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Greta G's Reviews > Interpreter of Maladies
Interpreter of Maladies
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Someone who hasn’t heard about Jhumpa Lahiri’s award winning collection of short stories yet, hasn’t been paying attention. This is the 9.178th review on the book, and I’m the 140.434th ŷ member to rate it. My review will probably land somewhere on the 30th spot. Not at all because it’s good, but because I was lucky to have found supportive friends, who understand how important it is for a person to get a little attention and to be able to share their experiences with others. We understand each other; reading is a solitary occupation and being able to share that in a group of like-minded people makes it a less solitary experience.
And that’s exactly what these stories are about; the sense of belonging. Feeling that you belong is as important as the need for food, or sleep, or even breathing. It gives value to your life ; finding a supportive community, or having supportive friends, family or neighbors, and being able to be a supportive member of such a community yourself, helps you to find meaning in your life.
The main characters in these stories, all of Indian origin, and most of them migrants in America, struggle with this sense of belonging. The melancholic stories deal with love and loss, marriage and relationships, bonding and fitting in with others, receiving some attention and being valued. Whether you’re rich or poor, married or single, migrant or nonmigrant, sick or healthy, introvert or extrovert, male or female; we all crave belongingness. Jhumpa Lahiri’s emotional stories convey this need brilliantly and won’t leave you unaffected.
So if you push that ‘like� button, it means much more to me than a position among the 9.179 reviews on this book. In fact, that position is totally irrelevant. What it really means to me is that you’re giving me a real sense of belonging to this community of readers, and a sense of being valued. And I’m immensely grateful to each one of you for that. Belonging is not competing for a ranking, but nevertheless for many people it’s a daily fight. And this book reminded me of the importance of belonging.
And that’s exactly what these stories are about; the sense of belonging. Feeling that you belong is as important as the need for food, or sleep, or even breathing. It gives value to your life ; finding a supportive community, or having supportive friends, family or neighbors, and being able to be a supportive member of such a community yourself, helps you to find meaning in your life.
The main characters in these stories, all of Indian origin, and most of them migrants in America, struggle with this sense of belonging. The melancholic stories deal with love and loss, marriage and relationships, bonding and fitting in with others, receiving some attention and being valued. Whether you’re rich or poor, married or single, migrant or nonmigrant, sick or healthy, introvert or extrovert, male or female; we all crave belongingness. Jhumpa Lahiri’s emotional stories convey this need brilliantly and won’t leave you unaffected.
So if you push that ‘like� button, it means much more to me than a position among the 9.179 reviews on this book. In fact, that position is totally irrelevant. What it really means to me is that you’re giving me a real sense of belonging to this community of readers, and a sense of being valued. And I’m immensely grateful to each one of you for that. Belonging is not competing for a ranking, but nevertheless for many people it’s a daily fight. And this book reminded me of the importance of belonging.
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Reading Progress
August 26, 2016
– Shelved
November 15, 2018
–
Started Reading
November 18, 2018
–
67.0%
November 20, 2018
–
72.0%
"‘He was getting nowhere with her, with this woman whom he had known for only four months and whom he had married, this woman with whom he now shared his life. He thought with a flicker of regret of the snapshots his mother used to send him from Calcutta, of prospective brides who could sing and sew and season lentils without consulting a cookbook.�"
November 22, 2018
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-38 of 38 (38 new)
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JZ
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Nov 21, 2018 05:02PM
Greta, how did you find this book? What drew you in? You have the most amazing TBR list! I eagerly await...
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JZ wrote: "Greta, how did you find this book? What drew you in? You have the most amazing TBR list! I eagerly await..."Hi Jane, I don’t remember how I found this book, but I started reading it because the author was being compared with Yiyun Li, whose collection of stories I loved.
Thanks to ŷ, I was able to compile a TBR list that will keep me busy for the rest of my life! ;)
I know what you mean. Amazon was not stupid by owning this site, feeding our desires for more and more books.My TBR is now divided into 5 segments, including for sooner, for later, for maybe, do not read, (because I read enough to know that it's not for me) and to read, which is for books I need to research further. If I get all that read, it might be sometime in the next century, and I'll just be on life support, with a direct audio feed. lol
Friends like you keep me adding to the shelves. I need to turn off the internet for a while, and I have to stay away from Nancy Pearl's Book Lust books. I just listened to Chuck Klosterman's book, But What If We're Wrong?, and it mentioned that 2 million books are published every year. So, the likelihood that one will make a big splash in the world of books is not large.
