97th book of 2020.

When one discusses the greatest short stories writers, there are names one always expects to hear: Chekhov, Saki, Mansfield... and the ones I always refer to: Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver, Lucia Berlin, Jorge Luis Borges... And now I will add to that list Jhumpa Lahiri.

The stories in this collection and their ratings:

A Temporary Matter: 4
When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine: 5
Interpreter of Maladies: 5
A Real Durwan: 4
Sexy: 5
Mrs. Sen's: 4
This Blessed House: 4
The Treatment of Bibi Haldar: 3
The Third and Final Continent: 5

That final story I actually read several years ago and vowed to read the rest of the collection because it completely enthralled me, and I finished moved, and simply in awe of Lahiri's writing. Finally, I have read the collection; I cannot believe that some of her other stories are as good. Of course, this collection won the Pulitzer, and Lahiri became the first Indian to win a Pulitzer - but it shows. These stories are tied by the theme of Indians going to America, or vice versa. The book claims that it speaks to anyone who has ever felt like a 'foreigner' in their life. Which is everyone.

Part of me wants to just write out entire passages for this review to reflect how beautiful and concise her writing is. When a seven-year-old gives the definition of 'sexy' as being "loving someone you don't know because his father cheated on his mother and left. Where a pumpkin carving is ruined - What resulted was a disproportionately large hole the size of a lemon, so that our jack-o'-lantern wore an expression of placid astonishment, the eyebrows no longer fierce, floating in frozen surprise above a vacant, geometric gaze. When a boy is attacked by a monkey, which struck him repeatedly with the stick he had given to it earlier. A child's moment of insight about a man's daughters across the world, life, I realised, was being lived in Dacca first. I imagined Mr. Pirzada's daughters rising from sleep, tying ribbons in their hair, anticipating breakfast, preparing for school. Our meals, our actions, were only a shadow of what had already happened there, a lagging ghost of where Mr. Pirzada really belonged. And if I could, the whole of "The Third and Final Continent" which is, in my mind, one of the most essential short stories, the essence of everything a short story should have, a perfect example.

"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.

Jhumpa Lahiri's restrained storytelling is a pleasure to read. I find her sparse yet elegant prose to be truly sublime. In these short stories, Lahiri demonstrates her eye for detail as she captures with crystal clarity moments of seeming mundanity. By focusing on ordinary moments, such as a family meal, and places, the inside of a car or a condominium, Lahiri succeeds in bringing to life her characters, their environments, and their experiences. Her subtle irony makes her stories all the more engrossing. With nuance and insight, Lahiri delves into her characters' outer and inner lives. While Lahiri does describe many of her characters' feelings and thoughts, she also allows room for ambiguity. It's impressive how her stories strike me both for their clarity and opaqueness.

As with The Namesake within this collection Lahiri explores cultural and generational divides as well as the conflict between familial and personal identity. Many of the characters grapple with grief, loneliness, rootlessness, and heartache. A sense of sadness, nostalgia even, permeates many of these narratives, which made them all the more poignant. My personal favourites were 'A temporary matter', 'When Mr. Pirzada came to dine', and 'Sexy'.
This is a truly superb collection one that I would definitely recommend to loves of the short story format.

Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri

Interpreter of Maladies is a book collection of nine short stories by Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri published in 1999. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in the year 2000.

The stories are about the lives of Indians and Indian Americans who are caught between their roots and the "New World."

Content:
A Temporary Matter: A married couple, Shukumar and Shoba, live as strangers in their house until an electrical outage brings them together when all of sudden "they [are] able to talk to each other again" in the four nights of darkness.

When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine: Mr. Pirzada is a botany professor from Dhaka and is living in New England for the year after receiving a research grant from the Pakistani Government; he has left behind his wife and seven daughters,

Interpreter of Maladies: Mr. and Mrs. Das, Indian Americans visiting the country of their heritage, hire a middle-aged tour guide Mr. Kapasi as their driver for the day as they tour.

A Real Durwan: Boori Ma is a feeble 64-year-old woman from Calcutta who is the stairsweeper, or durwan, of an old brick building. In exchange for her services, the residents allow Boori Ma to sleep in front of the collapsible gates leading into the tenement.

