Goodreads | Unaccustomed Earth

Jee rated it:

07/07/08

Read in July, 2008

Raising the Volume Quietly

In Lahiri’s Pulitzer-winning debut collection Interpreter of Maladies, the stories take place in a deliberately limited period of time: an electricity blackout ("A Temporary Matter"); a guided tour ("Interpreter of Maladies"); an academic season ("When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine"); a baby-sitting job ("Mrs. Sen"); the beginning and end of an extra-marital affair ("Sexy"). This strategy gives a natural a...more

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Molly rated it:

05/31/08

Read in April, 2008

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 ...more 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 that we now inhabit, Lahiri seems to be saying, is one that our ancestors would not recognize.
Despite the uniqueness of modern society, the emotions and situations that Lahiri depicts are universal. Since reading her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1999 collection, Interpreter of Maladies, I have believed that Lahiri is one of the best writers of our generation, and—like her 2003 novel, The Namesake—Unaccustomed Earth provides only more evidence of this fact. What makes Lahiri’s work so accomplished and simultaneously riveting is that, unlike her literary peers, Lahiri is more concerned with substance than style. Her stories are about real people rather than quirky characters or odd situations. These are people we know, people we love and hate. The stories are about the people we care about the most letting us down because they are incapable of having healthy relationships— like Rahul in “Only Goodness” and Farouk in “Nobody’s Business.” And they are about parents who return to us or finally abandon us like the father in “Year’s End.”
There are no gimmicks in Lahiri’s prose, no writing with a capital W, the kind that so annoyingly draws more attention to itself than its characters. This is simply straightforward storytelling about issues to which we all can relate. And, in that way, every one of the eight stories in Unaccustomed Earth does exactly what Stephen King said great stories do when he was hawking the 2008 edition of Best American Short Stories in The New York Times Book Review last fall: they grab us and make us hold on tight, they come at us “full-bore, like a big, hot meteor screaming down from the Kansas sky.”
But it’s not only that Lahiri pulls us in emotionally, it’s that she makes us reconsider our choices and reflect on them by making connections between her fictional characters and our own experiences. She navigates the personal and the political, and the stories touch on a variety of issues we care about: marriage, divorce, death, disease, dislocation. As in her first collection, the stories in Unaccustomed Earth take on the contemporary question of liminality and hyphenation: Who are we when we are not one person, but not another? When we are both at the same time? What does it mean to be from a place but not of it? Why do we resist the unknown? In “Going Ashore,” she demonstrates how it is that one might find oneself without a cultural home, nomadic not by choice but by circumstance. In some ways, the difference between this collection and The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies—which both seem, in some ways, to wax nostalgic about immigration—is that Lahiri is more antagonistic about issues of diaspora, not only bringing them out of the closet and wearing them in public, but also getting them dirty, ripping the seams out, and showing us how they’re constructed.
An inherent criticism of those who resist assimilation is an underlying premise of the book. Unlike one of the most moving stories in her first collection, “The Third and Final Continent”—which, in some ways, reads like a love letter to arranged marriage—several of Lahiri’s stories in this book take aim at the practice: “Heaven-Hell” tells the story of a woman who tries to burn herself alive after falling in love with her husband’s young protégé, a man closer to her in age than her own spouse. And in the title story, the father of the protagonist falls in love with another woman after his wife’s death—the first time he has ever truly been in love—an emotional shift that allows him to connect more fully with his daughter. This theme reappears in the three outstanding stories which make up Part Two: “Hema and Kaushik.” In these connected stories, Lahiri gives the reader not one, but two marriages based on convenience rather than love.
But Lahiri never hits us over the head with these messages, and sometimes they are so subtle that we have to be on the lookout in order to see the meaning that lies under each story’s surface. Nancy Zafris, former fiction editor of The Kenyon Review, said once that great stories “must always be telling two or more stories in a way that disguises for a while the real story,” and Lahiri has learned this lesson well, layering every story with numerous complexities.
In “Nobody’s Business,” an American graduate student discovers that his Indian housemate’s boyfriend, an Egyptian, has been cheating on her for years. When the American inserts himself into this drama, he finds his help is unwanted. Even though it is the philandering boyfriend who tells him, “I didn’t invite you here,” the reader still feels violated by the American’s unwanted presence. On the one hand, we hope the American can help his Indian housemate, but at the same time, we want to tell him to get lost, raising the question of whether it is better to turn a blind eye to the problems of others or try to help them out of the messes in which they find themselves. There are other implicit criticisms of the U.S. in the book as well. According to the narrator of “Once in a Lifetime,” America is known first as a place where class “differences were irrelevant,” but as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that under the surface, the petty jealousies and judgments that affect relationships between people from different social strata still fester, a theme also echoed in “A Choice of Accommodations” earlier in the book.
The stories similarly criticize human selfishness—showing parents who put their own needs first, children who are hung up on petty resentments, partners who feel little for their spouses, individuals who use each other for their own gain. And like people who are honest about their vulnerability, their fallibility, the reader cares for these flawed characters even more deeply as a result, grieving when they grieve, loving when they love. This unyielding sense of empathy is accomplished most powerfully in the stories about Hema and Kaushik. After uncovering a row of tombstones in the woods behind young Hema’s suburban home, a sixteen-year-old Kaushik tells her that he wishes that his family wasn’t Hindu so that his mother could be buried somewhere, a place where presumably they could—like the family he has uncovered under snow and fallen leaves—all be together again. It is this scene that stays with me long after I have finished the book, calling to mind again and again the metaphor uniting the collection—earth that is not accustomed—and raising the question of how we push this world, and those who inhabit it, to accommodate our all-too human whims and desires.

