Unaccustomed Earth

This is the first book I have read by Lahiri. It's hard to articulate how much I appreciate this book, having been the first book that I've read that REALLY looks into the lives of Indian-Americans (and by extension, Indo-Canadians).

Lahiri's prose is well written, rich with *life* (for the lack of a better word). She recalls a world that is all too familiar to a lot of us, and she brings forward issues that we don't really think about - sometimes because we haven't experienced them, sometimes they're unpleasant - and she presents life in a way that doesn't compromise it's integrity. There are no "happily ever afters" in this book. Just life as it happened, as it often happens.

Great book and one of my favourites so far! Will try to read show more "The Namesake" now.

The one comment I have about this book is that a lot of these stories just left me feeling sad, especially the very last story "Hema & Kaushik" is just gut wrenching when you finally get to the conclusion of this three-chapter story. show less

Jhumpa Lahiri has got married and had two children since her first collection of short stories and the evidence is all over the second collection of stories. While the first focussed very much on emigres, the lens seems to have shifted, for the most part, to the first generation, their relationships and their children. As an first generation British-Indian, her stories tend to speak to me like a conversation between old friends. It's familiar ground but elegantly expressed and thoughtfully put across, respectful but unabashed and clear-eyed. Her first collection accompanied me on my honeymoon, the second, on a recent holiday a few years on. We have both learnt a few things in the interim but like an older sister, she is always a few show more steps ahead. I look forward to what she has to share next. show less

Note: if you intend to read this book, you may not want to read this review beforehand.

Jhumpa Lahiri writes crushing stories of disaffected first-generation Indian immigrant children and their often dysfunctional families. There are no happy endings here. Even when you think you see one coming, Lahiri yanks it violently away and leaves you wallowing in the muck of real life. The best you can hope for is an ending where even though something bad happens, at least two people are supporting each other through the bad thing. All of this is not meant as criticism, per se (note 4-star rating); however, Lahiri's endings do threaten to make her storytelling appear one-dimensional. What I mean is that a reader can quickly come to expect that not show more much good is going to happen to any character in any story, which therefore limits the number of possible outcomes to a given story, thus rendering a potentially predictable ending to that story. Although I enjoyed the collection, by the end of the last story I needed a double dose of B vitamins. show less

An engaging, well-written book of short stories, three of them linked. Lahiri’s characters tend to be Bengali-Americans in relationships with non-Bengalis. Her writing has an emotional resonance that crosses cultures, generations and continents. Her characters are complex, and I found it easy to sympathize and empathize with them, even those whose circumstances were worlds away from mine. But as Lahiri’s stories ably demonstrate, experiences aren’t as disparate as some might think. A few passages in the book gave me that creepy, someone’s-been-looking-over-my-shoulder feeling, as they detailed unattractive emotions and feelings often left unsaid. I enjoyed and admired these stories, even as they sometimes brought pain and sadness.

I often struggle with short story collection, wanting to like them more than I actually do. I am happy to report that Unaccustomed Earth broke the mold. I found each and every one of Lahiri's stories compelling, populated with characters split between cultures, the children of Bengali parents who carve out their identities in places that aren't exactly foreign and aren't exactly home - Seattle or New England or Rome.

Just picking up the book again reminds me of Ruma welcoming her father to stay at her new house in Seattle, for the first time without her mother, and agonizing over whether she should invite him to live out his days with her and her family. There's Sang who daily fields phone calls from Bengali suitors wishing to marry her show more but who is in love with a philandering Egyptian professor. Usha is captivated by a friend of her parents' who became like family when he sought out his Bengali roots in Boston but who broke her mother's heart when he married an American girl and embraced a new culture. Finally, the collection finishes with a few interlinked stories of Hema and Kaushik, whose parents' friendship brings them into each other's orbits only occasionally during their childhoods in Massachusetts and who are surprised to find a home in each other as adults in Rome, a place that is hardly home to either.

In Unaccustomed Earth, while the characters themselves may still be striving to carve out a place for themselves between generations, readers are treated to fully realized people whose lives and struggles are distilled into only a few powerful pages that leave a lasting impact. show less

Jhumpa Lahiri's first collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize. After writing a full-length novel (The Namesake), Lahiri has returned with a second short story collection. Unaccustomed Earth is comprised of 5 short stories and a novella. And it is absolutely fabulous.

Most of the stories are set in the US, and the Indian immigrant characters are often in relationship with white Americans. Each one had strong emotional impact. The title story was one of the most moving. In it, an Indian widower visits his adult daughter, who lives in Seattle. He chooses not to tell her that he has found a new partner, and she is afraid he plans to move in with her and her young family. The man's love for his small show more grandson is very touching; his love for her is demonstrated indirectly through a garden he creates during his visit. Through small day-to-day acts, he shows his daughter a side of him that was not visible while she was growing up.

The novella, Hema and Kaushik, takes place over three separate time periods and follows an Indian immigrant boy and girl from the time they meet as children, through young adulthood, and into middle age. Lahiri is expert at conveying the loss and emptiness deep within each character, and building the reader's commitment to these characters in a very short number of pages.

I intentionally apprpoached this work one story at a time, reading during my lunch hour and savoring each story over the next 24 hours. When the novella -- and the entire book -- came to an end, all I could do was take a very deep breath and marvel at Lahiri's talent. Unaccustomed Earth is the most delicious fiction I have read in a very long time; a must-read. show less

I didn't realize until the middle of the second chapter that this is a collection of short stories and not a novel. In confusion, I read the front flap of the book jacket that explained these were "related stories." Duh. Most readers will probably not make the same mistake.

Although I generally prefer novels, Lahiri's lyrical style, cultural detail and unpredictable plots made this a worthwhile read.