What kind of a question is "To be, or not to be?"?

Alex, Danielle, and Jonathan have given us a very good look at the “big picture” of the book as a whole I feel, therefore, I would like to expound upon a smaller snapshot that helps comprise the “big picture”.  First, though, I would like to comment on Alex’s question of whether this book could be considered “ethnic lit”. 

Personally, I think this book refuses to be classified as anything, but at the same time it can be argued that Don’t Let Me Lonely is “ethnic lit within ethnic lit”.  Yes, Rankine delves into American culture and presents negative aspects of our American society including depression, suicide, and murders committed by our own police force.  But at the same time, I feel she somewhat focuses on the experience of being Black in America.  Most of the pictures of people in this book are of black people, as she brings up the case of Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant who was sodomized with a broken broomstick by the NYC police, Ahmed Amadou Diallo, the West African immigrant who police fired 41 rounds at and killed.  She mentions people like Mahalia Jackson, a famous gospel singer involved with the Civil Rights Movement with Martin Luther King Jr., and Thabo Mbeki, the successor to Nelson Mandela as the President of South Africa.  Even in the first paragraph of the book she writes “The years went by and people only died on television – if they weren’t Black, they were wearing black or were terminally ill.”  These references lead me to believe that while, on a whole, I do think this book is a comment on American culture, I also think she invokes the experience of being Black in America and incorporates that through these references.

Death appears in this book/poem/lyric over and over again.  Rankine talks about her concern when she was little for the mortality of actors in films, the suicide hotline, the “Do not resuscitate” option, the deaths of her sister’s husband and children, the accidental death of Princess Diana, the purposeful killing of Diallo, the little boy who killed his six year old sister, etc.  Obviously, mortality is on her mind.  I think she explores the ways our realization of our own mortality affects us.  She makes it clear that we have the power to take someone else’s life or end our own at any given point in time.  This is a strange morbid power to think about.  Do think Rankine is trying to show how this power affects American society?  How about the role it plays in world relations?

So on one hand, our death could be completely planned out and premeditated.  On the other hand, it is an event that can be so random no sees it coming.  Rankine writes about those mourning the death of Princess Di saying, “Weren’t they simply grieving the random inevitability of their own deaths?” 

We might know where, when, why, and how (Colonel Mustard in the Billiards Room with the candlestick), or we might just feel the breath knocked out of us one day and that’s the end of it.  Does this revelation affect the way people live their lives?  How does Rankine think this revelation affects America?  Has it affected her life?  

Claudia Rankine's Don't Let Me Be Lonely

Here we delve into another book, with another interesting style of writing, and a bizarre physical placement of words on the page. Claudia Rankine, typically a poet, writes Don’t Let Me Be Lonely almost in a stream of consciousness. Unlike Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, this too is not a story that flows as well as some others, however it is a narrative of a single person’s life, in this case, Rankine’s. I appreciate that this is typically how many of us would write about our own experiences. Today’s society, being the A.D.D. culture that we have become, is anxious for the answer and only discusses a certain topic for a limited amount of time before losing interest and jumping to a new topic.

Although the book is written about Rankine’s reactions to various different experiences, it is hard to tell how much time has elapsed between each new section. Perhaps the pictures of the static TV’s and the addition of blank pages between sections indicate a new chapter in the author’s own life. However, I feel that these chapters are obviously very relatable and many of us can remember our own experiences at the time. Perhaps this is how we reflect on our past, where we only have snippets and a few short moments of memory with static in between.

Death is a prominent theme throughout, although it is touched on only briefly at each mention. It is the most common thread throughout the text. Rankine progresses from not knowing anyone who has passed away, to not being able to attend her own mother’s funeral. Her detachment is present in various sections. Usually death is something someone will spend a long time discussing, an emotion-filled process. I do not think because these segments were not drawn out indicates that she has an emotional void or lacks feeling, but possibly, they just did not have a monumental affect on her. The use of other national events, that most everyone is aware of, are devoted a longer portion of the book and are discussed more thoroughly or with more facts.

