Book Review: Interpreter of Maladies

This is a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, a London-born, American-raised daughter of Bengali India Immigrants. Each story features persons of Indian heritage and provides a glimpse into the culture. There is depth but a fair amount of contemplation is necessary to extract. While the writing is beautiful, I found all but one of the stories to be sad. Hence, it was at times difficult to go on and if this was not a selected reading for a book club, it’s likely I would have stopped. Many of the characters lack radiance or joy. This contradicts my impression of the Indians I have come to know, and for me, this was a disconnect. The collection did win a Pulitzer Prize.