i'd recommend it.
just finished jhumpa lahiri's interpreter of maladies....what a beautiful, beautiful book. my particular favorites were sexy and the titular piece and...all of the other ones. bibi and the stair-sweeping durwan story. to me, they were about aloneness and collectiveness...within the east-meets-west theme, lahiri deals with double standards and the role of the individual but that insufficiently describes these stories' abilities to wrench. somehow, without being Sad--there are threads of sadness and happiness intertwined, which is what is so beautiful--they brought tears to my eyes. the stories deal with death and rape and aging and all of these things that are fairly negative in western culture but somehow brings a maturity? wisdom?...no, a sense of calm appreciation to the issues. "there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so," no? and seeing both sides is somehow tragic and lovely.