The imagery used throughout the book, not only the pictures but also the TV’s from section to section and physical leaving of blank spaces, leaves everything up to interpretation. I feel that it gives one the opportunity to present one’s own ideas, almost as if that blank space is an area for the reader to include his memories on the subject.

As we have discussed with many of the other novels, America has been mostly viewed in a negative light. Here we see patriotism coupled with hatred for those who “appear” to be terrorists. We have the cops sodomizing a man and then President Clinton pushing for the allowance of generic HIV/AIDS medicine in Africa. What does this say about our melting pot culture?

With regard to the title, Don’t Let Me Be Lonely, I feel that Rankine chose this title because even though we are surrounded by hundreds of people daily, and often the same people at that, we still have this unimaginable fear of being alone, or greater yet, dying alone. Since death is mentioned several times and vaguely discussed, perhaps the author is showing us that we have nothing to fear and that it is simply the unavoidable.

I feel as though this “American lyric” will be one, if not the most, discussed books that we have read. It can be interpreted in numerous ways and most likely will be the most interesting to debate with many counter-interpretations.

Lonely

Claudia Rankine chose to put a quote by Aime Cesaire at the beginning of the book. It is obvious that this quote has significance to the book itself, but like the majority of this lyric, the interpretation is debatable. I was just curious as to what other people thought of this quote and its relevance to the rest of the novel, if you can call it a novel. In my opinion this quote is saying that life is more than just merely entertainment. That the pain, the raw emotion that others feel should be respected and honored. The grief is not a proscenium, or a type of theatre- meaning that as spectators we should connect and be emotionally impacted by these events. The book goes on to allude to death and disaster that has taken place in recent years. While when something happens on the news it may seem distant from us, we must beware letting the impact go unnoticed to our sometimes apathetic attitudes.

Now the book itself. This book seemed to me to be somewhat of a first hand account of famous current events in the past ten years are so. I found it very interesting the way that the seemingly unconnected stories found in each paragraph along with the photographs did flow so smoothly. There were definite common themes throughout the book and they most likely added to this continuity. One of these major themes being depression. There are numerous references to antidepressant drugs, and even a list of pharmaceutical companies. But I especially liked the images of the warning labels for the drugs. I think this is saying that with drugs and with life, you can find a solution to a problem but there is never a guarantee. There are also side effects that come with a choice or usage of medicine. Ultimately it comes down to the decision of is the choice worth the effects that will result.

The image of the television with the static was also a big part of this book. It gave me the impression that we were watching a TV and the channel kept being changed. Each new channel gave us a new story or issue. And most of these issues are things that we are familiar with. I think by using such common stories, the author is invoking the feelings we have and causing us to relive how we felt when we heard about such impactful events. What feelings do we have? What other historical events spark similar emotions inside of us?

"Don't Let Me Be Loney" reaction post.

So I feel that it is safe to say that within the first few pages of Claudia Rankine's text it becomes extremely clear that this is unlike any text that we have read thus far. Its elongated form, and multimedia presentation place it in a category of its own.

Although the idea of a more-or-less direct narrative is
not exactly present in this text, It is probably closest to Selah Saterstrom's approach in her choice of presenting The Pink Institution. Rankine utilized images, minimal amounts of text, and a hybrid prose/poetry form. This isolates the text from any seemingly obvious classification and provides a great foundation for discussion---whether positive or negative---before even considering the actual content of the story.

In regards to what we have been discussing in class
as of late regarding the basis of determining "what is ethnic lit?"
I am curious to see if any of you would consider this as "ethnic lit"?
It seems to me that it fits a lot of the criteria we discussed,
although this time it is turned on our culture.
-It contains a lot of content directly related to and focused on aspects of a particular
culture (American culture, post-"turn of the millennium" and mostly post-9/11) and an experience in or shaped in large part by this culture.
-It obviously shows a critique of this culture through the way in which the culture is presented in the text.
-Rankine is part of the culture she is writing about (she was born in Jamaica and partially raised there but migrated to New York City at an early age).

