Interpreter of Maladies

داستان‌های این کتاب رو دوست داشتم.
در کنار اینکه از جامعه‌ی هندی مهاجر و رسم و رسوم‌هاشون اطلاعات خوبی رو به خواننده میده، چندتا از دغدغه‌های بزرگ مهاجرین در دنیا رو به تصویر می‌کشه مثل حفظ خانواده، درد غربت، دوگانگی فرهنگی، تلاش برای نگه‌داشتن رسم‌ها و ...
قلم نویسنده و مترجم هم شیرین و خواندنی هستش و درعین حال که مجموعه‌ای از داستان‌های کوتاه هستش، بعضی از داستان‌هاش خیلی خواننده رو درگیر میکنه و به فکر فرو می‌بره.

The stories in this collection succeed in doing what good short stories should: they illuminate the little moments, the mundane traumas, the controlled anguishes that blink unspoken and unacknowledged into the everyday. I do not think that Lahiri is an exceptional crafter of prose, but she does have a talent for penetrating the human spirit. There is a closeness and vulnerability to her characters that is genuine.

The stories reveal how culture and upbringing can be fulfilling and liberating, yet also deeply stifling and limiting. The need to belong is powerful, but so is the desire to be accepted and to fit in. The stories centre around Indians living abroad, but their experiences are shared human experiences: separation, loss, infidelity, guilt, ostracisation, and the breakdown of relationships. With subjects like these, it's no wonder that these stories are so powerful, poignant and filled with sadness.

"مترجم دردها" مجموعه ای از داستانهایی است که هر کدام جذابیت خاص خود را دارند و دنیای هر داستان آنقدر خوب و دقیق ترسیم شده که خواننده دوست دارد یک رمان طولانی درباره هرکدام بخواند.

حلقه وصل داستانها، موضوع مهاجرت و مسائل مهاجران است. مسائلی چون احساس غربت، دوگانگی فرهنگی میان فرهنگ مبدا و مقصد، دوری از وطن و عزیزان و ... . نویسنده کتاب، جومپا لاهیری، خود یک مهاجر هندی مقیم آمریکاست. او که سالها پیش به همراه والدینش به آمریکا مهاجرت کرده، بسیاری از مسائل فوق را شخصا تجربه کرده و به چشم خود دیده است.

کتاب اگرچه بر محور موضوع مهاجرت نوشته شده است، با این حال برای لذت بردن از این کتاب اصلا لازم نیست درگیر چنین مسائلی باشید. این کتاب پر است از احساسات و عواطف انسانی و توصیفات معرکه از روابط میان انسانها و دنیاهای آنها.

ঝুম্পা লাহিড়ীকে আগে থেকে চিনতাম না। প্রথম শুনি যখন উনি পুলিৎজার জেতেন। বছর বছর পুলিৎজার পুরষ্কার দেয়া হলেও সেবারেরটা একটু ভিন্ন ছিল। ঝুম্পা লাহিড়ীর পিতা মাতা কলকাত্তার লোক, বাঙালী। সেই হিসেবে ঝুম্পা লাহিড়ীর পুলিৎজার জয় যেন ছিল আমাদেরই জয়। যদিও লাহিড়ীর জন্ম কলকাতায় না। তিনিও নিজেকে আমেরিকান নাগরিক হিসেবে ভাবতেই বেশি পছন্দ করেন, ভাবতীয় না। তবুও ঝুম্পা লাহিড়ীকে নিজেদের লোক ভেবে মনে মনে সুখ পেতে তো কোন দোষ নেই!

তখন খুঁটিয়ে খুঁটিয়ে পেপার পড়তাম। একেবারে প্রথম পৃষ্ঠা থেকে শেষ পৃষ্ঠা অবধি। ইন্টারপ্রেটার অভ ম্যালাডিজের নাম সে সময়টাতে শোনা। তখন স্কুলে পড়তাম। মনে আছে খুব শোরগোল উঠেছিল। পত্রিকায় ফিচার, ইন্টারভিউ, লাহিড়ীর রঙিন ছবি। তখন আমার দৌড় ছিল গোয়েন্দা কাহিনি থেকে বড়জোর হুমায়ূন আহমেদ কিংবা জাফর ইকবাল পর‌্যন্ত। ছোটগল্প একেবারেই পছন্দের জনরা ছিল না। তাই ইন্টারপ্রেটার অভ ম্যালাডিজও ঠিক আগ্রহ জাগায়নি, যতই মিস লাহিড়ী নিজেদের মানুষ হন না কেন!

