Pirzada Came to Dine - a Bengali on sabbatical in US to research and write when violence erupts in Dacca during Partition, spends evenings with an Indian-American family. There are 9 stories here, most under 20 pages:Ī Temporary Matter - during a nightly repair blackout, over a candlelit dinner, a young married couple attempt to communicate for the first time after a traumatic loss the dilemma, the difficulty, and often the impossibliity of communicating the emotional pain and affliction to others, as well as expressing it to ourselves.

The maladies that the writer (the interpretor) is examining (interpreting) here are nothing less than. That they are Bengalis is particularly important as they are particularly adrift in the world, without a clear anchor to culture and country as a result of the Partition of India in 1947 after the end of British colonialization and the resulting violence against and dispossession of millions. The stories are all addressing the displacement of Bengalis, those from the northeastern most region of India and now bordering on Bangladesh. I am no stranger to reading short stories, something I enjoy reading as I transition from one book to another or even as a way to find new authors, especially in genre fiction. It took me until about halfway through the stories, which I read a couple at a time, fully to appreciate the beauty and complexity of each one and the collection as a whole.

Interpreter of maladies goodreads