Endings Schmendings

Jhumpa Lahiri has a strange pattern amongst all her stories. In class we talked about some stories seeming not to fit, or lacking some of the poignancy of other stories. What I found interesting is that there is a universal theme between them in that Lahiri is writing about endings without ever actually writing one. In each of Lahiri’s stories something important for the characters ends. It could be the end of a family friendship in “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”, or it could be the end of the affair in “Sexy”, but whatever it is Lahiri manages to couple it with a vague and inconclusive ending. All of her stories lack a sense of conclusion, or more to the point they lack any form of closure for the reader. The characters go from one state of being to another through some experience or hardship, and then the story is over. At first this bothered me a bit. I can count the number of stories I’ve enjoyed that had “Lady or the Tiger” endings on one hand with fingers to spare. This is probably the result of my being a spoiled reader, and I fully admit that it doesn’t necessarily weaken the impact of the stories that they have these non-endings. Still Lahiri’s lack of conclusions made me wonder if she knew how to write an ending. I have since taken a more distant look at the content and context of these stories, and am forced to admit that in a sense they fit. How often do relationships really end in a neat little package? One smart and witty paragraph that seamlessly moves you from being one of a unit to one alone, or from one job to another, one friendship to another, or even one country to another? For Lahiri to write about these interpersonal relationships it makes sense to give them the same unfulfilling and pointless endings real world relationships have. This doesn’t mean I enjoy them anymore, because generally I read stories to escape those kinds or dreary realizations, but it does make me respect them more. I suppose Lahiri was going for realism and her endings, or lack of endings, are a tool to achieve it.