Unaccustomed Earth: Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)
by Jhumpa Lahiri
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jhumpa LahiriEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-04-07
ISBN: 0307278255
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Unaccustomed Earth: Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)
Book Review: Chinese 'Take Out' Food in a Five Star Hotel
Summary: 1 Stars
Time and again I am told that short stories don't sell well in America. And yet here we have Jhumpa Lahiri, who has churned out one more book of short stories, titled 'Unaccustomed Earth'. I say churned out because like its predecessor 'Interpreter of Maladies', this book too contains short stories about the miserable personal lives of Bong (i.e. Bengali) Ivy Leaguers in America. Well that sums up the gist of the book. Reading it I felt like I was eating generic Chinese 'take out' food in a five star hotel. Let me explain.
Fiction has an ability of taking you inside the human mind, in a way, no other medium can. Ms. Lahiri's writing style is superb with beautiful attention to detail. Its almost like a five star hotel's presentation. Her narration melts in the mind like a creamy dessert on the tongue. But instead of using this talent to take us into brilliant and beautiful minds, she takes us into troubled and tormented minds. Like generic Chinese take out food with kikoman sauce, vinegar and soy sauce in every entree, each and every story in this book has the same flavor. They are all depressing, unhappy and the subjects are always Bong Ivy Leaguers. What a waste of talent!
There are three more factors that contribute to their generic taste. Although the stories are set in America, they clearly lack in energy, dynamism and speed; qualities that are characteristic of life in America. Secondly, most of them have no sense of time. Its hard to figure out if they are set in the Lyndon Johnson era or the Obama era. In short they are devoid of what is happening in America, outside the sleepy suburb. Third factor is their shocking portrayal of Bong women in America. They are either like 'Chokher Balis' or seem to belong to 'Sex and the City'.
Now for a technical assessment of their length. A short story is defined as having a maximum word length of anywhere from 7000 to 9000 words. Ms. Lahiri has created her own standard by breaking all records. The stories run into sheafs of pages e.g. the first story is 57 pages long, which is over 16,000 words! Halfway through the story, one starts wondering if its a novel! Now for the gist of the stories. The first story has the same title as the book and is about a father who visits his daughter Ruma, who is pregnant with her second child. After spending almost a week with her, he cannot tell her the fact that he has a girl friend after spending 40 years with Ruma's mother, who is dead now. The silent emotional turmoil is well presented.
'Hell-Heaven', the second story is about how a married woman (Chokher Bali kind)trapped in an arranged marriage to a man nine years older than her, falls in love with a Bong student, three years younger than her. She is emotionally devastated when the young lover marries an American girl only to dump her after twenty years of marriage with two daughters. After all this he marries another Chokher Bali! Seems like a day time soap opera!
'Only Goodness' is a sitcom about a S.I.T.C.O.M. (i.e. single income two children oppressive mortgage!). 'A Choice of Accomodations' (44 pages!) and 'Nobody's Business' (49 pages!) are two pointless stories that meander aimlessly through many pages, only to culminate in a wimpy climax. They both could have been easily edited to half their length without loosing the crux!
It is said that an education prepares you for a better tomorrow. If this is the kind of misery an Ivy League education creates, then it just goes to show how poor Ms.Lahiri's understanding is, of the real potential of such education. After reading these five stories I became nauseous with their content and claustrophobic with their miseries. I couldn't read it any more. I closed it and looked up at the sky above, that offered more drama, beauty and dynamism as it changed appearance from afternoon to evening. As for the book, like stale Chinese food gone bad, I returned it to the library before time. James Allen in his book 'As A Man Thinketh' writes:
"A man's mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind."
Keeping these words of wisdom in mind, publishers and literary agents have a responsibility of planting good books in the market that don't become weeds in the human mind. I suspect this book got published because Ms.Lahiri is a well-established writer and India is in vogue. The need of the hour is to find new Indian writers who are fresh with talent, creativity, diversity (not just Bong stories !!) and imagination. So if you are a publisher or a literary agent, then look no further, there is one such writer with her book, waiting to be discovered!(Check out my blog).
Ratna
Summary of Unaccustomed Earth: Stories (Vintage Contemporaries)
These eight stories by beloved and bestselling author Jhumpa Lahiri take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand, as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life. Here they enter the worlds of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers. Rich with the signature gifts that have established Jhumpa Lahiri as one of our most essential writers, Unaccustomed Earth exquisitely renders the most intricate workings of the heart and mind.
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