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Jan 24, 2010

Molly rated it:

The title of Lahiri’s latest book—Unaccustomed Earth—refers to the first story in this collection but also to a motif dominating all of the stories: tales about a world unaccustomed to the shifts and changes taking place on its surface, a world uncomfortable with the destruction and loss brought on by hurricanes and tsunamis, unfamiliar with modern diseases and traumas, and unsure about the class and cultural conflicts that dominate relationships in the lives of Lahiri’s characters. The earth th More...

7 comments like (36 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Barbara rated it:

I have often stated that I do not enjoy short stories, but although this is designated as such, it oversimplifies the content of this book. With understated elegance, Lahiri has drawn in the reader to become immersed in tales of families, lovers and friends. She has the unique ability to simply, but fascinatingly communicate the features of the characters' behaviors, thoughts and emotions. In addition, she is able to express such dimensions so wellthat I felt I had become acquainted with these p More...

30 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2011

Foodie rated it:

I have to admit that I was awaiting this book for many months and started reading it with a preconceived notion that the literary journey I was about to embark upon was one of immense finesse and depth. Some might argue that this mindset might cast a cloak on the negative qualities of the novel thereby making the stories more appealing. I've thought about this and beg to differ. Expectations of this height are hard to live by and many a (famous) novel have fallen short. Unaccustomed Earth did no More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

May 12, 2008

Sonal rated it:

As I progressed through the first four stories, I became more and more angry. I couldn't understand why Lahiri would put out another book that was almost identical to to her first. She seemed to have retreated even further into her "safe space", writing only about Bengali Americans who study at ivy league schools, have well educated albeit maladjusted parents and struggle with redefining relationships after relocation. I expected a lot more when I read the title and its reference to More...

5 comments like (31 people liked it)

Sep 13, 2008

alex rated it:

lahiri's writing style is beautiful. while someone once described it as "relentless detail," i like to think of it otherwise. that said, there was something nagging me while reading it that i could neither shake nor put my finger on. then i figured it out. there are two things that bothered me about this book. 1) lahiri seems to be almost obsessed with elite private universities. not a story goes by that doesn't mention harvard, mit, bryn mawr, swarthmore, etc. it's excessive. accordin More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2010

Teresa rated it:

Perhaps a new term needs to be used for short stories such as these. Each one is jam-packed with details that never bog down; each one is as dense and rich as a novel. The writing never falters; it is always smooth, flowing and self-assured.

Of course the last 3 stories could be a novella, and we are lucky not to have to buy a separate book to experience them.

Wonderful characters, wonderful stories, wonderful writing.

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2008

jo rated it:

i think that, as short story collections go, this one is up there with the great masterpieces -- flannery o'connor, hawthorne, raymond carver, nadine gordimer, alice munro (the writers who come to mind are the ones who straightforwardly explore the torments of the human heart). the most extraordinary feeling i have about it is that i glided from story to story without having much of a sense of interruption. the stories flow into each other, having to do with people who are different (in age, gen More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2012

Dixie Diamond rated it:

I kind of liked this. The writing is good but the pace of the stories is v e r y s l o w . . . it seems to take ages to get to the ending. This would be OK except that the endings are really not that astounding; you're left with less of an "Oh, my God" feeling than a "well, duh; what did she expect?" one. The bodies of the stories would have been more in proportion to the ends if the writer had not worked so hard to draw them out. They end up feeling overwritten, and all More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2008

Ian rated it:

A real disappointment after her first two books. Doing away with both the emotional gut-punches of displacement and desperation found in "Interpreter of Maladies" and the elegiac generational sweep of "The Namesake," Lahiri in "Unaccustomed Earth" zeroes in on the least interesting dimension of her usual subjects: the interior monologues of fully assimilated, second-generation Indian-Americans who are ungratefully dissatisfied with their lives of privilege. Her form More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

May 08, 2008

Danica rated it:

To begin, I must disclose that I am a huge Jhumpa Lahiri fan. To me, she is one of the only authors who comes even close to articulating my experience as a child born and raised in the U.S. by immigrant parents, constantly straddling two worlds. I really enjoyed this book -- not nearly as much as I adored "The Namesake" (one of my all-time favorite books!), but more than her collection of short stories, "The Interpreter of Maladies."

