Anna- Lahiri-3/22

So I wrote a response for class, but I deleted it because I wanted to rephrase my thoughts. Here goes: I am fascinated by the fact that many people do not like Jhumpa Lahiri. This is because I was given a novel of hers once from a Hindu boyfriend I had. he seemed to like her alot. From what I had gathered from comments in class however, it sounded like the consensus was that Lahiri knows what a Western audience "expects" from her as a Indian novelist, and so she gives the reader what they want, food, male/female roles, eduction and career and other "exotic" details lathered with a heavily stereotypical wash. It makes sense to me why she would raise some eyebrows. perhaps she was making her stories too easily, sculpting them out of cheesy clay. So it was interesting for me to read "This Blessed House" and see if I cold form my own opinion. It was easy to. Her writing is plastic clean. The parts that stand out, are each a bright stereotype. As mentioned in class, you can "smell the curry." I even recognized details from the way the male character was behaving down to the way he picked up his wife's scattered shoes and perfectly rearranged them inside the bedroom, from the relationship I once had. I didn't think that this was a stereotype, I always thought he just liked to keep our shoes lined up, but it seems to me something fishy is certainly going on with what is pre-recognizable in Lahiri's stories. Like, they are so "fun" something must be wrong. In comparison to the other short story we read , "The collectors" by Rohinton Mistry, Lahiri's characters just are not as beautifully evoked. It is the difference of a ink stamp, and a pen drawing. Mistry remind me more of Rushdie.