So again, I am just curious as to how you all feel about this being in the same "ethnic lit" category as say, Diaz's piece. I'm not saying it is one way or the other---I'm still on the fence myself and hopefully will have made a concrete conclusion regarding this issue by Thursday, but as of now I can at least identify that most of the indicators are present.

As far as the content of the text, I enjoyed it very, very much. I really enjoy the stream of consciousness style writing, and Rankine does a phenomenal job of presenting her "story" in this way.

An obvious theme that began to surface after only a few pages was the blurring of the line between unity and isolation. making purposeful shifts from referring to "you", speaking as "I" to speaking as "we", even saying "whats the difference?"(pg.92). There is discussion about the "I" as a personal pronoun and "I" as a blanketing statement, and identifying yourself with/as an embodiment of a country ("The America that I am"-pg 92).

The previous parenthetical statement encapsulates the much of the political
critique peppered throughout the book. Not only does Rankine critique the
administration of the time explicitly, but she also focuses on a critique
of Individual American's reactions to the administration, the media that cultivates the ideology planted by those in power, and our obsessions and preoccupations as individuals and as a society.

This concept of covering all levels of the self is what I mean when I reference the blurred line between unity and isolation.

There is the self and your concerns, needs, reactions and emotions; the subgroup and its concerns, needs, reactions and emotions; the large group and its concerns, needs, reactions and emotions; and lastly the entire society and its concerns, needs, reactions and emotions.
The level at which the preoccupation with fear and media-birthed concepts, the obsession with television, the tendency to tire of things quickly and to become easily disinterested, and the emotional instabilities and requisite prescription quick-fixes all occur at is left completely in a haze.

does the text provide primarily autobiographical snapshots or snapshots of American culture as a whole?

most of the text can be taken as an overarching statement, at the very least regarding a subgroup. arguably many things can be taken as reference to a large group, and oftentimes it is clearly about society as a whole.

One feature of the book which is also apparent from the first page is
the use of images. I feel the inclusion of imagery not only accentuates the
genre-stretching aspect of the text, but also helps to illustrate
part of Rankine's point (both literally and figuratively)
that as a culture we depend on the visual stimulation of the media
to a degree that it is absurd. The tendency to tire of things
quickly and to become easily disinterested----the force driving pop
culture almost entirely---Is also represented in this form through the static
televisions. I took these to be "channel switches" essentially.
Rankine switches the focus of her "story" after each of these and
I feel that they are not excluded from the socially critical content of the book.

Overall I feel that the book is very successful in what
it attempts to communicate to the reader, and does so in
a way that is unique and intriguing in the reading process.
I feel that although it is a very different reading experience than many
are used to, It is no less valuable as a result.

Hopefully all of this wasn't too difficult to follow, and hopefully this can get some conversation started on the book. I hope that there will be plenty of interesting interpretations and ideas surrounding the experience of reading Don't let Me Be Lonely come Thursday and I hope the majority of you enjoyed the text as much as I did.

-Alexander

This is supposed to be a comment under 'The Boat, Nam Le' by Alyse Borkan

For some reason, there is a glitch, and the system does not allow me to post under Alyse's opening post. Here is my comment:

The author does leave a lot of unanswered questions, which I believe creates a much more powerful impact and allows the readers to utilize the creativity. I felt the only story that had a relatively clear ending was ‘Cartagena’. ‘Love and Honor...’ too had a decent ending as the reader has to verify that the father burnt the story (or maybe through it into the river). But most of the other stories, especially ‘Meeting Elise’, ‘Hiroshima’, and ‘Tehran Calling’, leave the story without a proper ending, which would tie up all the loose strings throughout the text. Though, I believe, this is the style of contemporary literature to not provide the readers with everything, there is no ‘spoon feeding’ anymore, like it might have been in the good old days of fictional stories such as Sherlock Holmes, where you would be provided with each and every detail, and then there would be an answer to all the mysteries in the story. But in reality, it never works that way, and I believe both Nam Le and much of contemporary literature reflect this.