This book is a collection of More...

3 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2008

Leanna rated it:

After weeks of waiting anxiously, of reading about how good the book is, I finally got my hands on Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth.

The beauty of Lahiri’s writing is in the ordinariness of it. She has an elegant style but does nothing to draw undue attention to the writing itself; she employs no tricks that distract from her narrative. The stories are also about ordinary topics, about regular people. It is in the simplicity of the scenarios that universal truths resound.

More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2008

Kristen rated it:

Ever since I read Lahiri's first collection of stories, "Interpreter of Maladies," when it was published some years ago, I've had a hard time figuring out just why I find her fiction so incredibly appealing and moving and memorable. Her writing style isn't particularly innovative, and she sticks to a fairly narrow set of themes: the impact of immigration on those who immigrate and their children, generally viewed through the experiences of Indians who move to the U.S., specifically New More...

1 comment like (12 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2008

Lena rated it:

In Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri returns to the short story format of her Pulitzer prize-winning first book, Interpreter of Maladies. Like IoM, the stories in UE explore the experiences of Bengali immigrants in America, and the ways in which the intersection of cultures plays out in the lives of those who do not fully belong to either land.

Each story focuses a lens on a different aspect of the Indian immigrant experience. In the title piece, the fully Americanized daughte More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2011

Sue rated it:

Having just finished Unaccustomed Earth, I have to say I thought it was fantastic how Lahiri manages to catch the edge of human interactions--all that we don't say to each other throughout our lives. I really was close to tears at the end of the final story. This is my first experience with her writing other than reading one story. That previous story gave me a glimpse of her skill but now I have the full blown view of a writer who appears to be at a peak of ability.

This has broadene More...

14 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 09, 2009

Lucy rated it:

Many classical composers were masters in the art of variation on a theme in music. Mozart showed off just how many things you could do with the tune "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Jhumpa Lahiri has applied the same principle to the short story and produced a brilliant work of art.

I am not a particular fan of the short story, but Lahiri has convinced me once again that I could be. Her genius, I believe, is that she doesn't waste her time recreating the wheel. She has More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2008

Ben rated it:

I went into this book not knowing what to expect, and I loved it. Jhumpa Lahiri creates timeless families that straddle the cultural divide between America and India. She captures the conflict of growing up as one tries to balance one's parent's wishes with the influence of one's heritage and the culture of one's surroundings.

Of the first part of the book, I loved "Unaccustomed Earth", "Hell-Heaven", and "Only Goodness." The other two stories were gre More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2008

Ami rated it:

What I like about this book from Lahiri's other works is she's begun to branch out into new themes and even new settings (her title story takes place in Seattle, rather than the Boston/New York area). I'm not much of a person to be able to comment on her stories objectively: most of them are written for people of Indian descent (like myself), who were born and raised in the States. Like many of her characters, I've felt exiled between the two cultures and unsure as to where I fit in with both of More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2008

Suzanne rated it:

I really enjoy Lahiri's works. Every word, every image.
Yet, when I read Goodreads Reviews written by Bengali
(? maybe, maybe not) readers, I can understand their criticisms. There does seem to be a formula. The issue of conflict in 1st generation parents with their Westernized children, the fact that almost all of these characters have attended the very best Ivy League and 1st tier universities in the US and have performed exceptionally. (no mention of summer jobs, no mention o More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 14, 2008

Molly rated it:

Lahiri’s new stories, like the Victorian naturalist novels she read while working on them, are all about what her characters do not do and say, how they ultimately, tragically fail to connect with their parents, spouses, children, and soulmates. In other words, these stories lack the scope and the finely drawn class politics of her first collection: like many giants of the short story world, Lahiri brings our attention more than once to the problem of alcoholism in the Ivy League, and deals some More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2008

Tanya Tanya Tanya! rated it:

I feel completely gutted and need to go back and read this again.

