Read a book that has won a major literary award

BookBrowse Reading Challenge
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Read a book that has won a major literary award.

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My book for this challenge task was Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.

I chose this book more because it was selected for our ongoing side read of 1000 Books to Read Before You Die (And BTW, anyone can join at any time, & we’d love to have you.) The fact that it won a Pulitzer was just a happy accident.

I’ll post more in-depth comments over on that thread, but briefly, I’m glad I read it, and I can appreciate its artistry, but it’s really not my kind of book. I’ve never really liked short stories. I understand how much skill it takes to write in that genre, but I feel like I’m just getting to know the protagonists when the story is over. On top of that, many of these stories were rather sad. I’m sure a lot of people love this sort of thing, but I’m not one of them.

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Intepreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri - Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Beautifully written short stories. Lots of feelings, many heart wrenching, lyrically expressed. Characters and story lines developed with depth despite being a short stories. However, the book wasn’t for me, primarily because I found so many of the characters unlikable and the situations, while realistic, depressing.

For the completeness of the short stories and the beautiful writing, I would give this book a 4 out of 5. However, a “my cup of tea” rating is a 1 out of 5. With that said, I am glad I read it because I often wondered about Lahiri’s writing.

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My selection for this is different, I did Margo’s Got Money Troubles. I can see that this book is very divided in fans, those that are younger are true fans, older readers do not like the value systems. I appreciated the conversations about what a woman does to make money (online fan site) does not determine if she is a good mom. Or the fact that methadone has the highest recovery rate for addicts, but it is not acceptable for family members to be on it according to childcare service. So much to talk about, but then again Margo is so naive I wanted to just shake her! A bonus is that there is a tv series, that I haven’t watched yet, but with Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman and Nick Offerman it has already been renewed for a second season.

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