Sexy: “Sexy” centers on Miranda, a young white woman who has an affair with a married Indian man named Dev. Although one of Miranda's work friends is an Indian woman named Laxmi, Miranda knows very little about India and its culture.

Mrs. Sen's: In this story, 11-year-old Eliot begins staying with Mrs. Sen—a university professor's wife—after school. The caretaker, Mrs. Sen, chops and prepares food as she tells Eliot stories of her past life in Calcutta, helping to craft her identity.

This Blessed House: Sanjeev and Twinkle, a newly married couple, are exploring their new house in Hartford, Connecticut, which appears to have been owned by fervent Christians: they keep finding gaudy Biblical paraphernalia hidden throughout the house.

The Treatment of Bibi Haldar: 29-year-old Bibi Haldar is gripped by a mysterious ailment, and myriad tests and treatments have failed to cure her. She has been told to stand on her head, shun garlic, drink egg yolks in milk, to gain weight and to lose weight.

The Third and Final Continent: The narrator lives in India, then moves to London, then finally to America. The title of this story tells us that the narrator has lived in three different continents and chooses to stay in the third, North America.

عنوانها: «ترجمان دردها»؛ «ترجمان ناخوشی‌ها»؛ «مترجم بیماریها»؛ «مترجم دردها»؛ «مترجم ناخوشی‌ها»؛ نویسنده: جومپا لاهیری؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش ماه نوامبر سال 2001میلادی

عنوان: ترجمان دردها؛ نویسنده: جومپا لاهیری؛ برگردان: مژده دقیقی؛ تهران، شهر کتاب، هرمس، 1380؛ در 124ص؛ شابک ایکس - 964363003؛ چاپ دوم 1384؛ در 197ص؛ چاپ سوم 1388؛ شابک 9789643630034؛ چاپ چهارم 1393؛ موضوع داستانهای کوتاه از نویسندگان هندی تبار ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده ی 20م

عنوان: مترجم دردها، نویسنده: جومپا لاهیری؛ برگردان: امیرمهدی حقیقت؛ تهران، ماهی، 1380؛ در 266ص؛ شابک 9649333393؛چاپ دوم سال1381؛ چاپ چهارم 1385؛ پنجم 1388؛ در 224ص؛ شابک 9789649333335؛ ششم 1389؛ هشتم 1391؛ نهم 1393؛

عنوان: مترجم ناخوشی‌ها؛ نویسنده: جومپا لاهیری؛ مترجم: تینا حمیدی؛ تهران، ویدا، 1380؛ در 202ص؛ شابک 9646807100؛

عنوان: ترجمان ناخوشی‌ها؛ نویسنده: جومپا لاهیری؛ برگردان: حمیده صفارمحمدی؛ اهواز، مردمک، 1382؛ در 307ص؛ شابک 9649125140؛

عنوان: مترجم بیماریها، نویسنده: جومپا لاهیری؛ برگردان: ویدا اسلامیه؛ تهران، نشر علم، 1383؛ در 302ص؛ شابک 9644053648؛

عنوان: مترجم دردها، نویسنده: جومپا لاهیری؛ برگردان: محمدعلی صوتی؛ تهران، نیک آئین، 1383؛ در 214ص؛ شابک 9647356110؛

عنوان: مترجم دردها، نویسنده: جومپا لاهیری؛ برگردان: آبتین خردمند؛ تهران، کولهپشتی، 1392؛ در 254ص؛ شابک 9786006687773؛

فهرست داستانها: «موضوع موقت»، «وقتی آقای پیرزاده برای شام میآمد»، «ترجمان دردها (مترجم دردها)»، «دربان واقعی»، «جذاب»، «خانه خانم سن»، «این خانه متبرک» و ...؛