The Boat

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Nam Le's The Boat. I found that the presentation of the stories was very similar to that of The Pink Institution. Several of the stories in The Boat including "Love and Honor..." and "Hiroshima" begin with a straight forward style of a narrative and at some point the style of telling the story shifts to a inner train of thought much similar to some of the pieces that are from The Pink Institution. After noticing this, I began to ask my question "what are some of the consistent characteristics of contemporary literature?" and "what differentiates contemporary literature from other literature beside the time period in which each type was written?" A similar style of writing using the continuing thoughts of the narrator without a filter for what is relevant to the subject being discussed was also used in Drown. Perhaps, this style of writing is present in classical literature, but it seems it has been prevalent in the several works that we have examined.

After reading the first story in which the narrator is tentative about writing about his culture and background because he does not want to be one of those "ethnic writers," I thought of a quote from the film Orange County. The protagonist, Shaun, of the film thinks the only way that he can become a great writer is by leaving his dysfunctional family. A English professor at Stanford, says to Shaun, what if Twain had left Missouri or if Hawthorne left Massachusetts would they have produced masterpieces, who knows but their surroundings and background provided them with the experiences to create great works of literature. I feel that for the most part great fiction is based on the experiences of the writer if the author is Vietnamese then those experiences are going to somewhat reflect a Vietnamese upbringing and this can be said for most authors. However in a whole, The Boat exhibits an author that is able to write about other cultures besides his own.

Row Row Row Your Boat

... Gently down the stream.

Ok, ok, all jokes aside, I found Nam Le's work to be excellent, if a bit tedious in certain sections. Some of the things that struck me most about his writing, especially in contrast to that of other works we've read, included the (relatively, more on that later) format, intense detailing and depth of character, various points of view(again, more on that later) and the utter diversity in each and every story. I seriously doubt that any other author could manage to convince me in so few pages that I am in so many drastically different environments. From Hiroshima to Britain, New York to barrio's of Columbia, the levels of cultural immersion are staggering and heavily lend to a sense of believability.

(Some interesting things I'd like to start conversation on, in no particular order.

A constantly shifting perspective seems to permeate the pages of this novel, skipping idly from a person perspective in the initial three stories, to a third person perspective for the rest of the book. As to why Nam Le decided to do this, I'm completely unsure. However, I doubt that a wordsmith such as Nam Le, with his precise detail and exquisite control would lapse into another perspective without good reason. To me, this might have been a detachment from some of the characters, as opposed to embodying them with a first person perspective. Perhaps this serves as a metaphor for Nam's growth as a writer, an understanding of and acceptance of ideas that he cannot relate to on a personal basis, and therefore must express in a more narrator-esque way. Any ideas, anyone?

Furthermore, in an effort to illicit a sense of culture (I assume), Nam Le changes punctuation, sentence structure, and even the thought process's of each character. For example, the initial story rings of a hollow and almost dark/futuristic feel to me, with everything is properly indented, properly capitalized, and put in quotation marks. Most notably, however, the father speaks in Vietnamese, but it is seamlessly translated for us. The way in which the first story speaks is a tightly constructed narrative with concise and crisp analogies, similes, and metaphors appropriate to the character.

The next story, however, disregards all rules regarding distinguishing who is speaking, aside from indentation, and leaves us potentially puzzling over a number of words that we may or may not know. In a similar sense, the character's thought process and the writing itself changes to suit the situation and context again.

In the third story, a pattern seems to almost be forming, with the highly literate painter shifting back to compact and blunt prose defined by an abundance of punctuation. This pattern continues, as the thoughts and style reflected in "Halflead Bay" seem appropriate[to me, anyway] to the character of Jamie. The pattern continues with Hiroshima lacking punctuation OR indentation, etc. etc.

Why does Nam Le do this? Is it simply a matter of defining your character in their perspective space, or do the shifting styles speak to something deeper in the text? This strikes me as an, if not the most, interesting question throughout the text.

