Much of Interpreter of Maladies is concerned
with examining the quotidian lives of Indian im-
migrants living and working in the United States,
and their first generation Indian-American chil-
dren. As a child herself of displaced Bengali immi-
grant parents, Lahiri, born in England and raised
in America, is well positioned to speak about the
difficulties and challenges experienced by those
often compelled to live two lives—one Indian, one
American. Her simple yet elegant prose weaves to-
gether themes of alienation, loss, adaptation, and
the quest for belonging as her characters attempt
to establish themselves in a foreign land while
maintaining their vital connection to their cultural
identity and heritage.
In “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dinner,” Lahiri
depicts the cultural divide separating young In-
dian-American Lilia and her Indian-born parents.
The story takes place in 1971 during the Bangla-
desh War and concerns a Pakistani scholar, Mr.
Pirzada, who is in America on a study grant and
makes regular visits to the home of Lilia’s family
to share meals and news of the worsening politi-
cal situation in Pakistan. Lilia, who knows little to
nothing about the nature of the crisis in Pakistan
owing to her exclusive diet of American history at
school, can only wonder at her parents’ and Mr.
Pirzada’s solemnity and horror at the sight of the
images they see of the war on the international
news. To Lilia, observing from the perspective of
an outsider, her parents and their visitor operate
“during that time as if they were a single person,
sharing a single meal, a single body, a single si-
lence, and a single fear” (41). In much the same
way that Lilia feels alienated from her parents’ gen-
eration and connection to the motherland, Mrs.
Sen, in “Mrs. Sen’s,” experiences the desperation
of isolation as an Indian immigrant in America,
willing but unable to transition to a new culture
and deeply and detrimentally attached to aspects
of her Indian life.
In the title story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” La-
hiri turns to India as a setting for yet another tale
of cultural misunderstanding and estrangement.
Mr. and Mrs. Das, children of immigrant parents
living in New Jersey, travel with their children to
India and hire a cab driven by Mr. Kapasi, inter-
preter and guide, to see the Sun Temple at Konarak.
It becomes quickly apparent that the members of
the Das family, despite being of Indian descent like
Mr. Kapasi, are foreigners with whom Mr. Kapasi
cannot connect on any level other than as Ameri-
can tourists. It is cultural and not racial difference
that divides them.
Lahiri’s stories deal with failed marriages,
thwarted ambitions and desires, and struggles to
survive in unfamiliar lands. They all underscore
failed communication and missed connections be-
tween neighbors, parents and children, lovers, and
strangers. Ultimately, Lahiri interprets the mala-
dies of a variety of characters striving simply to
make sense of their surroundings and themselves.
Dana HansenIn the Pond Ha Jin (1998)
Set in post–Cultural Revolution China, HA JIN’s
first novel is a hilarious political allegory about in-
dividual integrity in a highly regimented society.
The protagonist is Shao Bin, a fitter at a fertilizer
plant and an amateur painter and calligrapher. Bin
has been working at the factory for six years and,
since he is married and has a child, he expects soon
to be allotted a decent apartment. When he discov-
ers that his name has been left off the list of the
people who will be given new housing, he decides
to retaliate by publishing a cartoon lampooning
the plant’s managers as corrupt. However, instead
of solving his situation, the cartoon only exacer-
bates it. Indeed, the cartoon initiates a series of
measures and countermeasures between Bin and
his antagonists, culminating, perhaps surprisingly,
in his triumph.
The two top managers at the plant are Director
Ma Gong and Communist Party Secretary Liu Shu.
Fully aware that their workers resent the seemingly
arbitrary way in which they assign apartments,
they attempt to silence Bin by charging him with
being a bourgeois, demanding that he produce a
self-criticism, and cutting his salary. Rather than
yielding, Bin files a formal complaint against the
two managers to their immediate superior, Yang
Chen. However, his letter is not delivered to YangIn the Pond 127