مجموعه داستان «ترجمان دردها» با اینکه نخستین کتاب «جومپا لاهیری»، نویسنده ی «هندی تبار آمریکایی» است؛ اما در زمانی کوتاه، پس از انتشار، برنده ی جایزه ی بهترین کتاب «نیویورکر»، جایزه ی «پن همینگوی»، جایزه ی «کتاب برگزیده ی پابلیشرز ویکلی»، جایزه ی «ادیسن مت کاف» از «آکادمی هنر و ادبیات آمریکا»، جایزه ی «کتاب برگزیده نیویورک تایمز»، جایزه ی «اْ هنری»، نامزد جایزه ی «لوس آنجلس تایمز»، و برنده ی جایزه ی «پولیتزر ادبی سال 2000میلادی» شده است؛ رویدادی که برای یک مجموعه داستان کوتاه، کمتر روی میدهد، اینبار این رویداد برای کتابی است که به فرهنگ و آداب مردمان شرق میپردازد

نقل نمونه متن از داستان «ترجمان دردها»: (کاغذ، وقتی که آقای «کاپاسی» نشانی‌اش را با دستخطی واضح و خوانا رویش می‌نوشت، لوله می‌شد؛ خانم «داس» حتما برایش نامه می‌نوشت، از کار مترجمی ‌اش در مطب دکتر می‌پرسید، و او به زبانی شیوا و فصیح پاسخ می‌داد، فقط جالبترین لطیفه‌ ها را انتخاب می‌کرد، تا او موقع خواندنشان در خانه ‌اش در «نیوجرزی» با صدای بلند بخندد؛ به ‌موقعش، سرخوردگی خود را، از ازدواجش فاش می‌کرد، او هم همین‌طور؛ به این ترتیب، صمیمی‌تر می‌شدند، و دوستی‌شان عمیقتر می‌شد؛ آن موقع، دیگر عکسی از خودشان دو تا داشت، در حال خوردن پیاز سرخ‌ شده زیر چتری زرشکی ‌رنگ، که خیال داشت آن را لای کتاب دستور زبان «روسی»اش محفوظ نگه دارد؛ آقای «کاپاسی»، در همان حال که ذهنش به‌ سرعت کار می‌کرد، ناگهان دچار احساس ملایم و خوشایندی شد؛ مثل احساسی بود، که مدتها پیش، بعد از ماهها ترجمه کردن، به کمک فرهنگ لغت، به او دست می‌داد، وقتی که عاقبت قطعه ‌ای از یک رمان «فرانسوی» یا شعری «ایتالیایی» را می‌خواند، و کلماتش را، که گرهشان در نتیجه ی تلاش خودش باز شده بود، یکی پس از دیگری می‌فهمید؛ در آن لحظات، آقای «کاپاسی» احساس می‌کرد، که همه چیز دنیا درست است، که همه ی تلاشها به ثمر می‌رسد، که همه ی اشتباهات زندگی، دست آخر معنی پیدا می‌کند؛ حالا هم این امید، که با خانم «داس» در تماس خواهد بود، وجودش را از همین احساس پر می‌کرد)؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 28/08/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 24/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

Like her novel The Namesake, Lahiri's collection of short stories deals mainly with the experience of Indian immigrants in America. They often deal with a more specific experience: a young married couple moves to America shortly after being married so the husband can work at a university, and they have to navigate the new worlds of their marriage and the United States simultaneously. Being an Indian immigrant, or being the child of Indian immigrants, in America is clearly a subject close to Lahiri's heart, and in the hands of a less skilled author, her stories about this experience would become repetitive. But Jhumpa Lahiri is a very, very skilled author, and each story in this collection looked at the same subject from a different perspective. This is multiple observations on a similar idea, and every one is beautiful and leaves you feeling like you've just had a really good sob: emptied-out, sad, but somehow fulfilled at the same time.

