Jhumpa Lahiri and her work (and its film adaptation!) have long been a subject of discussion here at the Mutiny. And this Friday night, I am interviewing her as part of the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective’s Literary Festival, “Stranger Love.”
I just checked, and the Lahiri event is sold out (!), but I thought that this might be an opportunity for SM readers get two cents in. Got a question? Put it in comments, and I may ask it… She’s been much interviewed, obviously, so I’d like to try to ask her things that haven’t been asked before, as well as things that relate particularly to the festival theme.
One question that I usually like to ask writers: What are you reading now? The answer to this changes, and is usually pretty interesting… I’m rereading Unaccustomed Earth right now, and will ask some questions about specific stories, too. If there’s a character or story that made you think longer than the others, please let me know!
(If I ask a question submitted here, I’ll mention that it came from SM. If you put something resembling a real name on it, I’ll try to credit you specifically.)
I have her book here on my desk and I am really looking forward to the read, only read the first collection. I would really like to hear some reflections on Indian literature and where it is going. Does she see any trends when it comes to themes and style?
I wish I could be there — I am actually working on an essay on Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction as we speak! Hopefully, the event will be recorded…?
Questions for Jhumpa Lahiri:
As a parent myself, I love how many of the characters are dealing with young children in the most recent collection, Unaccustomed Earth. Has parenting changed how you write? Will parenting influence your themes and scope? Have you thought about writing for children at some point?
Many of your stories are about people who fit a particular demographic profile: academics, or the children of academics; professionals (doctors, architects, etc.); Bengalis. I don’t particularly mind this, since it is, first, honest, and second, not that far from my own demographic profile as an academic who comes from a family of professionals. And indeed, because of immigration policies, the 1965-1980 South Asian immigrants are disproportionately from this class — so the people in your stories are in many ways a good sampling of who “we” are, as second-gen South Asian Americans. But have you thought about expanding that scope by bringing in, for instance, working-class South Asian immigrants?
Have you had second thoughts about basing stories entirely in the Indian subcontinent, as you did with two stories in “Interpreter of Maladies”? As a second-gen writer, one has problems with grounding stories that aren’t diasporic — that aren’t based at least partly in the author’s daily experience. Is the U.S. (and London) going to be the setting for your fiction going forward?
Several of the stories in “Interpreter of Maladies,” as well as The Namesake, feature ‘monocultural’ Indian-American couples. By contrast, it seems like the majority, if not all, of the stories in Unaccustomed Earth are about settled cross-cultural relationships. Was this a conscious shift?
I really love the story about an alcoholic brother, “Only Goodness,” in Unaccustomed Earth. Can you say something about the inspiration for that story?
I’ll try to think of questions later, but can y’all please podcast/stream these events? Not all of us live in NYC…
Many of your stories are about people who fit a particular demographic profile: academics, or the children of academics; professionals (doctors, architects, etc.); Bengalis. I don’t particularly mind this
I wanted to ask the same question – I haven’t read Unaccomstomed Earth, so I wasn’t sure if she used diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in those stories, but it seems like from Amardeep’s question she hasn’t. There’s nothing wrong with this and if this is her experience than maybe she feels comfortable writing about this, but I’d still want to ask the same question, since in northeast cities there are many bluecollar south asians.
Question – While Lahiri has shown tremendous talent in writing about Bengalis’ often tortured psyche, will she start to show the humorous side as well? Her characters seem to be uniformly dour.
Related: Both THE NAMESAKE and UNACCUSTOMED EARTH are “crossover” titles and frequently recommended to teens by teachers and librarians. Have you thought about writing specifically for young adult/teen readers?
SAWCC is Twittering (Tweeting?). Perhaps someone can Tweet(?). (What’s the right terminology?)
Related: Both THE NAMESAKE and UNACCUSTOMED EARTH are “crossover” titles and frequently recommended to teens by teachers and librarians.
I’m not sure I would use “Unaccustomed Earth” as “crossover” material — the themes are too oriented to adult (divorce, raising children, life in one’s upper 30s). But both The Namesake and several of the stories in “Interpreter of Maladies” seem right for teens/young adults. (And that’s partly why I like teaching those texts at the college level.)
