Episode · Conversations with Tyler · 2017-01-11
Tyler Cowen & Jhumpa Lahiri: books mentioned on Conversations with Tyler
Jhumpa Lahiri on Writing, Translation, and Crossing Between Cultures (Live at Mason)
Author, teacher, and translator Jhumpa Lahiri joins Tyler for a conversation on identity, Rhode Island, writing as problem solving, reading across languages, the badness of book covers, Elena Ferrante
Jhumpa Lahiri discussed State by state by Matt Weiland and others, The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE by Herman Melville, Howl by Allen Ginsberg, and Ties by Domenico Starnone. Tyler Cowen discussed The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Home and the World, by Rabindranath Tagore. Translated by Rabindranath Tagore, The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore, and The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
State by state
Discussed“and you know you mentioned the the essay in state by state um one of these books that have been kindly uh assembled here such a lovely display really I'm so touched um but I was asked to to write about Rhode Island um in this anthology called state by state which um invited a number of authors to write”
Where to get it
-
The Lowland
Discussed“I mean I think what what was helpful about it is that um it opened up the um the setting of the lowland which um is set you know in part in in in Rhode Island but it's the first of my books in which I can actually mention Rhode Island by its name whereas the other books the preceding”
Where to get it
-
The Great Gatsby
Discussed“well so I was in 10th grade in when I was 15 um I read The Great Gatsby um that year um and then the following year I was introduced to Hardy who has become so important to me as well”
Where to get it
-
The Scarlet Letter
Discussed“one of the things I've liked about just comments you've dropped is the way you read say Scarlet Letter is actually a novel of immigrants that maybe the characters wouldn't have behaved that way in a quote unquote Home Country even a lot of Hardy especially Tess favorite of yours you can read as a kind of immigrant novel sure”
Where to get it
-
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Discussed“even a lot of Hardy especially Tess favorite of yours you can read as a kind of immigrant novel sure coming from the countryside moving somewhere quite strange and to use that as a lens for interpreting what otherwise might seem like strange character behaviors”
Where to get it
-
Unaccustomed Earth
Discussed“now if you compare interpreter of maladies to your other short Story collection unaccustomed Earth do you think of the latter more recent work as being more about reconciliation and this a greater role for children or families in at least some of the stories or do you think overall your Fiction with time is moving in the direction of”
Where to get it
-
The Namesake
Discussed“I think um the the sort of Bittersweet quality of of of say a novel like the namesake you bring up Loland”
Where to get it
-
The Home and the World, by Rabindranath Tagore. Translated
Discussed“and what's your literary or maybe even also emotional relationship with the works of tagor so he's a towering Giant in Bengali intellectual history in your stories every now and then someone's reading his poems uh there's a lot of themes from him that that are in your work like home in the world this odd mix of tensions between”
Where to get it
-
The Home and the World
Discussed“and what's your literary or maybe even also emotional relationship with the works of tagor so he's a towering Giant in Bengali intellectual history in your stories every now and then someone's reading his poems uh there's a lot of themes from him that that are in your work like home in the world this odd mix of tensions between”
Where to get it
-
MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE
Discussed“well um paves is huge you know he translated Moby Dick and um my we were in Sicily a couple of years ago and the um we were sailing around the aolian islands and we had this long conversation one day with our Skipper um about how according to him Pav's translation of M dick surpasses the work of and”
Where to get it
-
The Clothing of Books
Discussed“and you were fascinated with Italy way back when right for a long time yeah I mean in a growing way yeah yeah now your most recent book the clothing of books it's about book covers”
Where to get it
-
Howl
Discussed“um i mean there's certain presses here that that have that aesthetic philosophy um you know city lights books makes those beautiful little books of like my copy of alan ginsburg's howl and etc”
Where to get it
-
Ties
Discussed“one is um uh so i just translated this novel called um ties in english it's la giacca is the italian title by domenico ston um who is my friend and whom i consider the finest italian living author and i just translated this novel”
Where to get it
