day 30 of the 30 day book challenge

Day 30. Your favorite book of all time

Impossible. How am I supposed to do that? I can't pick one favorite book; I have to split the decision into genres. I have a favorite classic, favorite repeat-read, favorite book to quote, favorite summer read...

So I had to set some serious criteria for favorite book of all time. It had to change me life & the way I look at writing. It had to be a well-written book, not just summer reading fluff. I had to be completely invested emotionally in the novel. I had to immediately want more.

One summer, he was part of the maintenance crew at an Indiana university. His job was to deliver things to other crew members around campus. This meant lots of driving around–and lots of time sitting in the van not driving around. He decided to fill that time by reading & ended up buying a large collection of books that summer. I'm lucky enough to benefit, & I found both "Interpreter of Maladies" & "The Namesake" on his shelves.

I found "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri on Joe's bookshelf. It's the book you read & wish you could have written. The short stories collect the most intimate moments of nine sets of characters–perfectly portraying the fragility & vulnerability of us as humans.

The stories all center around India–tourists visiting, families emigrating. It is a part of the world that I have always been fascinated in & know little about. Lahiri uses this world for her three novels ("Unaccustomed Earth" being the latest). The poignant writing, derived from her own attachment to the culture, has gotten her serious attention; I'm confident in say that Lahiri will go on to be one of the voices of our times. Though her style is modern, it avoids elements that set it too much in today's world, today's writing style. Her writing & stories are timeless.

Jhumpa Lahiri is 43. In her short life, she's received a Guggenheim fellowship, the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN/Hemingway Award and The New Yorker Debut of the Year*. The woman is a machine.

Here's the synopsis Powell's put up of "Interpreter of Maladies":

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in the New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant. She is an important and powerful new voice.

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