Sunday, February 06, 2005

Interpreter Of Maladies

It’s a collection of nine short stories and as the cover mentions “from Boston, Bengal and beyond”. The stories are short simple and very human. But all of them have a strong Bengali base; maybe coz Jhumpa has a Bengali parentage.

The book starts with a story of a couple who have lost their child and with it their marriage too and ends with a story of man who has spent his life in three different continents finally settling in America. Each story is very different from the other but all have an “Indianess” to them. But the best of all is the Interpreter of maladies. It’s got good movie material, and Om puri would make a fine Mr Kapasi.
But what surprised me was although all the stories were plesant none of them was what you call brilliant given that the book had won The Pulitzer’s prize. Looking forward to reading “The Namesake”…

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