Interpreter of Maladies

By: Jhumpa Lahiri

Narrated by: Matilda Novak

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 2000

With accomplished precision and gentle eloquence, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the crosscurrents set in motion when immigrants, expatriates, and their children arrive, quite literally, at a cultural divide. The nine stories in this stunning debut collection unerringly chart the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations.

A blackout forces a young Indian American couple to make confessions that unravel their tattered domestic peace. An Indian-American girl recognizes her cultural identity during a Halloween celebration while the Pakastani civil war rages on television in the background. A latchkey kid with a single working mother finds affinity with a woman from Calcutta. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession.

Imbued with the sensual details of Indian culture, these stories speak with passion and wisdom to everyone who has ever felt like a foreigner. Like the interpreter of the title story, Lahiri translates between the strict traditions of her ancestors and a baffling new world.

©2000 Jhumpa Lahiri (P)2000 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"Moving and authoritative pictures of culture shock and displaced identity." (Kirkus Reviews)
"The crystalline writing in the nine stories of this Pulitzer Prize-winning debut collection dazzles. These sensitive explorations of the lives of Indian immigrants and expatriates touch on universal themes, making them at once specific and broad in their appeal. Narrator Matilda Novak's light voice is fine for stories written by a young woman, and the hint of melody in her reading is typical of Indian voices." (AudioFile)

Excellent book

Jumpa Lahiri is a talented and sensitive author.
I loved this book. Each story is a gem.

Enjoyable

Lahiri's series of stories about Bengali immigrant life in America is touching and enjoyable. Novak's nicely read the book.

Great stories. Great performance. Interesting audio mixing.

The story and performance were excellent. However, the audio mixing was weird/ confusing. The chapters were not each one story but rather randomly placed in the middle of stories with confusing guitar Interludes that didn’t seem to serve any function. That said the stories were very good as was the narrator.

Somewhat interesting but monotonous performance

Not a bad set of stories, but the performance kill it for me. There was a time I am not sure where one story ends and start another.

There are several characters that sound the same, so it is confusing.

May be with other reader or reading it yourself it may be better.

Ill conceived narration

The stories are beautiful and compelling
The audiobook one of the worst
Music at inappropriate times Narrators voice often inappropriate
Wish I had read this rather than listening to audiobook

Bad Production

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes. Print or Kindle version --- not audio

Any additional comments?

I read the reviews - got the book thinking the bad production wouldn't bother me, because I liked the narrator. I was wrong, I will not finish it.

Great book, very bad narration

The book is very good but the story is really lost in the very poor narration. Unfortunately, it really ruins the experience. I don’t recommend listening to this.

Excellent work by Matilda Novak

Matilda Novak truly gave a life and personality to each of these characters. I felt emerssed in the world do to this attention to inflection and voice.

chapter division is wrong

the chapters are wrong. Often the music that marks the transition between stories enters the middle of dialogues and disturbs the hearing.

Novel-amazing; Audio-mediocre

The stories in this book were amazing. They gave such a beautiful view into the Indian culture. I longed to know the sense of community and comraderie that the author makes so integral a part of these stories. As the stories ended I was sad to end my relationship with the well-drawn and intriguing characters.

The reason I rated this audiobook only 3 stars was not the novel itself, but the narration and production of the audio. I found the narrator's style to be distracting and at times downright annoying. Short interludes of music separated the book into equal sections, but this distracted from the flow of the novel because they often came in the middle of a story and at times in the middle of a character conversation.

Dispite the poor quality of the audio production, I would recommend this novel for its wonderful characterizations and fascinating stories.