Born a daughter of Indian immigrants in London, Jhumpa Lahiri soon moved to the states when she was two. Growing up an American, Lahiri has experienced what it means to be a first generation American first hand. It is this experience that she brings to her stories. Lahiri has become the voice of a whole generation. Her stories weave complex issues of race, acceptance, and culture together to give greater insight to how first generation Americans live and survive. It is for this reason that her 1999 story collection Interpreter of Maladies, still stands tall in the list of great contemporary fiction. Incredibly insightful and dangerously close, Interpreter of Maladies is a must read for any young author looking to write across culture, society, and race.

Lahiri opens the collection with “A Temporary Matter.” From the very first sentence you know that this will be close and intimate tale. On the sentence level the story is beautifully told. Words leap off the page with stunning gravitas as the story of a simple couple dealing with their house’s faulty electricity unfolds. Simplicity is the key word here, as the two characters Shoba and Shukumar struggle keep their marriage alive. It is later revealed that soon after coming to America they had a stillborn child. To say this has made them distant would be an understatement. Soon they get a notice that their power will go out for one hour a night for five days. As the lights burn out every night, dinners are prepared the old fashioned way. Through wonderfully descriptive prose you can almost smell the deeply rich curry as it cooks over an open fire. The food is key, the anchored description that grounds the main characters as they finally confront the fact that their marriage has been falling apart ever since their child was “born.” In the end though, even after they begin to realize this, they still laugh and reminisce. They remember all the good times they’ve had both in India and in the States. It is for this reason that the last line hits you so hard, because you saw this couple try so hard to be happy. “They wept together, for the things they now knew.”

The story is absolutely melancholic, but I feel that it sets the proper tone for the rest of the collection. The life of a first generation American is one not of complete grief or complete happiness; it is a life full of grays. Now while “A Temporary Matter” certainly sets the emotion for the rest of the collection, what matters in the end is portraying the whole life of the Indian American. Emotions after all are nothing without a narrative to actually give them meaning.

But like individual colors in a painter’s palette Lahiri structures her collection to create a moving picture of the Indian American life and the trials that those people face. “A Temporary” is the beginning of the trial, the sadness that comes at the start of the journey. From it we jump to the other eight stories in the collection, each painting a picture of yet another trial.

Two stories later you will find yourself at the titular story “Interpreter of Maladies.” It is a story once again filled with sharp satire and cultural commentary. Telling its story in a subtler way we see Lahiri focus more on the human element. Letting the commentary come out through character action alone, she keeps her focus on a simple family on vacation. Seriously, that’s what the whole story is about, an Indian American family is on vacation in India and while there the mother of the family Mrs. Das gets a little bit too friendly with the families tour guide Mr. Kapsi. Sparks fly of course from miscommunication and the whole thing just comes tumbling down.

Now while I wouldn’t dare give away how the story ends, it goes beyond being the titular story. I point it out because you could strip out every single piece of commentary and cultural subtext, and still have a fully engaging story about guilt, regret, and the importance of responsibility. In fact Lahiri has gone on record by saying. “When I sit down to write, I don’t think about an idea or a given message. I just try to write a story which is hard enough.” To her the story is what matters, not the time period it was written in nor how a particular story might influence a generation.

It is in this story that we see what kind of author Lahiri really is. She is the kind of writer who doesn’t sit down to write an epic societal allegory. Rather, she writes a good story first, everything else just comes naturally. One particular sentence in the story “Interpreter of Maladies” sums up that notion perfectly. It is the scene where Mrs. Das has just told the tour guide Mr. Kapsi her horrible secret, and asking him for. She figures that he has worked in a hospital before so he’s had some experience in listening to people’s pain. And yet when she does start to talk, there is no comfort, no kind thoughts for the poor woman. There is only this, “Mr. Kapsi felt insulted that Mrs. Das should ask him to interpret her common, trivial little secret. She did not resemble the patients in the doctor’s office, those who came glassy eyed and desperate, unable to sleep or breathe, or urinate, above all, to give, words to their pains.”

Now on the sentence level the prose is of course beautiful, but from narrative standpoint, there is not broad message in those lines. No allegorical meaning, no heavy handed, message. There is just a man and his thoughts, and that is what makes good storytelling.

In the end what Interpreter of Maladies succeeds in doing, is showing a true journey. Not of a single character, but of one people. United by Jhumpa Lahiri’s singular voice these stories bind together everything about the American experience and then give it that one crucial element, humanity. I mentioned before that it is the humanity that brings these stories to life, and I meant that. All of Lahiri’s characters from the brow beaten Sanjeev of “This Blessed House,” who tries to deal with his wife and her obsession with Christian paraphernalia. To the confused and sad little Miranda from “Sexy” who has an affair with a man on the grounds that he is Indian and exotic has a place in the journey.

Standing as both a broad cultural commentary and a series of intimate character dramas, there is certainly a lot to enjoy with this collection. While I san see some of the more esoteric aspects of Indian culture going over some reader’s heads, I would still encourage every young writer to read “Interpreter of Maladies.” The fact that this collection came in right at the start of contemporary movement and is still one of the most highly regarded collections of realistic fiction should speak volumes about its overall quality. It is not a classic by any means, but the journey alone it is one worth remembering.

© 2013 Jared "I.J" Steinberg. All Rights Reserved.

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