This review appears in the current issue of Cairn 43: The St. Andrews Review...less

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Roopsi rated it:

04/16/08

bookshelves: diaspora, poco_lit

Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: Orientalists, Aunt-Jhumpas, and South Asian specialists with no other choice

I have had a long, complicated relationship with Jhumpa Lahiri's work. In an early encounter, Interpreter of Maladies was put on a syllabus (note the passive voice) for an AP English Literature course I was teaching. I had moved to a new school--where, I am certain, I was hired for the express purpose of the browning of the faculty--and the department chair and other AP teacher thought I might feel more comfortable with a book by one of my people. They didn't quite say it like that, but ...more

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Alex rated it:

07/26/08

bookshelves: books-of-2008

Read in April, 2008

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri: Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Interpreter of Maladies, and author of The Namesake, returns after five years with Unaccustomed Earth, a collection of eight stories that are longer than short stories but not quite novella length. It's split into two parts. The first consists of five individual stories, while the second part consists of the last three tales, each involving the same two characters, Hema and Kaushik.

The first story, "Una...more Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri: Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Interpreter of Maladies, and author of The Namesake, returns after five years with Unaccustomed Earth, a collection of eight stories that are longer than short stories but not quite novella length. It's split into two parts. The first consists of five individual stories, while the second part consists of the last three tales, each involving the same two characters, Hema and Kaushik.

The first story, "Unaccustomed Earth," involves a family who recently moved to Seattle. After the death of Ruma's mother, she is left feeling guilty over the decision of whether or not to invite her aging Baba (father), to live with them. Not sure how to handle this, she invites him to stay with her for a week. Over the course of their time together, father and daughter rekindle their relationship, while secrets are revealed about their separate lives. Baba also meets and falls in love with Ruma's son Akash, looking after him, teaching him some Bengali, and treating him like a grandfather should - giving him more respect and attention than he has ever given Ruma. At the end of the week, Baba goes back home to his secret girlfriend and life of travel, leaving Ruma unsure, and the reader wanting more. "Unaccustomed Earth" sets the tone for the book, which offers stories of lives with problems and decisions and changes that affect all the characters. But it is those of Indian descent who have to deal with how much of their original culture they hold on to in their American lives.

"A Choice of Accommodations" is an interesting story about an interracial couple who are having problems with their marriage. During a weekend attending a friend's wedding, they rediscover their love and respect for each other. The most compelling story of the collection is "Nobody's Business," involving a young Indian girl, Sangeeta, who is involved with an Egyptian man, but continuously has suitors calling her with the hope of a meeting and eventual marriage. What makes the story interesting is that it is told from the perspective of the roommate, Paul, who has a crush on Sang, and finds himself unavoidably involved in her romantic and personal life while trying to complete his doctorate. While at first the story seems to go in an obvious direction, it eventually moves off on a new tangent as things change in Sang's relationship and she ends up moving back to England, with Paul having to deal with the leftover pieces.

Lahiri continues to do what she does best, creating strong, unique characters who stay with readers after the story is over. Sadly, Lahiri fails to take risks with her writing, always portraying Indian characters who – like herself – come from an affluent, upper class upbringing, in most cases in New York or New England. Perhaps in her next work, Lahiri will branch out from her write what you know world and venture into new territory. Nevertheless, Unaccustomed Earth is a fascinating collection of stories involving Indian characters struggling with issues involved in being American, but at the same time keeping their original heritage and culture alive.

