:: Oh, Look, A Tumbleweed ::

:: Sunday, October 12, 2003 ::

Now that I've gotten the violence out of the way...

I finished Interpreter of Maladies last night. Shut the book, put it down, picked it up, astounded that this was a debut novel, then had my faith in the Pulitzer Prize restored after The Shipping News won the Pulitzer. It was amazing. Lahiri is the emotional side of my writing. Combine Lahiri and Douglas Coupland and you get the exact same way I write. And both are fantastic authors, so I have high hopes if my book ever gets published.

In any case, on the back of the book, one person commented that "This is the kind of book that makes you want to grab the person next to you and say Read This!" I have to agree. I loved the book In The Bedroom because Andre Dubus would describe the emotions of the characters, which, to me, is far more interesting than their physical appearance. Lahiri does the same, which makes the book immensly fascinating. In just twenty pages, she can make you feel the saddest you've ever felt for a fictional character. She throws twists in there every so often, things you don't expect, but accomplish her goal of envoking every emotion possible, and the two best examples I can think of are in the very first story and the Interpreter of Maladies story. The twists are subtle, but are very effective.

READ THIS BOOK!

:: Nick Sunday, October 12, 2003 [+] ::