Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
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Book Reviews of Unaccustomed Earth
Book Review: Exquisite
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a series of stories and the first story hooked me immediately. It really pulled at my heart chakra. It was subtle and beautiful. As I read the first story on the plane, I found that I was often smiling to myself, as the interaction between the grandfather and grandson really touched me...not in a sentimental way, but in a subtle and deep way...if that makes any sense at all.
I found that with the start of each new story, I was a wee bit reluctant to leave the last characters behind, so it took me a few pages to get into each story. But once I was in, I really enjoyed it.
The last section - three stories about two characters named Hema and Kaushik - was just exquisite. That is the best and really perfect word to describe this piece of work. Lahiri says so much about connection and karma and the complexity of origin, love and loss, without saying anything at all specifically about those topics. The intereaction between the characters is everything. Lahiri is an excellent story-teller. Her style is steady, subtle and powerful all at the same time. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how humans connect with one another in various ways, or in the many, many different permutations of the concepts of family and origin.
Book Review: Lyrical metaphor
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a book of short stories, some of which are inter related. Lahiri is so good at depicting what it's like to be in families, in relationships. There's compromise, pig headedness, hidden or displayed anger, suffering both long and short, isolation but most of
all love. What really stood out to me was how even subtle but sometimes big occurences between people who have formed strong bonds can change the trajectory of their lives, in positive or negative ways. The connection never dies. The love never dies. And it
influences all their subsequent relationships. The last 3 stories read like diaries or love letters between a couple whose lives interlock into early middle age. It's amazing how they influence one another. though probably through most of the relationship, they would
both deny that connection. Even people who chose NOT to relate to others, to step out of relationship, are still relating by that absence. They leave a whole int the others life by not communicating. After a strong bond is forged there's no way NOT to impact the 'other'. One or both can turn their back on the connection but it's as if the connections lives on independent of behavior or choices. Also, not to be missed is Lahiri's lyrical use of metaphor. I'll be reading more of her.
Book Review: So rich: like a collection of mini novels
Summary: 4 Stars
I am not usually a reader of short stories, but this book defied many of my prejudices. I loved it. Jhumpa Lahiri's writing is beautiful. With just a few paragraphs, she can immerse you in a story so that you end up feeling as satisfied as if you've read an entire novel. She also has a wonderful eye for detail and a way of describing everyday events or objects so you feel that you've never really thought about them in that way before.
There are eight stories in this book. The final three feature the same characters but the others stand alone. However they are all quite similar in that they feature highly educated Bengali Indians living in the US and often in mixed race relationships. There are also similar themes that repeat: learning to move on after losing a loved one or the relationships between parents and their adult children.
While I enjoyed all of the stories in this book, I was particularly moved by the first (Unaccustomed Earth) and the last (Going Ashore). They are the two in which I felt the most involved and really cared about the characters. I felt somewhat detached from the others (hence the 4 star rating). However I still enjoyed them and I recommend this book without hesitation - do not let the fact that it's short stories put you off!
Book Review: "Unaccustomed Earth" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Summary: 5 Stars
In the opening review pages of Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies," one critic wrote that Lahiri's writing style makes one forget that they are reading. I agree with this, and attest it to her absolute skill in her craft. Her work is like literary comfort food to me. "Unaccustomed Earth" can very well be her richest, most mature work yet. Her stories are intimate yet universal, ethnic yet wholly American, stark yet warm, and always told with a firm yet gentle style that makes these characters and their troubles haunt you long after you are finished visiting them. The majority of Lahiri's work here is somber in tone, but her plots and characters are somehow relateable. Her characters are always simply human, and have issues in misunderstandings with parents, children, lovers, and addictions. You want to spend whole characters, but her final three loosely connected short stories are somehow complete, and enough in themselves.
Read and enjoy this book. It is entertaining but will stay and resonate with you. Lahiri makes the reader introspective and heightens their awareness of life and literature. I cannot praise her work enough, and look forward to returning to these stories again as I do with her earlier work. Exquisite stuff.
Book Review: Exquisite
Summary: 5 Stars
Being critical and judgemental, I am usually moved to write a review when I think a book is being over praised. In this case, overpraising is impossible. While lacking the elusive, magical dimension of The Interpreter of Maladies, these stories may be even better in their depth, warmth, and maturity.
As is usual in Lahiri, the stories focus on people raised in two cultures, Bengali and American, and not feeling fully a part of either. An additional theme of this book is withdrawal and withholding from others, failing to make a vital connection. This is illustrated often by withholdoing information. In the title story, an aging, widowed father withholds the secret of his new found independence and love affair from his adult daughter while on a visit to her home where he bonds with his grandson. In "Only Goodness" a wife withholds the secret of her brother's alcoholism from her husband until it is almost too late. In a third, part of a linked series of three stories, a family withholds the knowledge that the mother is dying from the family that shelters them in American. In this case, the secret deepens the bond of the son and daughter of each family.
I did not want this book to end. I wish she would write more.