For more reviews, and writings, or to buy yourself a copy, please visit www.alexctelander.com....less

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Binal rated it:

04/20/08

bookshelves: favourites

Read in April, 2008

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 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 not.
What attracts me to Jhumpa Lahiri's fiction is that I often find traces of myself and people I know in them. It's comforting to know that your trials and fears are not unique, that there can be meaning even in the mundane, mystery in the seemingly known. What started off with The Interpretor of Maladies, continued with The Namesake and found fruition in Unaccustomed Earth is a sensitive yet intense rendering of the intricate working of the heart and mind. perhaps the most poignant story of the 8-story collection, Only goodness is the story of a sister dealing with guilt and concern over her kid brother's alcoholism. Lahiri has a way of drawing the readers into the minds of her characters and making them a part of the thought process, both said and unsaid. It was almost as if Sudha's growing guilt and worry, embarrassment at her wedding, her longing for Rahul when he disappears, her sheer panic at finding her baby alone in the tub and her final resolve to prioritize her child and husband's needs over her brother's were all mine.
What makes Lahiri's characters so memorable is their imperfection. They don't always do or say the right things. Many among us have fallen hard for the wrong man like Sang does in Nobody's Business. Many among us have felt an attraction outside wedlock like in Hell-Heaven. Many among us have even been caught between the sense of responsibility towards parents vs wanting to hold on to our independence and known way on life as Ruma does in the tittle story. Fate, death, passion, confusion, a search for isolation and rebellion have been as much a part of our lives as they have of Hema and Kaushik's in the trio of stories at the end.
The prose is packed with emotional wisdom. The only not so positive quality that struck me is the sameness of the cultural backgrounds of the characters -- all highly educated Bengalis. Perhaps that is what Lahiri is intimately familiar with. The central theme is how these people deal with the crosscurrents of traditions and displacement of identity, how they strive to define their individuality and how they fight to cling on to the familiar. Assumptions are often negated and they are forced to deal with their new environs and new set of truths.
Yes, one might argue that "nothing happens" but how often do life altering incidents happen in our lives anyway? Isn't life woven from single treads of everyday experiences, simple joys, of innocence, attachments and fears?...less

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Ami rated it:

07/12/08

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: anyone who liked The Namesake and people who enjoy reading about Indian-American culture

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 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 them, sometimes wondering which was the dominant culture. It's somewhat odd to think that almost every story I have read in this book so far contains a theme that has related to some point of my life: a childhood rejection of the Indian culture and values my parents tried to hard to instill in me, only to later embrace those values as my parents became more American; a girl's awkward relationship with her father that she loves dearly but cannot talk to because of cultural and gender gaps; being the only Indian person around and having people tell me the accent on my English is very good because of the assumption that I was also born in India (that's why I look Indian, right?); an older sister realizing the limits of her responsibility to her much younger, selfish brother; learning as I grow older that my mother is not all that different from me, despite being a world apart.

The long-awaited discovery has been seeing Lahiri grow as a writer and explore new boundaries. She's certainly no Salman Rushdie when it comes to talking about isolation and cross-cultural frustrations, but she is able to delve deep into the problems faced by immigrants and their children who always wonder if they ever truly "fit in" to the strange land they live in. However, she falls short in venturing out too much - she's still sticking to that she which knows best. I can understand a writer wanting to write about things they know about, but I sometimes wonder how boring it would be to have Lahiri at a dinner party. Every story in this book concerns a Bengali, who is grappling in some form with their higher education (whether by facing the choice of dropping out of an Ivy League school or rejecting their parents' desires for them to become a doctor) and marrying a non-Indian. After finding similarities between "Interpreter of Maladies" and "The Namesake", the themes in "Unaccustomed Earth" are refreshingly new, but the characters that explore those themes remain consistent throughout. Perhaps by keeping the characters static, Lahiri is hoping her readers may delve deeper into the themes. Or perhaps I'm being a bit generous with this review....less

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Neha rated it:

06/09/08

Let me start by saying that I am not a big fan of short stories. I find that they are sometimes the author's easy way out - the excuse to not follow through with a character's development or to start to write a complicated story but to never bring it to fruition. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Unaccustomed Earth. Lahiri used the medium of short stories very wisely, as she she built amazing stories and characters that the reader could connect with and feel satisfied by.