The writing is straightforward, and beautiful in its simplicity. In The Namesake, I was frequently irritated by her attempts at casual banter between characters. Luckily, there's none of that here - Lahiri rarely has her characters speak, preferring introspection instead. The few conversations that do occur don't attempt any witty banter, preferring to go right ahead and drown you in subtle tragedy, like this exchange from "Mrs. Sen's" (it's told from the perspective of Eliot, an eleven-year-old who spends every afternoon at the house of his Indian babysitter, and it was my favorite in the collection:

"Mrs. Sen took the aerogram from India out of her purse and studied the front and back. She unfolded it and read it to herself, sighing every now and then. When she had finished she gazed for some time at the swimmers.
'My sister has had a baby girl. By the time I see her, depending if Mr. Sen gets his tenure, she will be three years old. Her own aunt will be a stranger. If we sit side by side on a train she will not know my face.' She put away the letter, then placed a hand on Eliot's head. 'Do you miss your mother, Eliot, these afternoons with me?'
The thought had never occurred to him.
'You must miss her. When I think of you, only a boy, separated from your mother for so much of the day, I am ashamed.'
'I see her at night.'
'When I was your age I was without knowing that one day I would be so far. You are wiser than that, Eliot. You already taste the way things must be.'"

Also, I love reading Lahiri when she writes about cooking. In fact, I want her to get her own cooking show, just so I can have more stuff like this:

"When friends dropped by, Shoba would throw together meals that appeared to have taken half a day to prepare, from things she had frozen and bottled, not cheap things in tins but peppers she had marinated herself with rosemary, and chutneys that she cooked on Sundays, stirring boiling pots of tomatoes and prunes. ...Shukumar had been going through their supplies steadily, preparing meals for the two of them, measuring out cupfuls of rice, defrosting bags of meat day after day. He combed through her cookbooks every afternoon, following her penciled instructions to use two teaspoons of ground coriander seeds instead of one, or red lentils instead of yellow. Each of the recipes was dated, telling the first time they had eaten the dish together. April 2, cauliflower with fennel. January 14, chicken with almonds and sultanas. He had no memory of eating those meals, and yet there they were, recorded in her neat proofreader's hand."

i love an unpopular opinion, but...

i have to admit this just is as good as everyone says it is.

that's the review.

---------------------
tbr review

actually reading books i was assigned in school but never picked up in order to achieve genius status

That horrible glitch in the Goodreads app caused my review for this book to be deleted as I tried to update my rating.

This is the fifth time this has happened to me, and i know plenty of other users who have been similarly affected. Sort it out, Goodreads.

ترجمان الأوجاع

جومبا لاهيري

الكاتبة من مواليد لندن سنة 1967 وهي أمريكية من أصول هندية حاصلة على شهادة الدكتوراة في دراسات عصر النهضة الاوروبية وثلاث شهادات ماجستير في اللغة الإنجليزية والكتابة الإبداعية والأدب المقارن، تعمل كأستاذة جامعية وممثلة وكاتبة سيناريو تعمل حالياً في جامعة بوسطن وعضوة في الأكاديمية الأمريكية للفنون والآداب حاصلة على عدة جوائز أبرزها جائزة بوليتزر عن فئة الأعمال الخيالية...أهم أعمالها :السمي، أرض غير مألوفة، الأرض المنخفضة...

ترجمان الأوجاع أو ترجمة الأمراض مجموعة قصصية نشرتها الكاتبة سنة 2000وتمت ترجمتها لحوالي 29لغة وحصدت مجموعة من الجوائز ونشرت صحيفة ذا نيويوركر قائمة توقعات بأفضل عشرين كاتب في القرن الواحد والعشرين وكانت جومبا منهم...

لو قلنا إنها تأثرت بأنطون تشيخوف لشرحنا كثير من سر إبداعها، أما بقية إبداعها فبإمكاننا نسبته لأزمة الهوية لإنه الكاتبة من مواليد لندن من أصول هندية وعاشت معظم حياتها وللآن في نيويورك لكن على ما يبدو إنه جيناتها الهندية ما تركت أثر بس على ملامح وجهها بل تغلغلت إلى أفكارها وأعمالها الفنية، لهيك إنت بحاجة لكمية مي كبيرة جنبك وانت بتقرأ قصصها لإنك على بعد أسطر من وجبة مليانة توابل هندية حارة جداً جداً...


تأثرها بتشيخوف ظهر بشكل جلي في اسلوبها السردي المهتم بالوصف البسيط والمباشر، يعني كإنك بتتفرج على لوحة فنية لكن الألوان غطت حتى الشخصيات....تعمدت ما تحكي فكرتها من القصة وتركت القرار للقارئ بعد وصفها لأحداث بسيطة ممكن تصير مع أي شخص بالعالم لكنها في مجموعتها اللي بتحتوي على عشر قصص كانت بتتكلم عن الهنود اللي عايشين في أمريكا...


