FICTION: Interpreter of Maladies (1999)

I came to Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer-winning debut collection of short stories after having seen The Namesake and having read "Unaccustomed Earth." This is a mixed-quality collection. The ones I liked best fell into three distinct categories:

- First, those seen from a child's perspective ("When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine" and "Mrs. Sen's"). There is something about Lahiri's narration of events from a child's point of view that makes them so much more poignant, along the lines of To Kill a Mockingbird, or along the lines of one of my all-time favorite short stories, Chu Yo-Sop's "Mama and the Boarder," in which two people's burning with forbidden love is presented only through the eyes of the woman's six-year-old daughter.

- Second, the genre describing the inner life of the average Joe. I for one have always felt that I have a richer inner life than the average person, and have wondered what kind of inner lives are led by the intellectually average or below-average, if they lead them at all. Hence my being impressed by Philip Roth's amazing portrait of Swede Levov, the blond athlete in American Pastoral. Lahiri's "Sexy" is probably my favorite short story of hers because of the sympathy and feeling with which she depicts the mind of a rather simple woman. It's a revelation.

- Third, stories that give me insight into my own life. Let's admit it, reading is to some extent a self-centered endeavor, and readers will hold dear those books with personal relevance. "The Third and Final Continent" moved me to tears with its modest story of an immigrant adjusting to America and putting down roots.

What makes many of the other stories weaker is that they feel like writing-class exercises - the form is there, but not so much the soul. There is also a name-dropping tone in the way she mentions Harvard landmarks, Ivy degrees, and the like: it doesn't ring true. Still, this author stands apart, partly as the person who made arranged marriage seem romantic and desirable, and that takes a special something.