The Middleman and Other Stories

by Bharati Mukherjee

Paperback, 1999

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Grove Press (1999), Edition: 1st Grove Press Pbk. Ed, 208 pages

DDC/MDS

813.54

813.54

Description

Bharati Mukherjee's work illuminates a new world of people in migration that has transformed the meaning of "America." Now in a Grove paperback edition, The Middleman and Other Stories is a dazzling display of the vision of this important modern writer. An aristocratic Filipina negotiates a new life for herself with an Atlanta investment banker. A Vietnam vet returns to Florida, a place now more foreign than the Asia of his war experience. And in the title story, an Iraqi Jew whose travels have ended in Queens suddenly finds himself an unwitting guerrilla in a South American jungle. Passionate, comic, violent, and tender, these stories draw us into the center of a cultural fusion in the midst of its birth pangs, yet glowing with the energy and exuberance of a society remaking itself.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member debnance

Most of the characters in Bharati Mukherjee's The Middleman and Other Stories are displaced, foreign born people living in America. They feel odd, out of touch with the world in which they live, yet out of touch with the world from which they came. I can easily see why Mukherjee won the National

Book Critics Circle Award for these stories. Highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member smyth104

The Management of Grief is a very powerful tale describing how people take grief differently. After a bomb blew up a plane, there were several different reactions to the news. Some accepted the fact, and those who lost their spouse soon began searching for another, as it was the Indian way. The

cultural division was very insightful as to why some of the people performed the actions that they did. A common theme in the story was one of hope, and that as an Indian parent, it is your job to never give up hope. There was almost a binary opposition between the white woman and the narrator. The white woman showed an arrogance to the Indian culture, and could not understand why some individuals were being stubborn and did not want to sign the paperwork. The people who lost their families had a very spiritual tie to them, and many did not want to accept that they were actually gone. From a technical standpoint, they were in the denial stage of grief. Many others had accepted the fact and moved to a different city and basically started over. The story was a very sad one, but very touching, as it gave the reader a new perspective of a culture unlike there own.

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LibraryThing member Clara53

In this collection of stories Bharati Mukherjee tried a completely different voice - and I don't think it worked for her.

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