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Every book Jhumpa Lahiri recommended on podcasts
Jhumpa Lahiri is an acclaimed author and translator who explores themes of culture, identity, and the intricacies of language, as evident from her appearance on Conversations with Tyler. During the discussion, Lahiri spoke about several notable literary works, including her own novel The Lowland, reflecting on its dark elements and how writing an essay about Rhode Island for Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey's anthology State by State helped unlock the setting of the book, which was the first of her works to explicitly name the state. She also recalled reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby when she was fifteen years old. Additionally, Lahiri and Tyler Cowen discussed Cesare Pavese's translation of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, noting how some consider Pavese's Italian rendering to surpass the original English text. Finally, Lahiri mentioned Allen Ginsberg's Howl, published by City Lights Books, as an example of a publication featuring a uniform and sober aesthetic design that she appreciates.
Books recommended by Jhumpa Lahiri
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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”
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MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville is a classic American epic novel that follows Captain Ahab's obsessive, destructive quest to hunt down the giant white whale that maimed him.
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”
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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”
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The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby by F.
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”
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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”
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Books Jhumpa Lahiri wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jhumpa Lahiri on Writing, Translation, and Crossing Between Cultures (Live at Mason) | Conversations with Tyler | 2017-01-11 | 6 |