Every semester, I teach Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection Interpreter of Maladies (1999). I reread it today and found it as powerful as ever.
THEME
We destroy our communities through greed, lust, and pride. We most experience broken communities, particularly in marriage, when we communicate poorly. For Lahiri, we experience redemption when we tell or listen to stories because both build community.
PLOT
- “A Temporary Matter”: A couple must deal with the traumatic stillborn death of their child.
- “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”: A woman remembers the way her family greeted a political exile.
- “Interpreter of Maladies”: A Bengali tour guide discovers the malady afflicting an American couple’s marriage.
- “A Real Durwan”: A Bengali community grows disenchanted with a talkative gatekeeper.
- “Sexy”: A young woman has an affair with a married Bengali man and discovers what the titular word means.
- “Mrs. Sen’s”: A young boy learns about adult loneliness when a local Indian immigrant cares for him.
- “This Blessed House”: A newly married couple react differently to the Christian artifacts hidden on their property.
- “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar”: A Bengali woman afflicted with epilepsy looks for a cure.
- “The Third and Final Continent”: A nameless Bengali immigrant finds a new home in American thanks to his landlord, a 103-year-old woman.
Experiments in Criticism 