Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
This morning I read the first two short stories in…
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
This morning I read the first two short stories in Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies. I like them, much as I liked the stories in Anjana Appachana's Incantations and Other Stories. Both sets have that indie-film vibe and Indian-diaspora genre vibe going, although Anirvan (consummate connoiseur of all things indie and diasporic) could probably talk my ear off about nuances that distinguish the two, and I'm pretty sure Lahiri's prose is more subtle (maybe this is why Lahiri has a Pulitzer and Appachana doesn't).
I only hope Lahiri's novels don't stink as much as Appachana's Listening Now, which my mother and I both hated and both couldn't finish.