Yet, still, we find great books.
i have a physical copy of this book and your rating on this book reminds me that I have this book and still haven't read it. I might try to read it before the year ends.
"reading is a solitary occupation and being able to share that in a group of like-minded people makes it a less solitary experience."Exactly ❤️
"What it really means to me is that you’re giving me a real sense of belonging to this community of readers, and a sense of being valued. And I’m immensely grateful to each one of you for that."
You took your personal experience with this novel and turned it into something relatable and universal. What a fantastic analogy. Thank you Greta.
JZ wrote: "I know what you mean. Amazon was not stupid by owning this site, feeding our desires for more and more books.My TBR is now divided into 5 segments, including for sooner, for later, for maybe, do ..."
2 million books every year. Wow!
That’s quite a challenge for an aspiring writer, especially in America, where there are more than 300.000 books published every year. That’s about 1 book every 2 minutes! :)
The situation is better in Oman: 7 books a year. I suppose every published writer is instantly famous there.
Pushed the like button Greta. Not just for the sake of it, but because I enjoyed your quite personal review!
A 'like' from me too, for the same reasons as Ian!
These stories really didn't resonate with me, hence my low rating.Enjoyed your review much more.
[Shai] Bibliophage wrote: "i have a physical copy of this book and your rating on this book reminds me that I have this book and still haven't read it. I might try to read it before the year ends."Sometimes we just need to see a review to be reminded of a book that we have wanted to read. I hope you’ll enjoy it, Shai, whenever you get the chance to read it.
A very personal and wonderful review. Don 't we all wish to belong somewhere...i usually try to stay away from short stories. I just enjoy the longer ones more. But might try these. Thank you Greta!
Kevin wrote: ""reading is a solitary occupation and being able to share that in a group of like-minded people makes it a less solitary experience."Exactly ❤️
"What it really means to me is that you’re giving ..."
Thank you for your kind words, Kevin. There are already so many reviews and to be honest I didn’t know what to write so I kind of let my thoughts wander while staring at those numbers. And I was reminded of my first steps on ŷ, 3 years ago, with only a couple of friends and with a language I normally don’t use. I kind of felt ‘displaced� too I guess, haha.
Ian wrote: "Pushed the like button Greta. Not just for the sake of it, but because I enjoyed your quite personal review!"Thanks Ian. I’m glad you enjoyed reading it. I rarely write personal reviews, but I guess everyone on ŷ can relate to those experiences.
Vicky wrote: "A 'like' from me too, for the same reasons as Ian!"Thank you, Vicky. :)
Daren wrote: "These stories really didn't resonate with me, hence my low rating.Enjoyed your review much more."
Hi Daren. I kind of understand why these stories aren’t for everyone. They all center on the thoughts and emotions of the characters, and the plot feels rather subsidiary to this. You probably like your stories more adventurous! :)
I’m quite honored you liked my review much more! ;)
Thank you.
Greta, when I'm lucky enough to catch your reviews in my updates (I say 'lucky' because, a) I don't think you add them to the updates very often, and b) they are always worth reading), I invariably press the Like button � for exactly the reason you point to here: the importance for us solitary readers of knowing we've been heard when we finally put some words together about what we've just experienced. And, to reuse your excellent analogy, we are all immigrants to this new Reading country, and friends who listen and support us give us a reason to stay. I hope you stay here for a long time.
I loved the analogy, your reviews are always interesting, Greta. The fear of being invisible is terrible.
Eva wrote: "A very personal and wonderful review. Don 't we all wish to belong somewhere...i usually try to stay away from short stories. I just enjoy the longer ones more. But might try these. Thank you Greta!"Hi Eva, you’re welcome! I‘ve only started reading short stories for the last two years, and I quite like the genre. With a novel, I often get bored by long, descriptive and overly poetic storytelling. For a short story, you only have so much space and every word counts. Writing a powerful short story with interesting character(s) a reader can root for mustn’t be easy.
Greta, Wonderful - I like your thoughts about being part of "our" community.
JV wrote: "A gorgeous and personal review, Greta! Liked that button, because we all belong in a wonderful community of readers who are lovely and supportive."Thank you very much, JV. I really appreciate your kind words. I agree, it’s a welcoming and respectful community.
