Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Unaccustomed Earth
Book Review: A little disappointed
Summary: 3 Stars
As much as I admire Ms. Lahiri for her remarkable writing skills, I was disappointed with her new book. I've been a big fan of hers ever since I read 'The Interpreter of Maladies' but as I was reading 'The Namesake' and 'Unaccustomed Earth' over the past few years I could not help but feeling that her subject matters are very limited and characters are always the same. She seems to find the stories only from her own family and the range of her experiences is very narrow. It is still enjoyable to read her writings but it would be nice to read about something else, beyond her own family history (that is, stories about London-born, Americanized, Ivy-league educated young people of the Bengali origins)Book Review: A particular culture, but universal struggles
Summary: 4 Stars
I neglected to pick up this book for the longest time, thinking I would have little interest in cross-cultural struggles of which I've had no experience. But, truthfully, as a reader, you need only have had experience with parents, siblings, boyfriends or girlfriends or any friends at all, to appreciate the stories in this book.
In particular, I was charmed by the title story, that of a father who visits his married daughter and his grandson. The father has a secret, and the daughter has a dilemma. The story is narrated from both of their points of view, and both are utterly sympathetic characters. The daughter's thoughts are so universal to the human experience, regardless of culture, that they struck me as utterly true. For example: "Even with Akash [her son] to care for, part of her was beginning to prefer the solitude, without Adam [her husband] hovering around, full of concern about her state of mind, her mood."
The other stories did not grip me as fully; perhaps because most of them concern young lovers and their dramas. It's just my time of life, I suppose, that makes the relationship between parents and their adult children (and husbands and wives) more interesting to me.
But all of the stories are compelling, and the language spare and beautiful. I rarely read fiction, but have always loved the short story form, because the brevity forces an author to pare down events and emotions to their essential core. I also appreciated Ms. Lahiri's understated characters; they seemed like real people to me. I recently read Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs and was frustrated with the outlandish characters who populated that book. Few writers show the restraint that Ms. Lahiri does. For some readers, that translates into boredom; for me, it is a pathway to engagement.
Book Review: A perfect "10" -- have to settle for 5 stars
Summary: 5 Stars
To be brutally honest, short stories are a genre I usually avoid. I find myself frustrated with having to start and stop the story and my (usual) inability to get into the flow and inhabit the fictional world. When it comes to Jhumpa Lahiri, none of the above holds true and I will read anything she writes, in any genre. This collection of eight short stories is just as fabulous as "Interpreter of Maladies" and her full-length novel "The Namesake". Three books, three knockout winners in my opinion.
The first five stories are independent of each other and the final three are interwoven with the characters. Each story typically runs 40 pages so there is enough time to fully develop these characters and she does it so well. Telling the stories of second generation Bengalis, Ms. Lahiri explores all aspects of being immigrants and the children of immigrants but particularly shines as it relates to the conflict between the parents looking back to India and the children looking forward to the United States. Each story is an absolute jewel that creates a world where the reader can enter, enjoy and then exit all within the span of relatively few pages. Very few authors can do this to my satisfaction and she is the best I have found.
Outstanding book and incredibly talented author overall.
Book Review: A true gem
Summary: 5 Stars
When I saw the advertisement for this book in a magazine, I bought it the very next day. After reading both The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri has found a permamnent place in my list of authors to read and recommend. In Unaccostomed Earth, she writes candidly about the everyday and mundane. Her work is relatable yet sophisticated; dependable, and surprising all at once. I give this book, as well as all of her work, five stars.Book Review: A very special book
Summary: 5 Stars
Jhumpa Lahiri is one of the rare authors that I can feel the passion and joy of writing. When I read each one of her - sometimes - elaborated sentences, it comes with so much power that I cannot stop to envision, in the back of my mind, the pleasure Jhumpa Lahiri must have felt when she was putting together her thoughts on paper. Reading her brings me a ray of emotions. It is as drinking a very special wine, when all the flavors mixed together into something cohesive. Larihi is the grand cours of the literary word.
The themes are generation gap, the cultural gap, West vs. East, family, marriage, kids, death, building a career, Ivy League schools, geographic distances, love affairs, the 80s, Bengalis, New England (especially Boston and its suburbs) and a little bit of London. Anyone who has family and/or kids and/or experienced death in their family would easily relate with these story. Common household tasks, like working on the garden, washing dishes, throwing trash, are dramatically described, but the action always moves forward. All stories have beautiful ending. Sometime sadness, but never depression.
It is pure pleasure.