WANTED: LOCALISED CHRONICLERS

There is a charming persistence to the chronicler Jhumpa Lahiri's writings. Her eye and interests rest on things and events that do not interest many writers, especially those from the Subcontinent. Admittedly, Interpreter of Maladies (Harper Collins, 1999) is languid, and stubbornly refuses to probe any of its characters in depth, but because it moves like a home video, slowly through the lives of the Sen and the Dixit families in downtown America, it fulfills the promise of readability.There is a charming persistence to the chronicler Jhumpa Lahiri's writings. Her eye and interests rest on things and events that do not interest many writers, especially those from the Subcontinent. Admittedly, Interpreter of Maladies (Harper Collins, 1999) is languid, and stubbornly refuses to probe any of its characters in depth, but because it moves like a home video, slowly through the lives of the Sen and the Dixit families in downtown America, it fulfills the promise of readability.

The success of Maladies lies in providing the North American readers with a panoramic view of the life of two South Asian families, who have for more than two decades lived unobtrusively amidst them. Now that their prosperity can no longer be ignored — remember, even Bill Clinton made a pilgrimage to the Subcontinent—Americans have decided that they are now curious about all these engineers and academics who have suddenly burst into the scene, no longer slinking into a tenement in Jackson Heights, but commanding prime property in Summit, New Jersey. Who are these people—Ms Lahiri provides the readable guide, and this explains the Pulitzer.