The first two stories of the Hema/Kaushik cycle work for some teens/young readers. Agreed that other stories are more “adult.” Also agreed that there are several stories in INTERPRETER that work for teens/young readers, esp. ‘When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine.’
Although I love her writing and always get captivated by the characters in her story, one thing that I’m curious about is why all her stories tend to be on the depressing side. Has that been asked before?
The one thing that holds me back from absolutely loving her writing, no holds barred, is that I feel she doesn’t get into the psyche of her characters, I don’t feel an empathy, a slight holding back, which prevents me from totally immersing myself. It’s like looking down from above at scenes happening and writing a commentary. Does anyone else feel that?
Rita, I get that sense too and I kind of like it. It’s Hemmingway-esque where you’re sort of watching what’s going on. She is good enough at it that you can tell how they’re feeling without her having to explain it. It turns out better than having to come up with overblown, effusive and excessively dramatic descriptions of emotions.
I really liked Lahiri’s “The Interpreter of Maladies” when I read it years ago. But there were two things in there that perplexed me and I often wondered why no one else had pointed them out.
First on page 54 in the story “Interpreter of Maladies,” Lahiri writes about “plates of onions and potatoes deep-fried in graham-flour batter.” The words “graham flour” bothered me. And I wondered what sort of pakoras could be made with graham flour, which is ground whole wheat. All those who grew up, or have lived, in the U.S. for a long time know about graham crackers, which are, of course, made with whole wheat. I am certain that Lahiri meant ‘gram flour’, which is the other word used for ‘besan,’ the flour from chickpeas, which is what pakoras are made of (at least in Pakistan and I am also sure in India too). I’d like to know why Lahiri chose to use the word “graham” instead of gram, which would have been correct.
The second thing that bothered me is on page 41, in the story “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” where she mentions getting a card celebrating the Muslim New Year. I am not aware of Muslims sending out cards celebrating the start of their new year, which commences with Moharram, a time of mourning and breast-beating. Does Lahiri knows of a new tradition, started in the U.S.A., of Muslims sending out greetings at the start of Moharram? I wondered if she was thinking of one of the other Muslim holidays like Eid (that comes after Ramadan) or the Eid-ul-Azha, after the Haj, when cards are mailed out wishing people “Eid Mubarak.”
These may seem like trivial questions, but I think every writer has a duty to be accurate. I’d greatly appreciate if you’d ask these questions. I’d love to know her answers. Thank you for for giving Sepia Mutiny readers an opportunity to submit their questions for Ms. Lahiri.
True. I don’t like emotions being overly depicted either, but there’s something about her writing that, even while being brilliant in style, prevents me from getting into it wholly. I thought her first – Interpreter of Maladies, was by far the best work. I guess to compare with another Indian author I like – Rohinton Mistry. Maybe that’s why she won the Pulitzer while he had to be happy with the Booker 🙂
Did someone really use the work “Hemingway-esque” to refer to Lahiri?? gag.
She’s just the most skillful of the desi chick-lit authors. Her work will be forgotten within 20 years.
It wasn’t a statement of quality, it was a statement about writing style.
12 · Shehla said
Shehla, you are and excellent and close reader! IMO, these might have been proofreader mistakes that weren’t caught in what might have been the 3rd (or 9th) pass. Lahiri writes “gram” and non-desi proofreader “corrects” it to “graham”. As for the New Year issue, she might have written the actual name of the holiday, which an editor might have changed to “New Year” in an attempt to simplify for Amreekan audiences. I’m just guessing here.
I’m with Cicatrix on those guesses… Thanks for the questions, y’all. I am traveling (yet again!) but will respond more substantively as soon as I can.
I’m not sure where I read this, but I remember reading that Jhumpa Lahiri is a huge fan of Mavis Gallant. I was intrigued by this, and, being a fan of Mavis Gallant myself, I was intrigued by this factoid (oh where oh where did I read it?). Too busy to google, currently!
My question is based on the above and kind of on a tangent, but I wondered which story, or stories, in particular, of Gallant most affected Lahiri? If this was already covered extensively in where ever I read the above factoid, please disregard!
