Many years ago, I read Jhuma Lahiri's "
The Interpreter of Maladies", and "
The Namesake", which I liked without being too enthusiastic. I was recommended to read "
Roman Stories", originally written in Italian, and translated by the author into English. As the title suggests, this is a book of short stories, all set in Rome, Italy. The protagonists in the stories are often higher educated people with children or foreigners working for those same people. The themes are often about fitting in society or not, feeling distant from the culture while trying to blend in. Topics such as latent or manifest racism appear occasionally, but it is more the perspective of the recipient that dominates the narrative. But more often than not, the dissatisfaction byt the characters is more shallow: personal and relational issues, which in my opinion are often petty and bourgeois, making me wonder at times why I would even spend time reading this. It's well written, but not stylistically exceptional or expressive. A cup of tea to drink in between.
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