One more quick point: (Until I remember the one I forgot, anyway)

Water seems to play a role in a number of stories, but most significantly in the first, third, and fourth (the river, the bathtub, the bay). To what extent does water signify something, if anything? To me, water seemed to be a calming element for a number of characters, as Nam's father would often venture to the river, Henry would often submerge himself in a bath, and Jamie's nostalgia in the bay.

The Boat, Nam Le

I really enjoyed reading The Boat. What I appreciated the most was the ability of Nam Le to include so much detail and description in each story. I felt that unlike the other short story collections we read this one really gave us a full background, character portrayals, and multiple plotlines. His use of description of the setting was so impeccable that without even telling where the story took place we would have been able to figure it out. His ability to intertwine individual aspects of the plot within each other really made each story interesting and fulfilling. For instance in Tehran Calling, Sarah’s relationship with Paul, paralleled by her relationship with Pavlon gave the story depth and made it more than just what is structured as one chapter in the book. Going back to what we said in class today about portraying violence and atrocity in literature and comparing The Pink Intuition’s use of blunt detail to Nam Le’s use of storytelling, I really feel as Nam Le’s technique was more effective because it hooked his reader into a web of drama, relationships, and serious problems that tapped on our emotions and made us somehow, relate it to our own lives, not necessarily because of the problems themselves as more worldly but because they are surrounded by emotion. In The Pink Institution the emotion that the characters felt was displayed in their actions but not necessarily through the words of the author which although had a powerful effect, did nothing for us since most of us do not attempt suicide, or take the same paths of actions the characters in the Pink Institution did. While emotions are universal, actions are individual.

Going back to the first story, I realized after the class discussion, that not only did his dad burn his story which signifies that he can’t turn experience into words, but he also keeps referring to the fact that he was mad at his dad because of what he didn’t know at the time but found out later. On page 28 he says, “If I had known then what I knew later, I wouldn’t have said the things I did.” I wonder if maybe this means he wrote a different novel and then realized this and then from there wrote The Boat? It would be interesting to read into that line.

I also noticed that Nam Le changed some things in each story but also kept the structure the same. For instance in Cartagena he took out all quotation marks and used Spanish language, keeping the words, grammar and sentence structure parallel with the lives of the characters. In Hiroshima father, mother, brother, etc. were all capitalized which is representative of the lives of the characters in the sense that their parents and family played a different role in the lives of people in Japan and earned more respect. In the story that takes place in Australia the dialect changed again. Words such as mate were substituted for friend and mum for mom. One thing I found that was common to all the stories however was that he jumped between past and present, in most cases without any real transition or warning. This was effective since he didn’t really have much space for transition, but I also thought it took away from some of each story since before I figured out the pattern in each individual story I was often confused. Another common aspect to each story was the lack of an ending. I also found this effective for the author's purposes but I personally didn’t like it since I was left with all these questions that had been answered would have made a bigger impact on me.

The Role of Sex in The Pink Institution

The most striking thing about novel to me was that in four generations, there did not seem to be any change in the situations of the people. Their environment may have been changing but the same sense of desperation, poverty and perversion surrounded them. There was a loss of innocence that came with just being a part of this family. The patriarch of the family evoked the image of Frank Henrickson on HBO’s Big Love; a mean, violent and perverse old man. There is also an absence of dignity that prevalent throughout the novel.

The role of sex and the way characters interact with each other sexually in this novel illustrates the perverse nature of their environment and the loss of innocence. It seems that nothing is off limits or sacred, even Billie asks his wife to have sex with his cousin to make him straight, the narrator is forced to play make out games with their cousin, Billie is involved in homosexual acts with the neighbor while he wife is in a drunken stupor. The children are exposed to all sorts of sexual acts and no one seems embarrassed or bothered by these things that are going on around them. It just all seemed so bizarre that no one ever spoke up or showed any signs of being bothered except when the little girl ran away from her grandfather and was terrified to eat dinner with him. Also, the incestuous behavior was also shocking and I wondered what drives people to do this? Maybe if your family members were the last people on earth but there were clearly other people in the town; is this just the cultural norm that is being bred? It is so easy for parents to pass bad habits on to their children and I think this accounts for the sad state of affairs that took place in this family and continued through all the generations. 

