Interpreter of Maladies; A Real Durwan and This Blessed House

In thinking about the craft of a short story collection I am drawn to the ways in which every short story in the collection is strung together by a certain theme. Just from reading two out of the nine short stories in this collection, I am not sure if I can fairly state what that connecting theme is but this is what I have seen. Both stories seem to be told from the perspective of an experience of growing up in a “traditional” south Asian home. We can tell this via the context clues given to us about the characters like what their names are and even giving us more with certain ethnic particularities that are significant in South Asian homes. I can see that this collection seems to be, if nothing else, a successful attempt at expanding the cannon of South Asian literature, written by those who were born there. I think that this work then, invaluable for two reasons, one because a lot of literature and short story collections don’t focus on South Asian culture and its nuances in America and what that means. So positive representation is really important, and secondly because I too am trying to write a collection of short stories that features my own culture through the lens of a feminist perspective. I learned a lot just by looking at the placing of these short stories in the collection as well.

            The first one we get is entitled A Real Durwan which I had to look up what the word Durwan means. The dictionary defines it as a doorkeeper but in the house that she kept she seemed like much more than that. Lahiri gives us so many details about Boori Ma that are so visceral in her appearance. Even though I’ve never had a Durwan before, Lahiri makes me feel like I have because of the familiarity that jumps from the page in her character description. Though there were some loose ends I wanted tied up by the end of the short story that I may have missed. For example, did we ever figure out what was ailing Boor Ma? This seems to be one of the drawbacks that short stories often encounter in my experience of reading them. Without the space to develop themes, if things doesn’t come together at the end, there is a sense that the short story is not done. It’s a sense that I personally both love and hate about short stories.

Often when I think about writing one, I want to leave the short story with more breath in its body after ending it. It gives the reader more, I think, by giving less because now there are multitudes within the detail that transcend the ending. But as a reader, I also want a bow tied around the story. Something that throwing Boori Ma out of the house, did not achieve.

The second one for class was a little bit longer and had the opportunity to develop some very interesting themes. I enjoyed Twinkle’s character and her laissez fair attitude about most things. It made their relationship interesting because she also seemed a little irresponsible, something that really got on her husband’s nerves, other than the sexist things like being upset with her because she didn’t know how to cook well? I like how this tension between the two of them played out in the entire short story as the tension expands. And the tension gets worse as the nuances of American culture and Christianity impede Sanjeev’s resolve to remain inside of his culture and ethnicity because of his upbringing. I think Lahiri does a good job in building up that tension every time Twinkle finds something else about the house that looks like Jesus and it’s always to Sanjeev’s lament. I found both of these two short stories very revealing when it came to opening up the reader’s world to the world of short stories about South Asian’s in America.