduce the author Jhumpa Lahiri so that I can provide some background information for this week’s reading.
Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London. She is the daughter of Indian immigrants from the Indian state of West Bengali. She followed her family and moved to United States when she was three-year-old. During the time that Lahiri began kindergarten, the teacher decided to call her by her pet name, “Jhumpa”, because it is hard to pronounce her original name. After she finished her academic study work in Boston University, she started her literary career. When she was working on Interpreter of Maladies at first, she was rejected from publishers for years. The book Interpreter of Maladies was finally published in 1999. In the story, she addressed Lahiri’s writing style is characterized by her plain language. The characters that she describes is often Indian immigrants to America who will face the difference between the cultural values of their homeland and their adopted home. In addition, Lahiri’s fiction is autobiographical. She always uses her own experience, such as her friends, her parents, and others in the Bengali, to express her feelings and ideas. In addition, Lehiri also write the lives of Indian Americans in her second collection of stories, Unaccustomed Earth. However, the things that she focused on that book changes to the first-generation of Indian immigrants and the struggling experience to raise a family in United States.
The book Interpreter of Maladies is similar to The Leavers by Lisa Ko. Both books talk about the story of foreign immigrants live and experience in United States. All of them are facing the culture conflicts and differences and having struggling period to communicate with others.
Reference
https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2003-08-19-lahiri-books_x.htm
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/04/jhumpa-lahiri/306725/