Oh, I just remembered. Embarrassingly, I think she did an intro to a Gallant collection, or something. Oops. Sorry, she’s probably covered this in detail, already.
Throughout her career, Lahiri stated (paraphrased) has often stated that she’s never felt at home in any particular place, that she has no claim to any particular place in the world. She’s recently contributed the piece on Rhode Island to State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, and spoke with book blogger (and childhood compatriot!) Carolyn Kellogg about her contribution here.
In the interview, Lahiri mentions that her next work may be set in Rhode Island; I’m curious as to whether it’s a place she is able to claim only in retrospect, after not finding that she could claim any other place as her own, or whether she always could claim Kingston, RI – but just didn’t realize it until much later in her life. How did this influence her piece for the anthology (haven’t read it yet), and how does she expect it to define her future writing?
If you ask the question, please ask it on behalf of another Nilanjana from small-town America. 🙂
Sorry – the third link above shouldn’t be to the Amazon listing for the anthology, it should be for the L.A. Times’ Jacket Copy blog.
A lot of your stories deal withe tragedy and unhappiness. Do you find it easier to write about tragedy rather than comedy or a love story with a happy ending?
Have you read her work?
Late night snark aside, I would ask what I love to ask writers. What’s next?
Will you marry me?
I second the opinion rendered above by A and A’s Dad @ 22 regarding her stories. You always feel that there is this deep-rooted melancholy in all her stories. Ask her if that is true. But then again, I remember the lines of English Poet, I believe Shelly: “Our sweetest songs are those that tell us about our saddest thoughts”. Keep us the good work. Some folks will remember you beyond the 20 years !
V.V.- Lucky you! What a fabulous oportunity!
I have a q for JL- Your writing about the immigrant experience, especially that of the 2nd generation and issues of identity and language, resonates with a lot of groups whose 2nd generation offspring (Latinos, Middle Eastern-Americans, Italian-Americans) are struggling with the same issues to a greater or lesser degree. Do you find that writing about these issues is easier in the short story form/collection or does the expanded focus of the novel form provide an adequate forum? Also, do you find readers of other groups more interested in your short stories or the novels?
Thanks V.V.! (if you need a real name, it’s Rebecca)
V.V., also could I ask you a favor? If you have time, if you could pass on to JL that I use the Namesake in my film classes- both native speaker and ESL, and everyone finds the film very touching. The ESL students find it that way because it gives them an idea that immigrating to the US is not always some Hollywood style dream, and for my native speakers it gives them imagery they don’t normally see, and for the ones who are immigrants or children of immgrants, it gives them a way to talk and relate to their own experiences. For my own father, the scene where the father dies, reminded him of his own parents’ reactions to the deaths of various relatives whom they never saw again after immigrating.
Anyway, this only if you have time.
Thanks!
three things:
In the namesake movie, the most poignant scene was probably in the barbershop. Do you wish you had thought of that?
The namesake movie shifts the action from Cambridge, MA to NYC: did it detract?
In hell-heaven, presence/absence in photographs is a big deal. With the modern proliferation of cell phone cameras and facebook and all of that, what do you think the role of photography is?
Does she read Bengali? Was she influenced by any of the Bengali authors — either novelists or short story writers?
The questions that you get from here and ask her — would you please post her response in a follow-up article?
Hey y’all,
Thanks… lots of these are terrific!
I know that those of you who can’t be there would love to be in on the answers. I’m going to have a hard time taking notes as I’m sitting up there, but I think there is going to be some coverage of it. I’ll try to find out by whom and where, and if that’s not happening… I’ll do my best to blog it once I’m done.
I am mercifully done with travel for awhile, phew 🙂 and yes, lucky me…
http://books.google.com/books?id=EK3PpQWV51MC&pg=PA109&lpg=PA109&dq=new+punjabi+novel+novelists&source=bl&ots=zuztYa6yra&sig=r8hKEYMplzLo4VWFczn-Dc4gPhQ&hl=en&ei=iUgES7u7GIvMjAf9_a23AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=new%20punjabi%20novel%20novelists&f=false
Of interest..it would be interesting to see what the score has been since 2001 and also include Pakistan’s and Valait’s experience ( I am thinking of Roop Dhillon and Juggi Kussa)