Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies

It would probably prove impossible to interpret all the maladies affecting the characters of Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories entitled Interpreter of Maladies, but it seems that most, if not all of the characters in this collection of short stories experience an underlying malady – that of being an outsider. They’re the outsiders in their personal relationships, the outsiders in a new society, outsiders crumbling under emotional pressure and more often than not, they’re average people who feel like outsiders because of their discontent with their lives.

There’re no twists and turns in the stories, there is very little suspense and the writing is not layered heavily with symbolism. There’s a pureness to Lahiri’s writing, an ability to convey a message of humanity through lyrical prose. Although the stories involve characters of Indian origin, race and ethnicity seem almost irrelevant in the light of what Lahiri has painted with these stories. The issues affecting the characters transcend cultural barriers and with a mere shift of his imagination, the reader can place just about anyone in the context of the stories.

Despite the melancholy theme of feeling oneself a stranger, some of Lahiri’s stories end on a bittersweet note where one must look past the obvious to see the inevitable freedom that will come from shedding old skin. Two of these stories, “A Temporary Matter” and “Sexy” are particularly poignant in their analysis of feeling like a foreign inside your own personal relationships and the unspoken possibilities that await those willing to break away from the past.

A Temporary Matter tells the story of a couple who has drifted apart after the birth of their stillborn child. As their Boston neighborhood is immersed in darkness for a few hours every night, their relationship is engrossed with darkness as well. Every night, after the light’s go out, Shoba and Shukumar are given the chance to rekindle what has initially brought them together and finally give voice to what they know has driven them apart.

Although the “temporary matter” referred to in the story applies to the nightly electrical outage, the real “temporary matter” is the crumbling relationship between the couple and their inability to save what has become of it. In a way, the nightly truths that they softly share with one another are reminiscent of a final goodbye.

Sexy tells the story of a young woman’s affair with a married man. Miranda is the outsider in her relationship with Dev, secondary to his wife and incapable of living her own life since it revolves solely around the next time they’ll meet.

Through the innocent words of a young boy, she is driven to examine and re-evaluate what love is, until she is finally ready to let go.

The final pages of both, A Temporary Matter and Sexy, portray characters who have gained a sense of self, have broken away from their maladies to work their way towards personal freedom, be it the break-up of a marriage in the case of Shoba and Shukumar, or the end of an affair which is the case with Miranda.

Most notably, the common thread between the two stories lies in their humanity, in their ability to strike a chord within the reader despite the simplicity with which they read.