Jhumpa Lahiri’s Two Worlds
The Pulitzer Prize-winner contemplates marriage and love among Indian expatriates in America.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
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(Marion Ettlinger/Houghton Mifflin)
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri contemplates marriage and love among Indian expatriates in America in "Hell-Heaven."
"It is clear to me know that my mother was in love with him...He brought to my mother the first, and, I suspect, the only pure happiness she ever felt. I don’t think even my birth made her as happy. I was evidence of my marriage to my father, an assumed consequence of the life she had been raised to lead. But Pranab Kaku was different. He was the one totally unanticipated pleasure in her life.”
--Jhumpa Lahiri, “Hell-Heaven” The Pulitzer Prize-winner contemplates marriage and love among Indian expatriates in America.
Jhumpa Lahiri, who was born in London of Indian parents, raised in Rhode Island, and now lives in Brooklyn, is surely one of the luminous stars of contemporary American fiction. Her debut collection, Interpreter of Maladies won her a Pulitzer Prize, the PEN Hemingway Award, and designation as The New Yorker Magazine Debut of the Year. Her novel The Namesake also won a number of awards and was made into the movie of the same name, directed by Mira Nair. From her second story collection, Unaccustomed Earth, we hear a classic Lahiri tale of an expatriate Indians attempting to find their place in American culture—often with great emotional cost. “Hell-Heaven” is read by the actress Rita Wolf, who appeared in the film "My Beautiful Laundrette" Following the reading, SHORTS host Isaiah Sheffer talks to Lahiri about the origins of her fiction and what inspired "Hell-Heaven" in particular. “Hell-Heaven,” by Jhumpa Lahiri, read by Rita Wolf. For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit Symphony Space
--Jhumpa Lahiri, “Hell-Heaven” The Pulitzer Prize-winner contemplates marriage and love among Indian expatriates in America.
Jhumpa Lahiri, who was born in London of Indian parents, raised in Rhode Island, and now lives in Brooklyn, is surely one of the luminous stars of contemporary American fiction. Her debut collection, Interpreter of Maladies won her a Pulitzer Prize, the PEN Hemingway Award, and designation as The New Yorker Magazine Debut of the Year. Her novel The Namesake also won a number of awards and was made into the movie of the same name, directed by Mira Nair. From her second story collection, Unaccustomed Earth, we hear a classic Lahiri tale of an expatriate Indians attempting to find their place in American culture—often with great emotional cost. “Hell-Heaven” is read by the actress Rita Wolf, who appeared in the film "My Beautiful Laundrette" Following the reading, SHORTS host Isaiah Sheffer talks to Lahiri about the origins of her fiction and what inspired "Hell-Heaven" in particular. “Hell-Heaven,” by Jhumpa Lahiri, read by Rita Wolf. For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit Symphony Space
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Comments [3]
This was amazing. My jaw was hanging open at the end.
Yesterday (Oct. 5) I was returning from NH and was very fortunate to catch the reading of Hell-Heaven on an NPR station. It was so compelling and luckily I didn't drive out of the broadcast airspace. I would like to be able to read Hell-Heaven and will look for the source of this short story.
Thanks, GAH
Dear Gail:
Thank you for your nice remarks. Please check our website www.selectedshorts.org to for information on where you might obtain this story in print.
Wonderful story, poor choice of reader. Ms Wolf's "professional actress" enunciation, overexpressive manner, and forceful delivery may work in the theater, but they were very much at odds with what this reader, at least, imagines as the voice of this elegant and restrained narrative. Ironically, I thought playing it so much for laughs actually expunged much of the subtle humor inherent in Ms Lahiri's style. After reading this marvelous story, I found listening to it almost like a coarse parody.
Sorry, I don't mean to disparage Ms Wolf, I think it was just a mismatch.
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