Narrative Structure in the Pink Institution

Selah Saterstrom’s Pink Institution is very provocative in its ability to test various literary boundaries. The most obvious of these boundaries is pure structure. Saterstrom experiments with several different styles in each chapter which forces the reader to challenge their idea of what is actually entailed in a “book” or “novel.” The class discussion began to shift towards this but never had the opportunity to fully address many of the issues that are encompassed within this challenge. My main concern can be summed up as this: How effective is a challenge of this nature and what were Saterstrom’s main objectives in using these different structures?

In terms of the efficacy of the unique narrative structure, a lot needs to be addressed. Has she gone too far with her challenge? It seems that there was a good mix of people who enjoyed this new type of novel and those that had difficulty following it. Within this “novel,” there are definitely several powerful messages surrounding Southern culture and family history. She definitely manages to convey these ideas in the guise of incomplete sentences, seemingly random spaces, and pictures through the book. The issue becomes whether or not people choose to internalize the issues she brings forward or if they are too put off by the structure to truly feel impacted. Saterstrom had to expect to lose a certain amount of readers by breaking literary tradition but it is an interesting to consider whether she is losing more than she would expect. This brings us back to the idea of identifying what her objectives were in writing this type of novel.

Aside from considering what size audience Saterstrom was attempting to reach with this structure, it is important to try to discern what else she might have been trying to achieve in the context of the story. The short vignettes that she utilizes create an effect of reading someone’s memories. This was also touched upon in class but merits further expansion. This idea of memories is furthered by the titles given to them in the second part of the book. For instance, “Spiderland” is a childhood name for a place that she uses to label the short story about. The stories tend to cover particular events then simply cut off, much like memories. The before and after of each story do not matter. It is the actual event that is told that is impactful on the storyteller’s life. The reader does not feel obligated to connect all of the stories she tells. This is simply one explanation for one type of structure. Do the other styles tie in to this or do they have a different purpose? Saterstrom has definitely created a story that should be easily discussed due to its uniqueness so it will be interesting to hear people’s opinions about some of the questions that have been posed.

The Pink Institution

I really enjoyed Selah Saterstrom’s The Pink Institution. At first, like many of you mentioned in class, I was confused and bothered by the seemingly random style of writing. But soon I came to realize that the way she wrote her stories--not just her diction and prose, but also the way the words were laid out across the pages--was similar to a work of art. Not to mention, of course, the haunting pictures included before each section (I’m especially thinking of the pictures of the little girl, facing forward and backward). The way Saterstrom described (or did not describe) certain situations and memories was poignant but concise, reflecting the way someone would actually remember or learn about the past.

Surprisingly, I found that this book displayed more emotion than any of the others we have read thus far. Most of the other books offered insight to characters’ feelings and emotions, but The Pink Institution seemed void of any inside thoughts from any of the characters. However, through the characters’ actions in The Pink Institution, I think it is obvious that this set of characters has more realistic emotions. For example, in Never Let Me Go, after Kathy realizes that she and Tommy cannot get their donations delayed, she gives up, and lets life take its course. But in The Pink Institution, when Aza doesn’t like the way her life is going, she tries to commit suicide (multiple times). Although suicide does not seem like the best way to deal with things, it does show that Aza cares how awful her life is, and wants to do something to stop the pain she is experiencing.

