Beautiful storytelling, romantic stories, and sometimes unimaginable circumstances! Short story arising from the tasks and events of everyday life. The stories are very well written, but they are vague most of the time, they do not have a fixed beginning or a definite end, they just end abruptly, leaving the reader in suspense and drawing many conclusions about the future This is another reason why these Stories stay in the reader’s mind for a long time.
The novel opens with “Temporary Affair”, the story of a young Indian couple who break up and hate being in each other’s presence after losing their first child. Due to maintenance work in your residential area, the electricity is cut off for one hour at night. The first night, the wife begins the game of telling the couple something she feels or has done that she has never shared before. This goes on for a couple of days and the two of them are able to tell each other things they have never shared before only to share the most painful and cruel secret of all on the last day of this temporary power outage fix.
This short story follows “interpreter of Maladies” where an Indian guide takes an NRI family to see the Konark (Sun) Temple near Puri and how they start to fantasize about a new life all together, when the wife shows some interest in their daily work. interpreter/translator in a medical clinic. Does his fantasy of her come true or does it crash right before her eyes?
Another interesting tale in this collection is “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dinner” a story set during the days when Bangladesh was formed after the partition of Pakistan. A far from India story about an Indian Hindu family, who invite Mr. Pirzada to their home to dine with them and the elders become so close that they all not only share meals but pray for the welfare of Mr. Pirzada’s family. Pirzada and his little daughters in the war ravaged Bangladesh until one day, the war comes to an end and Mr. Pirzada manages to return home. This is a very beautifully told story!
Then there was an interesting story, “This Blessed House”, in which a newly married couple moves into a house only to discover that the house is special and blessed. How do they come to realize this? You have to read the book to find out…
An incredible collection, a wonderful narration and a very simple language that reassures the reader. It is definitely worth reading!