এত্তগুলো বছর পর আগ্রহ জাগার কারণ একটাই। একসময়কার অপছন্দের জনরা আমার এখন ভীষণ পছন্দের। সুযোগ পেলেই তাই ছোটগল্প পড়ি।

ম্যালাডিজ আকারে ঢাউস না। মোটে নয়টি গল্প নিয়ে এ সংকলন। সংকলন শুরু সবচেয়ে সেরা গল্পটি দিয়ে “অ্যা টেম্পরারি ম্যাটার।” শেষ হয় আরেকটি চমৎকার গল্প দিয়েঃ “দ্য থার্ড অ্যান্ড ফাইনাল কন্টিনেন্ট”। শুনেছি থার্ড অ্যান্ড ফাইনাল কন্টিনেন্টের প্রটাগনিস্ট লাহিড়ীর পিতৃমহোদয়।

লাহিড়ী গল্পকথক হিসেবে প্রথম শ্রেণীর। তার গল্পবলার ভঙ্গি, ভাষার মুন্সিয়ানা অনবদ্য। যদিও লাহিড়ী বেড়ে উঠেছেন বিদেশ-বিভূঁইয়ে কিন্তু গল্পের পাত্র-পাত্রী হিসেবে নিজের পিতৃপুরুষের মানুষদেরই বেছে নিয়েছেনঃ বাঙ্গালী। তাদের কেউ সাম্প্রতিক ট্র্যাজেডির শিকার (অ্যা টেম্পরারি ম্যাটার), কেউবা দেশে নিজের পরিবারের পরিণতি নিয়ে শঙ্কিত (হোয়েন মিঃ পীরজাদা কেম টু ডাইন), কেউ কলকাতার মাছ বাজারটা সাংঘাতিক মিস করে (মিসেস সেন’স), কিংবা কেউ রহস্যময় রোগে জীবনভর কাহিল থাকে কিন্তু চায় সাধারণ এক মেয়ের মত বিয়ে করে সংসারী হতে (দ্য ট্রিটমেন্ট অভ বিবি হালদার)।

লাহিড়ীর ভাষা পরিণত, পরিমিত ও সংযত। গল্পের চরিত্রের জন্য তার সহানুভূতি প্রবল। কিন্তু আবেগের আতিশয্য তার মধ্যে নেই। একবারের জন্যও তাকে লাগামছাড়া মনে হয় না। মনে হয় না একটা প্যারা বেশি লিখে ফেলেছেন। কিংবা কম। এরকম গুণ স্রেফ প্রথম শ্রেণীর গল্পকারের মধ্যেই দেখা যায়।

গল্পগুলো আপন মহিমায় ভাস্বর। তবু আলাদাভাবে অ্যা টেম্পরারি ম্যাটার, দ্য ট্রিটমেন্ট অভ বিবি হালদার, মিসেস সেন’স ও দ্য থার্ড অ্যান্ড ফাইনাল কন্টিনেন্টের কথা বলতে হয়। বিশেষ করে অ্যা টেম্পরারি ম্যাটার গত দু-তিন বছরে আমার পড়া দ্বিতীয় সেরা ছোটগল্প। প্রথমটা এ বছরই পড়া। জন চিভারের দ্য সুইমার।

It is interesting to reflect on the fact that humans are so mismatched to the lives and people they choose for themselves!

A collection of short stories, navigating the intricate web of cultural clashes in India, UK and USA, moving back and forth in history, from the trauma of the Partition to the moon landing and beyond that, circling around families for twenty pages just to let go of them when the reader thinks the narrative starts to create a pattern of sense, this is a wonderful reading experience! And bizarrely, the loosely connected short stories seem to match well in their description of misfits.

Why do we live with people we don't feel belong to us, with people who try to suppress what we value as treasures rather than celebrating with us?

Why is a close relationship so often similar to an act of slow suffocation?

Can we blame it on the custom of arranged marriages, which appear in some of the stories? Hardly, for the marriages that were founded on physical attraction generate the same issues. Can we blame it on the institution of marriage itself? Hardly, for the role of mistress is just as difficult to bear. Can we make it a gender issue? Hardly, for husbands are not exempt from the suffocation, even though they may have slightly more freedom of movement. Can we blame it on a specific culture? Hardly, for humans are humans whether they live in deepest poverty in Calcutta or in brilliant luxury in a university town in New England.

Funnily, the character who seemed to develop the most strength and inner happiness in the end was the sick young woman in India who was rejected by everyone, even her family, and who found herself pregnant and forced to raise a child on her own in "disgrace".

She was "cured".

