Fiction is something that goes beyond the scope of mundane trials and tribulations of its characters. It is not just about narrating a story, but about portraying the history and social issues of the era it depicts. Good fiction, even those that are set in a diaspora (spread of people from their original homeland), has characters that one can relate to, and gives readers a sense of belonging. And that’s what Jhumpa Lahiri was honoured for.
Last week, the Pulitzer-prize winning Indian-American author was awarded the prestigious National Humanities Medal by U.S President Barrack Obamain recognition of her “beautifully wrought narratives of estrangement and belonging” which draw attention to the “Indian-American experience”.
Born in 1967, in London, Lahiri was the daughter of Indian immigrants from West Bengal. She grew up in Kingston, Rhode Island, where her father Amar, worked as a librarian. Her mother wanted her children to grow up knowing their Bengali roots, and the family frequently visited relatives in Kolkata.
An author is born
Lahiri graduated from South Kingstown High School, Rhode Island and went on to pursue a degree in English literature from Barnard College, New York. She later received degrees in M.A. English and a Ph.D. in Renaissance Studies among others, from Boston University.
Lahiri was not always successful. She faced rejection at the beginning of her literary career. Her debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, was released in 1999, after a long wait. Four years later, she published her first novel, The Namesake, set against a Bengali family facing the hardships of migrating to the U.S.
Her stories drew largely from her own experiences. For instance, in an interview, she explains how, as a child who was growing up in the U.S, far away from her homeland, she was often embarrassed by her name and had mixed feelings about it. This aspect is mirrored in Gogol, the protagonist in her novel, The Namesake . Most of her stories address the numerous Catch-22 situations that Indian immigrants have to encounter.
After Interpreter of Maladies was released, there was no looking back. It sold 6,00,000 copies and received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, in 2000. Lahiri's second collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth , was released in April 2008. The collection achieved the rare distinction of debuting at number one, on The New York Times bestseller list.
Winning the Humanities Medal from the White House further brings out Lahiri's passion for writing as they clearly reflect her belief that “The urge to convert experience into a group of words that are in a grammatical relation to one another is the most basic, ongoing impulse of my life.”