Lahiri always leaves me feeling too emotional for my own good and I love it. She takes you to this place of discomfort and displacement within relationships with other people and relationships with culture.

The short stories in the first half of the book leave me wanting more of the characters lives. I simultaneously devoured them and didn't want them to end. They were as good, if not better than her previ More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2008

Danielle rated it:

I haven't been a huge Jhumpa Lahiri fan in the past-- her stories were going to merit an entire chapter in my imaginary work of cultural criticism "Ethnicity is Not a Plot," but this collection totally won me over. I'm not sure I can put a finger on what was so compelling about it, but things were just working. The last section of linked stories, which could have easily devolved into movie of the week territory was utterly compelling, and I am sort of embarassed to say, made me a littl More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2008

Hannah rated it:

I read it in one afternoon. Not because it was enjoyable; I was simply hoping that if I kept reading, I would eventually reach a story that reminded me why I was so infatuated with Lahiri's writing a few years ago.

To my disappointment [truly, for I tried so hard to like UE], I found it utterly lacking and full of cliches. And her overdone characterization? It was almost painful to read; every unsatisfying story was a reminder of what could have been.

Is it me? or Lahiri? More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 05, 2011

Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it:

A superb collection of short stories. The first five stories are not connected in any way, the last three stories have the same characters and are time ordered. The author has given us her inspiration by quoting Nathaniel Hawthorne in his The Custom-House:

"Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may More...

23 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2008

Dorothy rated it:

Lahiri has the art of telling tales about life in a very honest, forthright way. Each of her eight stories takes the reader on an imaginary voyage into the world of her characters and their unique situations. It is a trip worth taking no matter the cost.
The title story, Unaccustomed Earth, truly captures the plight and the promise of Ruma's elderly and widowed father who finds joy in his newly developed relationship with his grandson, Akash. Even so, Ruma is ambivalent about asking h More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 04, 2008

Jean rated it:

I just never really get into her books...they seem heavy, tedious and plodding to me. After a few hundred pages, I returned this new one to the library. I guess I am just not a fan of this writer. I know she is very popular and you would think I would relate to the culture, but...I'm just not into it. I thought the short stories were predictable and trite to tell the truth.

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Kathy rated it:

Although I write short stories myself, I don't usually like other writers' short stories. They usually seem either silly or too slight to me. But I really liked these stories, perhaps because they were longer than most and provide an opportunity to really get to know the characters deeply. Lahiri is an excellent writer and really brings her characters to life. I think my favorite was either Year's End or the title story Unaccustomed Earth. These stories seemed to have universal themes; the More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 19, 2010

Gina rated it:

The female writers of our time take most of the prizes...and eventually they will make up for the years when their voices could not be heard. Jhumpa Lahari earns triple points since she also represents a culture where women were not encouraged to speak out let alone write. She merits the third point because of her extraordinary gifts of style and characterization.

Her latest volume "Unaccustomed Earth" perfectly catches the situations of those Bengalis who find them More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 22, 2009

Foroogh added it

"مگر وحشتناک نبود که بعد از اینهمه این در و آن در زدن برای پیدا کردن کسی که آدم می خواهد عمرش را بااو سپری کند،بعد از تشکیل خانواده با او،حتی علی رغم دلتنگیش برای او-همانطور که آمیت هم شب به شب دلتنگ مگان می شد-این تنهایی نبود که بیشتر از همه چیز برایش جاذبه و لذت داشت ،تنها چیزی که هر قدر گذرا و کم مایه،آدم رامتعادل و معقول نگه می داشت؟"انتخاب جا ص129

"می خواست" روما" را از تیرگی روابط که در زندگی مشترک بروبرگرد نداشت حفظ کند و از نتیجه ای که گاهی نگران می ش More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 07, 2009

Cynthia rated it:

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. More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2009

s rated it:

the characters are startling compelling and the relationships between the men and women are revealing. i particularly enjoyed the relationships between the children and their parents.

i thought a lot about the portrayal of women in this book as it pertained to the female characters' cultural progression from immigrant to american. the immigrant women seemed trapped within the confines of the house/home--clausterphobic--their daughters struggling to make their lives their own--rather More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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