Cured of her seizures, cured of the pressure to adapt to the expectations of others. Cured of trying to be matched, she formed her own pattern.

Brilliant stories, wonderfully human!

2024: Reading leads to rereading leads to writing. Anna Quindlen notes this in one of her essay collections that I have read multiple times- I will have to check my reviews and notes to verify which specific book. Each year thousands of books get published, each attempting to stand out from its peers. As a moderator in multiple group, I am always on the lookout for new books that I think the members of these groups will enjoy. As a reader, I rarely read new publications; at times ten or more years might elapse before I get to what was once a can’t miss novel. My 2024 reading theme has been reading upper echelon authors who are considered the masters of their craft. Unlike other years where I piece together new to me books for an enriching reading year, my 2024 includes a number of rereads of favorites across many genres. October was supposed to have been my challenge to read spooky books, but the best laid plans often fall short. This has been a month of family time and a lot of rereads, which have been both comforting and enriching. One author who inspires me as she has crafted an award winning career writing in multiple languages and genres is the esteemed Jhumpa Lahiri. Her first Pulitzer winning book sits on my shelf urging me to read it. After eight long years, I picked up her short story collection and savored every word, thinking how can she be a debut author. After following Lahiri’s distinguished career and returning to this first book, I see how Interpreter of Maladies was just the start; each book stood out more for its depth of language usage. These nine stories put Lahiri on the literary fiction map, and I enjoyed them more a second time around.

Standout stories:
When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine: The protagonist is a ten year old, first generation American born girl. Her parents were among the first wave of Indian immigrants, the father clinging to his native culture, the mother attempting to assimilate. Lilia is among the only non white children in her school. She learns American history and takes yearly field trips to Plymouth Rock, but these forays do not teach her about her own culture. Until Mr Pirzada joined her family for dinner, Lilia knew nothing about the India-Pakistaní war over a disputed region that the English neglected. Mr Pirzada fretted over the fate of his wife and seven daughters left behind in Dacca. Her brought Lilia nightly gifts, and she prayed for the well being of his family. He action comes to a climax on Halloween, when Lilia narrates words that are wise beyond her years. I picture Lilia as a young Lahiri because this along with the other stories occur in New England, mirroring Lahiri’s upbringing near Providence, Rhode Island. One could see that these stories fostered a kernel that became The Namesake, a full length novel discussing the Indian immigrant experience, a novel I now long to revisit.

Sexy features Miranda who engages in an affair with Dev. While the affair takes place, Miranda’s coworker Laxmi soothes her cousin, whose husband is concurrently engaging in an affair. Miranda listens to Laxmi’s phone conversations and questions her own doings and how they affect Dev’s wife. The events expose Miranda to immigrant culture, whereas before before meeting both Laxmi and Dev, she stuck to her own kind. And surprisingly, Miranda found herself enjoying aspects of other cultures, even stopping by an Indian grocery store after work a few times. It is Miranda rather than Dev who shows empathy and wonders if the affair is morally right. She sees what happens to Laxmi’s cousin and her son, both spiraling into depression. Gradually, she decides that her affair with Dev could ruin lives and slowly ends things, revealing both introspection and empathy of the human mind.

The Blessed House stood out the first time for its humor, and it touched me this second time in a similar manner. Mrs Sen’s reveals the difficulties faced by first wave immigrants who generally joined their spouses on college campuses. Mrs Sen was isolated from everyone she knew in a remote college campus, her entire family back in Calcutta. She could not drive and had no desire to do so whereas her husband was at wit’s end with what to do with her. In an isolated area with little public transportation and few Indians to befriend, Mrs Sen’s entire world was preparing supper in her university issued apartment. It made me wonder if Lahiri’s parents experienced similar early years in the United States and how they eventually adapted to life in a new county. Mrs Sen’s experience contrasts with that of the narrator and his wife in The Third and Final Continent. They arrive in Boston just as man arrives on the moon for the first time. Although they prefer tea to coffee and other reminders of Indian, this new couple makes the best of their life in America, eventually moving to the suburbs and having a son who enrolls in Harvard. This family does not forget where they came from but both work hard to achieve the American dream.

