The Middleman

The title of this story, "The Middleman," is also the title of the collection in which it was first published, The Middleman and Other Stories. The theme of the "middleman" is significant in terms of Mukherjee's concern with the immigrant experience in America. Alfie, the story's narrator and main protagonist, is a "middleman" both literally and figuratively in several ways. He makes his living as the "middleman" in illegal arms deals; although the precise nature of his work is not specified, it is clear that he works as a go-between in the sale of illegal merchandise. Alfie is also a "middleman" in terms of his cultural identity. He is Iraqi, with a tenuous and questionable American passport, doing work in an unnamed Latin American country. Thus, he is between two cultures and two cultural identities—that of his Iraqi origins, and that of his current, Americanized life...