Review: Unaccustomed Earth

Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri

From Publisher’s Weekly -

The gulf that separates expatriate Bengali parents from their American-raised children—and that separates the children from India—remains Lahiri’s subject for this follow-up to Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake. In this set of eight stories, the results are again stunning. In the title story, Brooklyn-to-Seattle transplant Ruma frets about a presumed obligation to bring her widower father into her home, a stressful decision taken out of her hands by his unexpected independence. The alcoholism of Rahul is described by his elder sister, Sudha; her disappointment and bewilderment pack a particularly powerful punch. And in the loosely linked trio of stories closing the collection, the lives of Hema and Kaushik intersect over the years, first in 1974 when she is six and he is nine; then a few years later when, at 13, she swoons at the now-handsome 16-year-old teen’s reappearance; and again in Italy, when she is a 37-year-old academic about to enter an arranged marriage, and he is a 40-year-old photojournalist. An inchoate grief for mothers lost at different stages of life enters many tales and, as the book progresses, takes on enormous resonance. Lahiri’s stories of exile, identity, disappointment and maturation evince a spare and subtle mastery that has few contemporary equals.

My thoughts -

Reading this collection of short stories solidified for me the fact that Jhumpa Lahiri is one of my absolute favorite authors, by far.  I became completely immersed in each one of these eight stories… I LOVED reading this book.  The characters were so incredibly well-developed that even though each one only graced the pages for approximately one-eighth of the book, I completely understood them and felt like I truly knew each and every one.  Although not every character was inherently likable, because of how well Lahiri wrote them, I felt compassion and empathy for each of them… perhaps especially the few that were the most flawed.

The stories themselves were simply perfect in every way.  The stories had the exact format of beginning, middle, and end, but told in such a way that just when you thought it might be over, something else monumental would occur in the characters’ lives.  And then, when it really was over, there was almost always something left to the imagination… always some aspect to the stories that allowed the reader to make a few guesses about how things might end up. 

The funny thing is that I am not typically a short story person… I’m not usually attracted to reading short stories, and when I do, I frequently find myself bored with them or impatient with the lack of depth.  Lahiri’s short stories, however, in both Unaccustomed Earth and Interpreter of Maladies, are so very wonderful that I want to pick up every short story I can find, in the hopes that they might be half as good as Lahiri’s.  I have tried here to explain how great I thought this book was without giving too much away, and I hope I did that.  Read this book, just read it.  I’m so glad I did.

Also – for fans of Unaccustomed Earth, I highly recommend reading The Namesake, Lahiri’s only full novel.  It’s actually my favorite of her three books, so if you enjoy her writing style, I really think that’s a book you should pick up.

Also reviewed by:

• Sher at A Novel Menagerie
• Melanie at LitChick
• 3m at 1 More Chapter
• Gentle Reader at Shelf Life
• Laura at Novels Now
• Adventures in Reading
• Tricia at Library Queue

Review – Interpreter of Maladies

Interpreter of Maladies  by Jhumpa Lahiri

From the back cover -

Winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, this stunning debut collection unerringly charts the emotional journey of characters seeking love beyond the barrier of nations and generations.  “A writer of uncommon sensitivity and restraint… Ms. Lahiri expertly captures the out-of-context lives of immigrants, expatriates, and first-generation Americans” (Wall Street Journal).  In stories that travel from India to America and back again, Lahiri speaks with universal eloquence to everyone who has ever felt like a foreigner.  Honored as “Debut of the Year” by The New Yorker and winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, Interpreter of Maladies introduces a young writer of astonishing maturity and insight who “breathes unpredictable life into the page” (New York Times).

My thoughts -

I typically do not go for short story collections, but I picked this one up because I absolutely fell in love with Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake (read this book, people… it’s really good).  I was pleasantly surprised at how much I truly enjoyed (most of) the stories in this little book.  Lahiri truly writes characters that a person can care about… even in a 15-page story, I found myself becoming so immersed in these characters’ lives, and really caring about the issues they were dealing with.  Some of my favorite stories in this collection were “A Temporary Matter”, in which a young Indian-American couple is dealing with the heartbreaking aftermath of a stillborn baby and the deterioration of their relationship because of that, “Sexy”, which reminded me of an Indian version of the book Shopgirl by Steve Martin, and “This Blessed House”, in which an Indian-American couple, married for only four months and just getting to know each other as their union was the result of an arranged marriage, entertaines some friends for a housewarming party.  Some of the other stories I didn’t enjoy as much, but I was still able to appreciate the characters in every one.  I highly recommend this collection, and am looking forward to reading Lahiri’s latest book, Unaccustomed Earth.

9 stars.

Also reviewed by: A Devoted Reader, Raych at books i done read, Nymeth at Things Mean A Lot, and Lisa at Books on the Brain