Jhumpa Lahiri

You say Storie*, Some say Novelle*, I say Racconti*
Review of the Penguin Classics hardcover edition (September 10, 2019) with reference to the eBook edition, translating 40 stories collected from various sources (1912-2005).

[3.225 average rating of the 40 stories, bumped up to 4 for the variety and quality of research and translation]

I realized that, for the first time in decades, I was reading to satisfy only myself. I was no longer influenced by the expectations and broader cultural consensus that dictate what one should be reading – such frames of references had fallen away. - from the introduction by editor Jhumpa Lahiri.

Not only was this a terrific collection, I found a great affirmational quote right at the beginning by the editor who is also a well-known author and translator in her own right. I've followed Lahiri on and off since I first heard of her from seeing the film adaptation (2005) at TIFF of her novel The Namesake (2003). Curiously for an originally English language writer, her love of Italian has brought her to not only translate Italian to English (several novels by Domenico Starnone) but to actually write original works in Italian herself. I have her In altre parole (2015) translated as In Other Words (2016) in the pipeline now as well.

I actually acquired this original hardcover shortly after its release. It was somewhat unwieldy reading in its weighty 528 pages and I grappled for quite a while on how to get a handle on taking enough notes and to markup passages in my usual manner. An eBook became the perfect companion which also saved a lot of time in transcribing text. And the best way to record information and ratings on each story was to make immediate notes via GR's status updates which you can see below or at this link if you are reading outside of GR. Highlighted passages are here.

The variety here was tremendous and even if the subject matter or style didn't appeal to me in every case, the biographical notes on the 40 authors were all well researched and written. Most of the authors were completely new to me and several I would read again if I chance upon their works. My admitted favourite was Lampedusa's The Professor and the Siren, published here as simply "The Siren," which I had read before but again found just as enjoyable.

The 4 and 5 star reads (20 out of the 40 stories) for me were as follows:
3. The Siren ***** by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (1896-1957). An old man who is also a scholar of ancient Greek tells a young newspaper man the story of the love of his life from his own youth.
4. Against Time **** by Antonio Tabucchi (1943-2012). A man is travelling to a conference in Crete via Greece when he suddenly makes a diversion to a monastery.
5. Generous Wine **** by Italo Svevo (1861-1928). An old man is allowed to indulge in wine and food at a wedding for one night, but then suffers nightmares afterwards.
6. The Long Voyage **** by Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989). A tale of a boatload of illegal immigrants from Sicily who pay off a smuggler to carry them to Trenton N.J. in America.
8. The Hen **** by Umberto Saba (1883-1957). A teenager mourns the death of his pet chicken but then finds a new one at the market.
13. Melancholy ***** by Goffredo Parise (1929-1986). A young girl at a summer camp feels isolated as her finer clothing and toys distinguish her from the poorer kids.
14. Silence **** by Aldo Palazzeschi (1885-1974). The story of a misanthrope who has hardly ever spoken to his housekeeper for 20 years.
15. A Pair of Eyeglasses **** by Anna Maria Ortese (1914-1998 ). A young girl gets a pair of eyeglasses which are an enormous expense for her poor family.
16. The Other Side of the Moon **** by Alberto Moravia (1907-1990). Starts as existentialist tale about having a hidden side to your personality, but then takes a rather dramatic turn.
17. The Ambitious Ones **** by Elsa Morante (1912-1985). A mother has marriage ambitions for her daughter, but the daughter’s ambition is to become a nun.
19. Quaestio de Centauris **** by Primo Levi (1919-1987). A centaur tells the story of the origin of his species but eventually has a romantic breakdown due to a love triangle.
20. Gogol’s Wife ***** by Tommaso Landolfi (1908-1979). Totally absurd comic story about Nikolai Gogol and his mysterious wife. The real-life Gogol was never married.
21. My Husband **** by Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991). A woman describes her detached life with her husband in which she discovers that he actually loves someone else.
26. The Milliner ***** by Antonio Delfini (1907-63). A dress and hat maker looks back on her life from the age of 60.
28. Invitation to Dinner **** by Alba de Céspedes (1911-1997). After the war, a couple in Rome invite a British army captain to dinner to thank him for assisting their brother-in-law’s travel home. The Brit’s condescending manner ruins the evening for them, although they try to be polite about it.
29. Elegy for Signora Nodier ***** by Silvio D’Arzo (1920-1952). A woman marries a general who goes off to war and is killed. His Scottie dog is returned to her by one of his soldiers.
30. Malpasso **** by Fausta Cialente (1898-1994). An old man spends his days at a Malpasso bar telling stories about his past life and of meeting his wife. One day the wife arrives and reveals the truth.
34. And Yet They Are Knocking at Your Door **** by Dino Buzzati (1906-1972). A family ignores various warning signs as a river flood approaches their house. The oblivious characters are presumably acting as a metaphor.
35. The Miraculous Beach, or, Prize for Modesty (Aminta) **** by Massimo Bontempelli (1878-1960). Magic realism tale of a woman insisting on making a new bathing suit, although in Rome they are not close to the sea. But then a miracle happens.
36. A Geographical Error **** by Romano Bilenchi (1909-1989). The protagonist is picked on by friends and strangers due to his being from the region of Tuscany known as the Maremma (the Maritime lowlands), although he denies that his hometown is situated there.

Footnote
* Italian for "story", "novella" and "short story".

Trivia and Link
This book also had an earlier edition in the original Italian published as Racconti italiani. Scelti e introdotti da Jhumpa Lahiri (Italian Short Stories. Selected with an Introduction by Jhumpa Lahiri) (May 2, 2019).… (more)

I moved some years ago to another country. One, not the only one, but one reason I wanted to make this move was because it would allow me to learn a new language by real and total immersion. So I was eager to read Lahiri's thoughts on her experience of going to live in Rome and learning Italian. But I found almost nothing in common with Lahiri and her experience. It didn't take long to take a dislike to her. I don't tend to like authors whose books (even memoirs) are all me, me, me. And here there was nothing else -- barely even a word about her family who had gone to Rome with her.

The few bits I could relate to included not being able to express myself fully in the new language (Catalan, in my case), even though I've become fairly fluent. And yes, in some ways, when I speak my new language, I am not me, not the old me. And the new me is never fully accepted by the people who speak the language as natives. They always hear my accent and always treat me as a foreigner. All that wouldn't take up the space of a whole book. But then, her thoughts on "me" didn't take up the whole book. Half it is filled with the same text in Italian. In fact, she wrote the book in Italian and someone else translated into English. Why include the Italian? Beats me.

At one point Lahiri says that "When you are in love, you want to live forever. You want the emotion, the excitement you feel to last." Not me. When I fell in love, I was grateful that I had that experience and although I didn't want to die, I thought that at least if something happened, I would die happy that I had found and experienced love. She goes on to say that reading in Italian arouses a similar longing, because every day there is a new word to learn. I say feh.

Near the end she tells us that she feels alienated. She feels estranged from those who write in English and different from those who write in Italian. She mentions Beckett, Nabokov, and Conrad as writers who spent years learning their new languages before writing in them, whereas she only had one year. Oh, the solitude, the intense solitude! She muses, "I wonder if there are others like me." I don't think so. But if there are, I hope they don't go around writing books like this one.… (more)