Fionnuala wrote: "Greta, when I'm lucky enough to catch your reviews in my updates (I say 'lucky' because, a) I don't think you add them to the updates very often, and b) they are always worth reading), I invariably..."What a lovely comment, Fionnuala! Thank you for this.
Fuchsia wrote: "I loved the analogy, your reviews are always interesting, Greta. The fear of being invisible is terrible."Thank you Fuchsia. You’ve instantly become a dear friend. I even planned to work on my Spanish, and hope to be able to understand your reviews better very soon. It’s such a beautiful language!
Lisa wrote: "Greta, Wonderful - I like your thoughts about being part of "our" community."Thanks Lisa. Three years ago, I was talking with my son about how disappointed I was about the sheer triviality of Facebook, and he suggested me to try ŷ. He thought I would like it and he was right!
Thank you, Greta. You just confirmed all i suspected about you when I asked to be your friend. I'm so happy I found you here.
Odd, but, although I've been here on and off for ten years, the power of GR didn't hit me until this year. We solitary folk have a home, not concerned with showing off what we have, did, ate, bought, or saw, but sharing thoughts. It's so much more powerful.
Thanks, Greta. That is one of the important elements of a GR friendship...bringing great authors to each other's attention.
This has been in my pile for awhile. Wasn't sure it was for me, but now I know I probably will get a lot out of it.
JZ wrote: "Thank you, Greta. You just confirmed all i suspected about you when I asked to be your friend. I'm so happy I found you here.
Odd, but, although I've been here on and off for ten years, the power..."
You make me blush, Jane! :)
Yes, GR is interesting. Usually when we meet people, we have a first impression of them based on their appearance without knowing their thoughts. On GR, it’s the other way round ; we immediately get to know their thoughts! :)
HBalikov wrote: "Thanks, Greta. That is one of the important elements of a GR friendship...bringing great authors to each other's attention."I agree, H. I’ve discovered a lot of great authors and books on ŷ. Some of my best reads these three years, I owe to friends� and other reviews.
Greta wrote: "JZ wrote: "Thank you, Greta. You just confirmed all i suspected about you when I asked to be your friend. I'm so happy I found you here.
Odd, but, although I've been here on and off for ten years..."
So well, put Greta!
Chris wrote: "This has been in my pile for awhile. Wasn't sure it was for me, but now I know I probably will get a lot out of it."I really hope so, Chris. I’ve been following your reviews for a while now, but I’m not sure which book I would recommend to you (or to most friends for that matter). At least, this book won the Pulitzer prize for fiction, which is a recommendation in itself I guess.
This is the 9.178th review on the book, and I’m the 140.434th ŷ member to rate itmaybe, but this might be the only review of it that some of us see - a unique number one in lots of company!
Jan-Maat wrote: "This is the 9.178th review on the book, and I’m the 140.434th ŷ member to rate itmaybe, but this might be the only review of it that some of us see - a unique number one in lots of company!"
Oh, I agree!!
Jan-Maat wrote: "This is the 9.178th review on the book, and I’m the 140.434th ŷ member to rate itmaybe, but this might be the only review of it that some of us see - a unique number one in lots of company!"
Chris wrote: "Jan-Maat wrote: "This is the 9.178th review on the book, and I’m the 140.434th ŷ member to rate it
maybe, but this might be the only review of it that some of us see - a unique number one ..."
You’re probably right. I shouldn’t read the other reviews before I’ve written my own review.
The quality of reviews on ŷ is often outstanding, which is great, but it can also be intimidating!
It seems ŷ is not only a supportive community, but a humbling one also! :)
I have not been paying attention, Greta! ... because I did not know this writer until your review. Thank you.
Ah, so glad you found this and liked it as much as I did. Wonderful review, Greta.
Julie wrote: "I have not been paying attention, Greta! ... because I did not know this writer until your review. Thank you."Oh... well I didn’t mean to offend anyone, but look at those ratings. This book has almost as much ratings as The Holy Bible! ;)
Zak wrote: "Ah, so glad you found this and liked it as much as I did. Wonderful review, Greta."Thanks Zak. My favorite stories where different ones though: ‘Mrs. Sen� and ‘When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine�.
Thanks Zak. My favorite stories where different ones though: ‘Mrs. Sen� and ‘When Mr. Pirzada Came t..."Doesn't matter, those are good as well. They're all good.