The entire time I was reading this book, I couldn’t help but relate it to The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. The House of the Spirits tells the story of the Trueba family, over 3 or 4 generations. The story takes place in a Latin American country going through a revolution. One of the most prominent resemblances between the two books was the fact that they told stories over a few generations, mostly told from the female perspective. Both books also take place in countries which have just gone through major trauma--The Pink Institution takes place in the southern United States after the Civil War, and The House of the Spirits takes place in a Latin American country, which is still in the throes of a revolution. Another parallel I saw between the books was a general awareness of the supernatural. Magic realism is a reoccurring element throughout The House of the Spirits, while it shows up every once in a while in The Pink Institution, especially when Willie sees Death. If any of you have read The House of the Spirits, I’d be interested to hear your comparisons.

Repetition in Interpreter of Maladies

One common theme throughout Lahiri's stories was repetition. Characters would go through certain actions in an almost religious manner. This can be seen in A Temporary Matter with the confessions that Shoba and Shukumar shared; every night the lights would go out and they would follow the same routine (which is interesting because this new routine was in a way an escape from the monotonous routine of their now empty life together). In When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, the repetition consists of him coming over for dinner every night, watching the news, and also the young girl eating the candy every night in an almost ceremonious way. Repetition creates comfort for the characters in that story; it almost breeds a sense of security.
However, repetition tends to lead to disaster in many of the stories.
In Mrs. Sen's her daily chopping routine somehow seems very tragic and it almost seems like she is trying to work out the pain of her immigrant position and alienation in the United States by keeping herself busy with a knife that is symbolically attached to India. Her repetitive attempts at driving end the connection with the narrator because of her crash, and this creates a very sad moment in the story that only the reader can interpret (the child narrator is somewhat sad but does not seem to understand the weight of his connection with Mrs. Sen, and the mother is very indifferent to her).
One of the most interesting stories which deals with repetition is Sexy. Miranda and Dev start out their relationship in a very intimate way, and slowly week after week, there seems to be less wonder and romance associated with Dev's visits, and they undergo a deterioration which is very disheartening. Miranda's desperation for Dev's weekly visit at first seems slightly exciting, but quickly turns pathetic, and when she ends the repetition and stops asking him to come over, it is almost like a load is lifted. Repetition and monotony are so interesting in this novel because sometimes they lead to destruction, deterioration, and devastation, while sometimes they craft a real, meaningful relationship (Mr. Pirzada)

The Third and Final Continent

I enjoyed following nJunot Diaz' Drown with Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. Though both collections address the dynamic of the American experience for foreigners or individuals with foreign backgrounds, the styles of the two authors could not be more different. The fact that both collections are so highly acclaimed illustrates the salience of this topic in modern America; as the United States becomes more and more diverse, the clash of different cultures and the search for individual identity through heritage have become increasingly pertinent. However, the conclusions of the two compilations provide two very different perspectives on the ultimate result of the immigrant experience in America. 

Although many of the stories in Interpreter of Maladies finish with the same general sense of discontent and ambiguity that characterized the stories in Drown, the final story of Lahiri's collection, "The Third and Final Continent," actually ends triumphantly. This in itself was a shock. I'm used to working hard to reach hopeful readings of renown literature; it was refreshing to have the author actually spell one out herself. However, Drown could have arguably had this same conclusion if "No Face" was the final story rather than the penultimate one. After our class discussion on Diaz' work, I had the impression that his perspective of the immigrant experience does not end on such a high note, hence his choice to end the compilation with "Negocios." Lahiri's choice, on the other hand, to conclude her compilation with "The Third and Final Continent" provides a different view of the immigrant experience. With the narrator encouraging his son that "there is no obstacle he cannot conquer," his family's achievement is proof that it is possible to find happiness three continents away from home. It is interesting to note how powerful the order of the stories is in determining the ultimate tone and message of the collection.

interpreter of maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

In my opinion, Lahiri's Interpreter of maladies was thought provoking and detailed, but  I did not enjoy reading it as much as the previous compilations. I feel that this is because I could not really find a connection between each of the short stories. There were several overarching themes that continued to present themselves in each story, but each short story seemed to be a completely separate entity from the previous. Some themes that popped up throughout the stories were infidelity, cross-cultural roles, and the search for belonging (with someone or in a particular place). I feel that the notion of wanting to belong to a particular group or place is an important theme that should be considered. From experience and stories of friends, it is common to feel out of place or uneasy in a new setting, such as moving from India to America or any other country. Therefore, it is important to notice how this plays into each short story, and how the characters handle themselves in these situations.  

