The Middleman and Other Stories explained

The Middleman and Other Stories (1988) is a collection of short stories written by Bharati Mukherjee.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]} This book won the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award.^{[7] [8]}

Stories from this volume are frequently anthologized,^[6] particularly Orbiting, A Wife's Story, and The Middleman. The short story Jasmine would later be developed into the 1989 novel Jasmine.

Synopsis

According to Michiko Kakutani, of The New York Times, the characters populating these stories are "all exiles, expatriates, wanderers, people on the move, shucking off old lives as easily as a snake sheds its skin. They are third-world refugees, fleeing poverty and oppression; but they are also Americans moving from coast to coast, small towns to cities, exchanging one partner for another in search of a dream that always seems to elude them. Although they possess a seemingly infinite freedom - the possibility of becoming whatever they want to become — the price of that freedom is rootlessness and dislocation, a feeling of perpetual displacement."^[9]

Contents

Story	Originally published in
"The Middleman"
"A Wife's Story"
"Loose Ends"
"Orbiting" [10]
"Fighting for the Rebound"
"The Tenant"
"Fathering"
"Jasmine"
"Danny's Girls"
"Buried Lives"
"The Management of Grief"

Reception

• Selected as a New York Times Book Review notable book of the year.
• National Book Critics Circle Award.
• The story The Tenant appeared in The Best American Short Stories 1987.

See also

• Miss New India Bharati Mukherjee's eighth novel

Further reading

• Alonso-Breto, Isabel. "Homing Sorrow: Bharati Mukherjee's 'the Management of Grief' as Metadiasporic Narrative and Inscription of Political Empowerment." Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies 56 (2017): 13-31. ProQuest. Web. 19 Sep. 2023. .
• 41237461 . Immigrant Writing: Changing the Contours of a National Literature . Mukherjee . Bharati . American Literary History . 2011 . 23 . 3 . 680–696 . 10.1093/alh/ajr027.
• Book: j.ctvgs0bhh . . Maxey . Ruth . 2019 . University of South Carolina Press . 10.2307/j.ctvgs0bhh . 9781643360003 . 203369001 .

External links

• • Book excerpt (scroll down).
• The Middleman and Other Stories at google books
• Powells book review

Notes and References

1. 27545352 . Alcorn . Alfred . Reviewed work: The Middleman and Other Stories, Bharati Mukherjee . Harvard Book Review . 1989 . 11/12 . 8–9 .
2. News: Raban. Johnathan. Savage Boulevards, Easy Streets. The New York Times. June 19, 1988. August 18, 2023. Full text also available here.
3. Book: j.ctvgs0bhh.8 . Immigration to the United States . Maxey . Ruth . . 2019 . 53–74 . University of South Carolina Press . 10.2307/j.ctvgs0bhh.8 . 9781643360003 . 159309198 .
4. Siva. Nirmala. Social Struggle of the Protagonists of Bharathi Mukherjee in her Stories, "The Middleman and Other Stories". Contemporary Literary Review India. 6. 1. Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India. February 2019.
5. 40146601 . Parameswaran . Uma . Reviewed work: The Middleman and Other Stories, Bharati Mukherjee . World Literature Today . 1990 . 64 . 2 . 363 . 10.2307/40146601 .
6. 10.1093/camqtly/bfy037 . Bharati Mukherjee and the Politics of the Anthology . 2019 . Maxey . Ruth . The Cambridge Quarterly . 48 . 33–49 . free .
7. Web site: 2020-03-28 . 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award - Fiction Winner and Nominees . August 18, 2023 . Awards Archive . en-US.
8. Book: j.ctvgs0bhh.5 . Maxey . Ruth . Understanding Bharati Mukherjee . 2019 . 1–8 . University of South Carolina Press . 10.2307/j.ctvgs0bhh.5 . 9781643360003 .
9. News: Kakutani. Michiko. Third-World Refugees Rootless in the U.S.. The New York Times. September 19, 1989. August 21, 2023.
10. 10.2307/467892 . 467892 . "Orbiting": Bharati Mukherjee's Kaleidoscope Vision . Carchidi . Victoria . MELUS . 1995 . 20 . 4 . 91–101 .