Unaccustomed Earth
by Jhumpa Lahiri
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.55 You Save: $22.45 (90%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Unaccustomed Earth
Book Review: Hoping for more
Summary: 3 Stars
I just finished Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. I loved the first story and the last story, which is presented in three parts. I was not thrilled with everything in between, though they were interesting. The other six stories in their own ways, felt forced and as if the cultural differences were just a catalyst for the story, not the actual story. They did not have the masterfully written prose and the beautifully thought-provoking themes I thought the first and last stories had.
Lahiri masterfully uses imagery, symbolism and words to create an `outside looking in' type of feel to her stories. Though I may not have enjoyed the middle stories as much as the first and last, I would recommend this book to others. I found myself picking up the book to read a few paragraphs when I had a few moments to spare. I found myself really thinking about the issue presented in the first story for several days after finishing it; and I was deeply saddened by the ending of the last story. The most powerful stories in this collection `Unaccustomed Earth' and `Hema and Kaushik' were stories of the heart.
Book Review: Rich with detail and complexity, these short stories are novels that end too soon
Summary: 5 Stars
As we've come to expect from Jhumpa Lahiri, this collection of eight short stories examines the immigrant experience in America, including the difficulties of adjusting to a new culture and workplace and the clashes between immigrant parents and their fully American children. Lahiri's stories, however, are not limited to immigrant issues but address global issues relevant worldwide: how we need our parents, how we develop our independence, and how we give up that independence to form lasting relationships. More than anything, these stories capture the search for a comfortable identity.
Lahiri's writing is rich with detail and complexity, making these short stories seem more like novels that end too soon. Lahiri's style is powerful. There's no sentimentality here but plenty of sensitivity and feeling. Many of these stories contain a hidden element or event of such significance that, when finally revealed at the end of the story, changes everything that came before. It's the shock of these surprising occurrences that makes each story a living, changing experience. Fabulous.
Book Review: I love Jhumpa Lahiri's short stories
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought this book was one of the best collection of short stories that I have read, particularly in the context of an immigrant's perspective.
What I particularly enjoy about Jhumpa is that she writes about ordinary people and examines their tensions and anxieties, their joys and disappointments. Her characters are multi dimensional, and she is able to show that ordinary persons are interesting and even fascinating. In an era when literature, film and media is full of abnormal (improbable) characters, it is refreshing to find an artist who is able to appreciate and elevate the ordinary, and imbue it with extraordinary fullness and interest.
Of course from an immigrant's point of view, she fully explores the uncertainty, the aloneness, the ambiguity that many of us feel because of our lack of not being fully at home. She expresses the tensions we experience and does it with great compassion and gentleness; seldom providing answers, but always questioning and probing
A wonderful experience that I would recommend to everyone
Book Review: Dazzling Stories
Summary: 5 Stars
These are careful, closely observed stories that the author illuminates with telling details: the way a daughter reminds a widower of his dead wife, or the silences that tense the tenuous link between parent and child. These stories focus on relationships, how they start, and how they end, but mostly about the moments and gestures that mark their stages. These stories read easily. Still, I went back and read them again, for the details that Lahiri sprinkles, like jewels hidden in a corner bookcase.
The short story is a more perfect form than the novel. Every word, every sentence is important. Novels sell better, but the short story satisfies in a way that the novel cannot. I marveled at Lahiri's artistry, how she employs language in a unique way. She does not dazzle with incandescent prose, but her honest humanity shines forth in her writing. I had never heard of her before I started this book, but her stories moved me in a deeply personal way. I encountered emotions that I have felt myself, but never articulated. This is the mark of good literature.
Book Review: Deep not wide
Summary: 5 Stars
The view of some that Lahiri's latest book is a retread inspires me to respond and defend this extraordinary writer. While it is true that she revisits characters with many similarities in profile (American-born of Bengali heritage, well-educated, often in the Boston area), it is my view that this strengthens her tales. By focusing on a specific and in some ways narrowly defined population, she is able to dig far deeper into the shared human experience underlying their outer trappings. So what if a character went to an Ivy League school? If her sibling is alcoholic, if she bought and hid for him beer when he was a teen, her guilt can be universally understood. The depth of her empathy and knowingness about human nature and the dynamics of relationships always leaves me breathless. At the end of this book I had tears in my eyes, feeling that I'd grown up with Hema and Kaushik, knew them that well, and had now seen a real event intervene in their lives. Her writing may not be for everyone, but make no mistake, her focus is not narrow but very deep.