This book stan...more Let me start by saying that I am not a big fan of short stories. I find that they are sometimes the author's easy way out - the excuse to not follow through with a character's development or to start to write a complicated story but to never bring it to fruition. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Unaccustomed Earth. Lahiri used the medium of short stories very wisely, as she she built amazing stories and characters that the reader could connect with and feel satisfied by.

This book stands apart from Interepreter of Maladies, where I felt her stories were too short and choppy to do justice to her large ideas and the complex issues they address. Unaccustomed Earth seeks to address many of the same issues, but with more maturity and clarity on the author's perspective. Her stories in this book are rounded out, feel thorough and complete, provide answers and raise questions alike. This was my favorite of Lahiri's books... save for at the end of each story where I felt the need for some catharsis, I couldn't put this book down. I found the characters were so diverse and well rounded, and the stories flowed very nicely with one another, especially in Part One. In Part Two, the weaker of the two sections in my opinion, she tries to tell more about the same characters through several stories inconsistently told in a letter narrative. I thought this attempt failed because the stories spanned across too many people, times, countries and too many topics. Still, they were a pleasant read and strikingly moving.

I understand and relate to this author's fascination with migration and homelessness. I love that her stories juxtapose two worlds within one, that they address many of the trials and tribulations of being a South Asian American. She has a unique way with language that makes the reader feel that the prose is at once familiar and foreign, adding to the characters' own confusions. But after reading all her novels, I still don't understand - what is Jhumpa Lahiri's fascination with tragedy? Sometimes I feel that it is inserted into stories almost without reason or flow, often times taking away from my understanding of the story and the characters. Not everyone has to be in an unhappy marriage or die. It's almost as if Jhumpa Lahiri cannot allow a happy ending. I'm not sure what this says about the multi-cultural experience overall. Thoughts? ...less

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Samira rated it:

04/16/08

bookshelves: novels

Read in April, 2008

The Unaccustomed Earth is another really fine book by Jhumpa Lahiri. Her use of language is amazing and I love that she writes about a world that I know. (This book even includes a Swarthmore student from New England.) At the same time, somehow I end up feeling like her stories are very similar--certainly the themes of alienation and separation continue as does a certain bleakness of outlook. As much as I understand Tolstoi's point about happy and unhappy families, I would like to see a bit ...more The Unaccustomed Earth is another really fine book by Jhumpa Lahiri. Her use of language is amazing and I love that she writes about a world that I know. (This book even includes a Swarthmore student from New England.) At the same time, somehow I end up feeling like her stories are very similar--certainly the themes of alienation and separation continue as does a certain bleakness of outlook. As much as I understand Tolstoi's point about happy and unhappy families, I would like to see a bit more joy in Lahiri, if only because it would be a change of pace. Sometimes, as truly exquisite as each story is, individually, I get the feeling that I got back when I read romance novels--it is the same story again and again, with different characters. In some ways, certain aspects of that story resonate with my experience as someone who is the child of an Indian immigrant, in many others it does not. Now, granted, in part that is me--my mom, who did most of the child rearing, is American. In other ways, however, the characters, which had such depth when their was only one book, are beginning to be a bit flat. Does no one move to America because the like it here? Is everyone's experience so very frought? Is happy marriage so elusive?

One of the other reviews complains because everyone in Lahiri's world is a Boston based PhD style of immigrant. That does not bother me, partly because I am, if not a Boston PhD, a Bostonian who will have a PhD, but also because as an author, I do not think it is Lahiri's job to represent the race. She, like everyone else, has the right to write the world she knows and much of the success of her prose is due to that decision. Obviously, on some level, she contributes to stereotypes of Indian immigrants, but the fault is less with her than with the fact that she is the only Indian American author of her caliber, or at least the only one getting the press. That said, the lack of emotional range is a bit of a problem.