I found it interesting that even though each short story focused on narrower factors such as infidelity or love relations, almost all of the short stories revolved around or included some notion of cross-cultural differences between the Indian culture and the American culture. It seemed as though it was extremely important to layout and clearly define the lines that separated each culture. By doing so, this helped the readers understand how important culture is in different societies, and how different they can be interpreted amongst socially diverse groups. 

Overall, Lahiri's compilation of short stories was interesting, but the it did not keep me fully engaged throughout the entire book. After a while, some of the plot lines began to run together, which made it difficult for me to stay alert and attached to the reading.

Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies

I found Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" to be a subtle yet layered and detailed collection of short stories. Lahiri's extensive attention to the idiosyncrasies of her characters gives the stories an intimate and personal feel. The juxtaposition between Indian/Pakastani and American culture is the central theme of the work, and the way Lahiri depicts it through the eyes of several different types of characters helped my understanding of and identification with the work. I particularly liked her usage of understatement and subtle repitition to distinguish her characters and help to illuminate their emotions and motivations.

The story "Interpreter of Maladies" was one which i felt was very representative of the collection as a whole. The way in which Mrs. Das view Mr. Kapasi as an Indian elder figure, while he views her as a young American object of a sort of lust, exemplifies the "clash" between the two cultures which Lahiri herself seems to be a product of and which the work's characters deal with constantly. I liked the way that the entire family seemed detached from their experience, and even the parents act like older siblings, begrudging and unwilling to assume responsibility for their own children. Another strong suit of the stories was the way that Lahiri left many of them unresolved, perhaps to a stopping point, but never brings her works to fruition. This gives the collection a very open-ended sense about it, and speaks to the vulnerability and sense of loss which many of her characters experience.

Overall, i very much enjoyed Lahiri's work. I thought that a few of the plotlines grew tired, and some pof the characters ran together, but the work accomplished just what it seemed to set out to accomplish. It is an intriguing summary of the foreign experience.

Lahiri

I really enjoyed reading the Interpreter of Maladies. Although the themes were complex they were easily identified which made the book that much better.

In particular I noticed that most of Lahiri’s stories in some way had to do with marriage, and loveless marriages at that. This really hit home while I was reading the story titled “The Intepreter of Maladies.” Although I was looking for some sort of significance, I really think that when Mr. Kapasi said “The Chandrabhaga River once flowed one mile north of here. It is dry now,” was a symbolism for the love in a marriage drying up. In addition to loveless marriage I think the more general theme we could take with us is that all humans, whether Indian, American, or any race, need compassion and reassure of their existence through a partner or even just any other human. The compassion in the last story the main character had toward Mrs. Croft really emphasized that. I was curious as to whether the irregular age of Mrs. Croft was emphasized for a purpose or just mere detai?

Another thing I noticed in most of the stories was the element of food and the roled it played for that family. Most of the families in the stories could not completely let go of the culture of their past even though they were in America. I found that more than anything they clung to food as a comfort. For example, the egg curry in the last story and the seafood in Mrs. Sen’s story were often repeated over and over to emphasize the longing they still had for their life in India and the hard time they had adapting.

These short stories were comparable to Drown in the sense that they also touched on the American dreams. In Mrs. Sen’s Lahiri wrote, “Send me pictures they write.’ ‘Send pictures of your new life.’ What picture can I send?” She sat exhausted on the edge of the bed where there was now barely any room for her. “They think I live the life of a queen.” She looked around the blank walls of the room. “They think I press a button and the house is clean. They think I live in a palace." Although in some stories they came to America and made a great life for themselves, in at least two of the stories the characters actually claimed life in India was better. Most of the characters seemed to endure hardships and troubles no matter where they were .

For me this was definitely the best book we've read so far.