صحيح القصص كلها عن الهنود في أمريكا سواء اللي نولدوا في الهند وهاجروا لأمريكا أو اللي انولدوا في أمريكا وعاشوا طول عمرهم فيها إلا إنها بتناقش أمور أعم وأوسع أهمها أزمة الهوية والهجرة والغربة وصراع الحضارات والأجيال والإنتماء وحب الوطن والتضحية والحب... المجموعة فعلاً بنكهة التوابل الهندية اللي وزعتها الكاتبة ببراعة فوق العشر أطباق الدسمة اللي قدمتهم بأسلوب سلس رغم إنه المادة المطروحة حساسة وخطيرة...

کتاب مترجم دردها نوشته جومپا لاهیری، مجموعه‌ای از نه داستان کوتاه است که تجربیات زندگی هندی‌ها و هندی-آمریکایی‌ها را بیان کرده و چالش‌های هویتی و فرهنگی آن‌ها را به تصویر می‌کشد .
داستان‌های کتاب دارای ویژگی‌ها و خصوصیاتی هستند که نه تنها زیبایی ادبی آن‌ها را برجسته کرده، بلکه به عمق و غنای آن نیز افزوده.
شخصیت‌های داستان‌ها معمولاً بین دو فرهنگ متضاد شرقی و غربی گرفتار هستند و این تنش‌های فرهنگی بر شکل‌گیری هویت آن‌ها اثر گذاشته و چالش‌های متعددی را ایجاد می‌کند. لاهیری با خلق این شخصیت‌ها نشان می‌دهد که چگونه مهاجران تلاش می‌کنند در دنیای جدید خود جا بیفتند و هویت خود را حفظ کنند . لاهیری به خوبی توانسته تنهایی، عشق، سردرگمی و ناامیدی را در میان شخصیت‌های داستان نمایش دهد.
موضوعات داستان‌ها معمولاً عمومی هستند، مانند جستجوی هویت، چالش‌های خانوادگی، تلاطم‌های عاطفی و تمایلات انسانی. این موضوعات تنها به زندگی شخصیت‌های داستان‌ها و یا ملیت خاصی محدود نمی‌شوند، بلکه می‌توانند برای هر فردی و هر فرهنگی مرتبط و قابل درک باشند.
داستان‌های کتاب به‌خوبی تضادهای موجود در زندگی را نشان می‌دهند. این تضادها شامل تضاد میان نسل‌ها، فشارهای اجتماعی، و انتظارات فرهنگی است که شخصیت‌های داستان در تلاش برای سازگاری با آن‌ها هستند. لاهیری به احساسات و تجربیات درونی شخصیت‌ها پرداخته و تلاش کرده تا تنهایی، پریشانی ، خستگی عاطفی ، سردرگمی و ناامیدی را در میان شخصیت‌هایش نشان دهد .
نویسنده با انتخاب واژگان مناسب و جملات مؤثر، فضای احساسی داستان و احساسات شخصیت ها را به مخاطب منتقل می‌کند. توصیف‌های دقیق او از محیط و جزئیات زندگی روزمره، به متن زیبایی بخشیده و فرهنگ غنی و سنت های پیچیده هندی ها رابه خاطر خواننده می آورد .
داستان‌های کتاب مترجم دردها را می‌توان دلنشین و تأثیرگذار توصیف کرد. این داستان‌ها با روایتی جذاب، تجربه‌های انسانی را به‌ زیبایی به تصویر می‌کشند . لاهیری با مهارت در انتقال احساسات و دغدغه‌های شخصیت‌ها، داستان‌هایی آفریده که نه‌تنها خواندنی و گیرا هستند، بلکه موجب تفکر و تأمل در مورد هویت، فرهنگ و روابط انسانی نیز می‌شوند.

Another reread, another winner.