But still, I am giving it five starts because each story is beautiful on its own terms and because I want Jenny to read it so that we can discuss!...less

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Danica rated it:

05/08/08

Read in May, 2008

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 short st...more

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Suzanne rated it:

09/28/08

Read in September, 2008

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 of studen...more 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 of student loans or how this education was financed) They all live in the Eastern US.( NY and New England) like the author. They become graduate students, phD students studying and excelling in their academic lives, yet struggling within their individual personal life.
In this work, in the short story with the cover title, 'Unaccustomed Earth' , the "father" more or less advises his daughter not to "give up" her professional life for the child she has, and the one she now carries, because she has worked so long for this. For what? The career? Or being a mother? Or both? This has become a classic struggle hasn't it?
One reviewer suggested that Lahiri is popular to "Non-Indians" because she gives us a glimpse into a life that has been shrouded, one that we Westerners know so little about. True enough. I will agree that my appreciation of her writing includes that component. Has her writing contributed enough information about that life that we can now suggest "stereotype"?
It is a discussable point.
I will leave it at this. The short story form is one in which there are few Masters. Lahiri is at that gate. She is an excellent writer, one who creates a sense of scene and smell, with visual, auditory and olfactory images that stay with you long after the book has been closed.
Nonetheless, this is work #3. She needs to broaden her scope in her next work so she does not become "the Indian writer", something i expect she would view as a personal failure. She has unveiled the mysteries of food, family and tradition in her works...she does not need to define them again next time, but just assume, that we know. And we do, we know more, thanks to her.

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jess rated it:

06/23/08

Read in June, 2008

i have not read her other books, but i understand that these stories are longer than her previous work. these stories are mostly children immigrating from india, or the children of immigrants from india - first-generation, living in the US. this is the primary tie that binds these stories together, but the more inconspicuous element is the push and pull of relationships. mostly in new england, and a little bit of time in seattle, and then stretching the globe to rome, thailand, and back to West...more i have not read her other books, but i understand that these stories are longer than her previous work. these stories are mostly children immigrating from india, or the children of immigrants from india - first-generation, living in the US. this is the primary tie that binds these stories together, but the more inconspicuous element is the push and pull of relationships. mostly in new england, and a little bit of time in seattle, and then stretching the globe to rome, thailand, and back to West Bengal. i read this book completely alone, completely in silence and very deliberately. as i finished the last page, i thanked myself for this gift.

i was most touched by the incredible way that lahiri captures the ways humans touch each other, and the dents we leave in each others' lives. "only goodness" was particularly striking to me, personally; it's the story of a woman, grown, married, with a new baby, and her strained relationship with her alcoholic brother. it was a little close to home, and i found myself in tears turning every page, asking myself the same questions sudha asks herself, laying the same blame, and finding the same rage, regret, and hope buried in myself. the strange and complicated relationships between parents and children were also a major element, including accepting or rejecting our parents' expectations, dealing with loss, death, cancer, and forced emotional distance. throw in secret love affairs, romantic vacations gone horribly awry, and unrequited love, and i was left feeling like lahiri had handed me magical goggles that could lay open the rawness of our daily experiences culminating in decades of joy and grief.

lahiri's stories were beautiful, and each one brought a new truth into my heart. had i read this book a little closer to PMS, i probably would have wept hysterically at every page because there is something very moving in these words, relationships, and experiences, and because it takes so little to put me over the edge when my hormones are off-kilter. ...less

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Dixie Diamond rated it:

05/26/08

bookshelves: fiction, short-story

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 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 for nothing.

One also gets the impression that this is more an exercise of personal therapy than writing intended for an audience. The stories are all pretty similar in theme--distant, old-country parents being disappointed by their first-generation Americanized children; and Americanized children trapped between two cultures--with variations that are, ultimately, trivial. All right, already; get some counseling and move on.

Finally, as a personal irritation, the protagonists of the stories are all weak, indecisive, uninteresting people who cannot stand up either to their Indian elders or the European-Americans in their lives, even European-Americans who are not out to victimize them. If you are so bland and spineless and have no identity apart from that which your unappreciative parents force on you, small wonder you're not happy in your life. There seems to be no middle ground between being your parents' overachieving dream child and being a grand failure (in this case, one character is an alcoholic and one is used and crushed by a worthless boyfriend).

No, I'm not Indian, but I don't think the issues at hand are really Indian-specific. Lots of children of overambitious parents have problems. My mother went through much the same thing as the only one in her blue-collar family to get an advanced degree and leave the geographical area where her entire family had lived for 300 years.

My problem with this set of stories is that the protagonists all seem so powerless and hollow. It seems more like a high-school girl's melodramatic attempt at writing adult life than a real adult's perspective....less

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Ukrainer rated it:

04/25/08

Read in April, 2008

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.

“U...more

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Lena rated it:

07/15/08

bookshelves: fiction

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 daugh...more

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Ben rated it:

09/27/08

bookshelves: anthologies, favourites, from-library

Read in September, 2008

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