Lahiri’s work contrasts Indians in both India and the United States and how one’s origins effect their experience. This first book of hers was considered unique because in the late 1990s, the first wave of first generation Indian Americans born in the United States began to come of age. Lahiri’s family arrived earlier than most, and, through her writing, exposed other groups of Americans to the Indian American immigrant experience. Many immigrant groups experience similar feelings as they arrive in the melting pot that is the United States. The generation gap felt by Indians is hardly unique; what stands out for me in all of Lahiri’s work is the depth of her writing. These stories range from fifteen to thirty pages in length. The characters are well crafted and could easily develop into a full length novel. One could see how Lahiri ideas for the stories that became both The Namesake and The Lowland began here. It takes a special writer to craft short stories that engage the reader as well as a full length novel. Lahiri is one of the best. She is now focusing on translation of works in three languages and shorter nonfiction pieces involving these said languages. Although I am more drawn to nonfiction, she is one writer who I will stop everything for when she publishes new fiction. Her writing makes me smarter, so hopefully it will not take eight years to revisit this story collection that marked her as one of the best authors alive today, in any language.

2016: In 2000 Jhumpa Lahiri became the first Indian American to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her short story collection The Interpreter of Maladies. In these nine poignant stories, Lahiri relates the Indian immigrant experience, connecting the tales and creating one voice for them. The stories shared a sadness of being separated from one's family by thousands of miles, yet also offered a glimmer of hope for their lives in India or the United States.

Not generally a reader of short stories, this year I read two powerful novels, Homegoing and The Book of Unknown Americans, which told one story in vignettes. Unlike these two books, however, Maladies is nine separate stories which share one overarching theme. The characters never meet even if they came from the same city in India to the same city in America, craving the company and friendship of other Indian Americans. Lahiri does a masterful job of giving purpose to her protagonists even if in some cases we only get to know them for fifteen short pages. As each story begins in a negative light and ends positively, the reader looks forward to each successive story in the collection.

Even though each story is brilliant in its own right, three stand out in creating an upbeat environment upon conclusion: the keynote story The Interpreter of Maladies where Mrs. Das comes to terms with herself as the story ends; The Story of Bibi Haldar where the title character is ostracized and desires to marry above all else; and the ending story The Third and Final Continent with an unnamed protagonist who looks back on his first days in America thirty years later. All share the theme of Indians who find it easier to hang on their customs than assimilate, creating people proud of their culture yet longing for their old country. This did not seem all too different to me than immigrants from other ethnicities and Lahiri does a superb job of making the Indian experience stand alone.

Lahiri was raised in suburban Boston in Rhode Island and appears to create her characters from childhood memories. Whether it was two Indian girls going trick or treating or a newlywed couple grappling with whether to observe Hinduism or Christianity, the stories are written in a labor of love. Each story is penned with the details of the color and texture of the women's saris to the brand of tea that the characters drank. From reading the stories of of these immigrants, I felt empathy with their lives as second half twentieth century arrivals to America.

Jhumpa Lahiri has weaved together stories of sadness yet has her readers leave feeling positive about her characters. Although short in length, each story is powerful from start to finish and has the readers desiring to know more about the characters' lives. A collection worthy of the Pulitzer, I look forward to reading more of Lahiri's work. Interpreter of Maladies rates 5 bright stars.

“He learned not to mind the silences.”
― Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies



Some of the stories were brilliant, some were very good and only a couple were meh. This novel captures for me the right tension between foreignness and loneliness and those small wires, crumbs of connection that bridge people and cultures. Yeah, I dug it.

Personally, I don't care about awards (See William H. Gass). And I really don't care that she's a woman (other than the fact that I'm trying to read more women this year) or that she's Indian American (although both are a significant part of this collection).

I don't believe she was subsidized for either being a woman or being Indian, of if she was I really don't care. Everybody is subsidized by something. White men get the white men subsidy. The rich get the rich subsidy. The educated get the educated subsidy. The poor and broken get the helluva life story subsidy. If I could sum it up, I'd guess that this book probably won the writer lottery: the right good book gets published at the perfect momemnt.

The stories themselves gave me the same temperate, nuanced, soft vibe I get when I read Kazuo Ishiguro or Julian Barnes. So, at least in my mind, she fits/resonnates more into/with the: über-educated, upper-middle, British/East Coast US, 'outsider now inside' club(s) more than the female writer or even Indian American clubs. But then again, I could be wrong.

Anyway, I don't have to say that this was her first published book and she still ended up writing (from what I've heard) solid, serious fiction. So that.

Brilliant stories:

A Temporary Matter
Interpreter of Maladies
Mrs Sen's
This Blessed House

Good stories:

When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine
Sexy
The Third and Final Continent

Meh stories:

A Real Durwan
The Treatment of Bibi Haldar

A pleasant collection of short stories.

My favorites are the following two:

(1) 'A Real Darwan', something I could relate to the social structure in Calcutta, after a touristic trip I made there a few years ago

(2) 'Sexy', a touching story of the painful effects of parental infidelity on a little boy, coming of age.