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Author : Jhumpa Lahiri Publisher : Knopf Manufacturer : Knopf
Description
From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories—longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written—that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers.
In the stunning title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father, who carefully tends the earth of her garden, where he and his grandson form a special bond. But he’s harboring a secret from his daughter, a love affair he’s keeping all to himself. In “A Choice of Accommodations,” a husband’s attempt to turn an old friend’s wedding into a romantic getaway weekend with his wife takes a dark, revealing turn as the party lasts deep into the night. In “Only Goodness,” a sister eager to give her younger brother the perfect childhood she never had is overwhelmed by guilt, anguish, and anger when his alcoholism threatens her family. And in “Hema and Kaushik,” a trio of linked stories—a luminous, intensely compelling elegy of life, death, love, and fate—we follow the lives of a girl and boy who, one winter, share a house in Massachusetts. They travel from innocence to experience on separate, sometimes painful paths, until destiny brings them together again years later in Rome.
Unaccustomed Earth is rich with Jhumpa Lahiri’s signature gifts: exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is a masterful, dazzling work of a writer at the peak of her powers.
Customer reviews for 'Unaccustomed Earth'
«Book of short stories - Cover to cover without a break?»
It was definitely entertaining (I might have used "gripping" if it were a novel) enough to from cover to cover without a break. Even though it was about immigrant families from West Bengal (which I have never visited) living mostly on the East Coast of America (in cities and towns I have never heard of), she created a sense of association, call it connection, with the characters.
The little girl torn between two different cultures at home and at school, the teenager struggling in college and thereafter to prove herself, the accomplished professional resigning to an arranged marriage "to fix it", the expectant mom of a toddler, the parents wanting their kids to have the best of both worlds... they all hit home for this particular audience. Not sure if it would be the same outside the diaspora.
[Wednesday, October 22, 2008]
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«It was so good, it made me cry»
I LOVED this book. I especially enjoyed the Hema & Kaushik triology. Lahiri's writing just seems to flow with ease, and it's a pleasure to read. I just love the way her stories unfold very carefully. I actually liked this collection of short stories even more than Interpreter of Maladies. It's the best book I've read in years.
[Wednesday, October 15, 2008]
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«Rich with detail and complexity, these short stories are novels that end too soon»
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.
[Friday, October 10, 2008]
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