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Loading... Unaccustomed Earth (original 2008; edition 2008)by Jhumpa Lahiri
Work detailsUnaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (2008)
 shabacus | May 20, 2013 |  Fantastic short stories, by a master of the genre. (  ) lxydis | May 11, 2013 | I cannot believe what she did at the end. I was prepared for it to go one way or the other, but I was not prepared for the way it went. Damn. Of course, overall, a brilliant book. She is such a wonderful writer. ( ) JennyArch | Apr 3, 2013 | I thought I didn't like short stories. I was wrong. This book is lovely. (  ) smetchie | Apr 2, 2013 | this has really changed my mind about jhumpa lahiri. i remember not particularly liking either of her two previous efforts, but after reading this book, which is done with such a deft touch, i may go back and re-read the other two. my favorite bit was the second "half," three related short stories told from different perspectives. ( ) cat-ballou | Apr 2, 2013 |
 There is much cultural news in these precisely observed studies of modern-day Bengali-Americans — many of them Ivy-league strivers ensconced in prosperous suburbs who can’t quite overcome the tug of traditions nurtured in Calcutta. With quiet artistry and tender sympathy, Lahiri creates an impressive range of vivid characters — young and old, male and female, self-knowing and self-deluding — in engrossing stories that replenish the classic themes of domestic realism: loneliness, estrangement and family discord. Great Book! Contains
 Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0676979343, Hardcover)Knopf Canada is proud to welcome this bestselling, Pulitzer Prize—winning author with eight dazzling stories that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.In the stunning title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father who carefully tends her garden–where she later unearths evidence of a love affair he is keeping to himself. In “A Choice of Accommodations,” a couple’s romantic getaway weekend takes a dark turn at a party that lasts deep into the night. In “Only Goodness,” a woman eager to give her younger brother the perfect childhood she never had is overwhelmed by guilt, anguish and anger when his alcoholism threatens her family. And in “Hema and Kaushik,” a trio of linked stories–a luminous, intensely compelling elegy of life, death, love and fate–we follow the lives of a girl and boy who, one fateful winter, share a house in Massachusetts. They travel from innocence to experience on separate, sometimes painful paths, until destiny brings them together again years later in Rome. Unaccustomed Earth is rich with the author’s signature gifts: exquisite prose, emotional wisdom and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is the work of a writer at the peak of her powers. (retrieved from Amazon Tue, 21 Sep 2010 02:23:37 -0400) Exploring the secrets and complexities lying at the heart of family life and relationships, a collection of eight stories includes the title work, about a young mother in a new city whose father tends her garden while hiding a secret love affair. (summary from another edition) |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
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My biggest criticism is the depressing sameness of the themes--regret, sadness, missed opportunities, betrayal, unrequited longing. The world seen through Lahiri's eyes is a bleak and hopeless one. These thematic elements certainly provided a sense of unity to the stories in the collection, but they did not improve my appreciation of them.
Overall, this is a collection I'm glad to have read, but not one that I'd read, as I did, on a rainy day. (