Interpreter Of Maladies
Award: PEN/Hemingway Winner 2000, Pulitzer Winner 2000
Nomination: LA Times Finalist 1999
Date Read: May 27, 2008 & December 16, 2020
A Temporary Matter
A couple confronts the loss of their unborn child, stillborn at 8 months. What I saw as them trying to heal and draw closer to one another is actually their coming apart.
When Mr. Pirzada Came To Dine
A family from India living in the U.S. adopts a visiting professor into their family. Mr. Pirzada joins them every evening for dinner and to watch the news. Hailing from Pakistan, they watch night after night the developing conflict between India and Pakistan as they sit helpless in front of their TV. Mr. Pirzada has a wife and seven daughters that remain behind. He is eventually reunited with them when he returns home and is grateful to the family that took him in.
Interpreter Of Maladies
An Indian-American family go to India to visit their relatives and sight see. They display all the privilege and self-centeredness of American culture. Their driver, Mr. Kapasi, takes them to a temple where he begins to lust after the wife, Mrs. Das. He fantasizes about her but Mrs. Das uses the excursion to confess her infidelity and that her husband in not the father of their youngest son. Because Mr. Kapasi also works in a clinic, serving as an interpreter for a doctor, Mrs. Das believes that Kapasi can prescribe some remedy to assuage her guilt.
A Real Durwan
A durwan is a doorperson. An apartment building in India, instead of an official durwan, has a poor homeless woman named Boori Ma who looks out for the building and tenants. She professes to have come from a privileged background but no one believes her. After installing a coveted basin the building is robbed and the basin stolen. Boori Ma is subsequently blamed for the robbery and she is evicted from sleeping in the stairwells and roof.
Sexy
Miranda is lonely in Boston, not having many friends and still single. While purchasing some face cream at a department store she meets Dev, a married investment banker. After several dates they embark on an affair made easier because Dev’s wife is on vacation in India. On one date, Dev tells Miranda she is sexy. Agreeing to babysit a friend’s child, the kid tells Miranda she is sexy after trying on a dress he asked her to wear. She is taken aback because a child his age shouldn’t even know that word. She asks him what it means and he states it’s loving someone you don’t know. This causes Miranda to reevaluate the affair she is having and the relationship slowly dissolves.
Mrs. Sen’s
A young boy is cared for in the evenings while his mother works by the Sen family, a husband and wife. They treat Eliot as if he were their own but Mrs. Sen is struggling. She is achingly homesick for India and her husband is gone much of the time teaching. She struggles with many basic errands because her attempts at driving overwhelm her. After a minor car crash when Mrs. Sen took the car in a moment of pique, the arrangement of watching Eliot ends.
This Blessed House
Newlyweds move into a new house in Connecticut and begin finding Christian relics left by the previous owners. Having only dated for four months prior to marrying, Twinkle and Sanjay are still learning about each other. Twinkle insists on displaying the items they find, while Sanjay is embarrassed and abhors them. Twinkle believes the items reflect that the house is blessed. Sanjay resigns himself to Twinkle getting her way.
The Treatment Of Bibi Haldar
Bibi lives with her sister and is plagued by seizures. Over the years, many remedies, some bizarre, some scientifically sound, have been tried but none cure her. Finally, a doctor prescribes that Bibi should be married. Having lived her life as a frail person, she does not have much of the knowledge that goes in to finding a husband. Her sister becomes pregnant and when their baby girl becomes ill, the sister believes that Bibi has caused it so she is banished to the rooftop storage closet. After their daughter heals, the sister and her husband move away, leaving Bibi to fend for herself. After several months, Bibi is discovered to be pregnant and years into raising her child has not had a seizure since giving birth.
The Third & Final Continent
A professor moves from India to London to Boston, uprooting his life from continent to continent, establishing permanent roots in the U.S. While he waits for his bride to arrive from India, the professor rents a room from an elderly lady, Mrs. Croft. At first thinking she is in her 80’s, he eventually learns that she is in fact 103. He begins to be more patient and kind, returning to visit even after his wife, Mala, arrives and he moves out. As is so common with Indian marriages, they did not really know each other before marrying so her arrival requires some adjustment and compromise. They eventually adjust and grow to love one another.
Looking Forward: The Namesake
Looking Back: The Lowland
Comments
Post a Comment