This is Jhumpa Lahiri’s first published work, one for which she received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000, and deservedly so. Indeed, it takes a talented writer to make the normality of everyday life appealing (at least to me), and in this endeavor Lahiri passes with flying colors. As you may already know, Interpreter of Maladies is not a novel but a collection of 9 short stories, which I will now review in turn, albeit briefly.

A TEMPORARY MATTER is about an Indian-American couple who’s on the skids due to the stillbirth of their first child. They then take the opportunity of several power outages to try and rekindle their relationship. While the writing is utterly delicious––descriptive yet pithy, clever yet reader-friendly––I did not really like this story because of its bittersweet ending. I know, call me schmaltzy!

WHEN MR. PIRZADA CAME TO DINE is about the war between East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and India, but viewed miles and miles away in America through the eyes of an Indian-American family and their Pakistani friend (the eponymous Mr. Pirzada). It’s also a reflective (and informative) work on cultural differences in the US, and all in all, I found it to be quite a satisfying read.

INTERPRETER OF MALADIES is about an Indian-American family visiting famous sights in India with their Indian guide. But beyond sightseeing, it’s first and foremost a story about dissatisfaction, unfaithfulness, repressed attraction, confession and interpretation of said feelings through the introspective lens of cultural differences. It is in my opinion the strongest story in this collection.

A REAL DURWAN: I found this story about an old woman who is ill-treated by the residents of the building she works in as a sweeper to be the weakest of the lot. Sure, Lahiri masterfully portrays how mean people can be… but then again there’s nothing new here. Unfortunately.

SEXY explores the mind of a Caucasian woman dating a married Indian man and what it means for her to be his mistress. Again, there’s a lot of repressed feelings and introspection going on here, and if you’re hoping for a sweet little ending all tied up with a lovely bow… well, you'll be disappointed.

MRS. SEN’S is my favorite story of the collection. It’s about an Indian-American woman (Mrs. Sen) who takes care of a young boy (Eliot) during the day when his mother is at work. The writing is perfect, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, always polished like a newly minted penny, subtly tackling the cultural differences that exist between “mainstream Americans” and “not-quite-fully-assimilated” Indian-Americans––or should I say, Indian-Americans refusing to assimilate, as it is very much the case here with Mrs. Sen. Lahiri conveys so much in this story without ever stating it on the page that the word “telepathy” comes to mind. It’s almost “Hemingway-esque” in its execution. Another proof of how talented a writer she is.

THIS BLESSED HOUSE is about a newly married Indian-American couple who keep discovering catholic paraphernalia in the house they just bought and moved in. The husband isn’t sure about his feelings for his wife, who’s as ingénue and naïve as a child. Good but not great. The prose, however, is perfect.

THE TREATMENT OF BIBI HALDAR deals with an Indian girl in India whose “strange disease” (I take it to be epilepsy, although it’s never stated as such in the text) has rendered her kind of antisocial and unfit to marry, which is a shame as the treatment of her disease, according to doctors, consists in her getting married (?!). I really liked this one, and for once, I find the ending satisfactory, if not at all what I expected. It also gives a nice (and sad) insight into Indian marital traditions, superstitions and caste-related beliefs that, apparently, are still very much relevant nowadays in India.

THE THIRD AND FINAL CONTINENT tells the story of an Indian immigrant to America. Narrated in the first person, it concludes the collection nicely.

OLIVIER DELAYE
Author of the SEBASTEN OF ATLANTIS series
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ساده و فوق‌العاده..
ولی راستش دوست دارم با یه هندی در مورد کتاب صحبت کنم، ببینم نظر اون چیه در مورد جزییات کتاب.

This book was fine, it really was. But I was expecting more than fine from it; I mean, it won a Pulitzer and the overall consensus seems to be that it is brilliant and hardbreaking and showcasting how impactful short stories can be; and still, it didn't quite work for me.

There were a couple of stories that I really enjoyed ("Sexy" and "Mrs. Sen" to be exact) and none were bad, but that wasn't enough for me. I liked Ms. Lahiri's viewpoint and how carefully she seems to have constructed her stories and the deliberate way she chose her words, but emotionally the stories failed to resonate with me. And that's a shame because I really wanted them to. So maybe my meh-feeling is down to too high expectations and the struggles I sometimes have with short stories.