Twice Blessed
How do you follow winning a Pulitzer Prize for your first novel? If you're Jhumpa Lahiri you do it with The Namesake, a novel that intimately tracks thirty two years in the life of a Boston born son of Bengali immigrants.
September 15, 2003 — Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri became one of the youngest writers to receive the Pulitzer Prize when she received the award for her first novel Interpreter of Maladies (1999). While other young prize-winning authors (Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers, Donna Tartt et. al.) have disappointed critics and readers with their sophmore efforts, Ms. Lahiri truly delivers.
"In The Namesake, Lahiri enriches the themes that made her collection an international bestseller: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations. Here again Lahiri displays her deft touch for the perfect detail—the fleeting moment, the turn of phrase—that opens whole worlds of emotion." [source: publisher, Houghton Mifflin]
Some Good Links:
SAWNET bio of Jhumpa Lahiri
Houghton Mifflin's Webpage on The Namesake
2000 Pulitzer Prize Citation
Other South Asian Women Writers
By Paula Shackleton
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