Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #646877 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
'Unaccustomed Earth defied publishing industry wisdom that says short stories don't make the bestseller lists, and no wonder'
--Daily Telegraph - Books of 2008

The New York Times Book Review (April 2008)
'Splendid . . . Reading her stories is like watching time-lapse nature videos of different plants, each with its own inherent growth cycle, breaking through the soil, spreading into bloom or collapsing back to earth.'

People (April 2008)
'Reading her stories is hypnotizing-like falling into a dream where colors are brighter, smells sharper and time moves more slowly than in real life.'

Customer Reviews

So rich: like a collection of mini novels
I am not usually a reader of short stories, but this book defied many of my prejudices. I loved it. Jhumpa Lahiri's writing is beautiful. With just a few paragraphs, she can immerse you in a story so that you end up feeling as satisfied as if you've read an entire novel. She also has a wonderful eye for detail and a way of describing everyday events or objects so you feel that you've never really thought about them in that way before.

There are eight stories in this book. The final three feature the same characters but the others stand alone. However they are all quite similar in that they feature highly educated Bengali Indians living in the US and often in mixed race relationships. There are also similar themes that repeat: learning to move on after losing a loved one or the relationships between parents and their adult children.

While I enjoyed all of the stories in this book, I was particularly moved by the first (Unaccustomed Earth) and the last (Going Ashore). They are the two in which I felt the most involved and really cared about the characters. I felt somewhat detached from the others (hence the 4 star rating). However I still enjoyed them and I recommend this book without hesitation - do not let the fact that it's short stories put you off!

Bengali TCK Bonanza!
As a Third Culture Kid (TCK) myself, from India, I could completely relate to the characters, their feelings, behaviour, thoughts and relationship dynamics with others. There were traces of my father in Ruma's father; of both my parents in Sudha's parents. The most captivating sotires to me were Nobody's Business because of the simplicity and complexity of love reltaionships and Part Two - Hema and Kaushik's sotry.

H and K, unlike the characters in the other stories, are given longer to develop their love story. The reader lives through glimpses of their childhood, teen years and university life. All eventually leading to their professional lives where they come together and have a love affair. Even though one of them is living out of a suitcase and the ohter is engaged to be married.

Throughout the stories, Lahiri accurately captures the emotion and conflicts of Indian immigrants to the US and briefly to London. There is a melancholy underlying the characters and their various relationships with partners, friends, room-mates and parents as Lahiri brings out their longer to belong to someone or some place matched with their sense of detachment to people and places in different ways. In short, their book, like her first, is a must-read for every Indian immigrant and third culture kid out there.

A moving and satisfying read
I had previously read 'the Interpreter of maladies' and 'the namesake' and so was already a Jhumpa Lahiri fan. These stories are beautifully written, and the characters are credible and sympathetic. Her subject matter is mainly family life and its tensions, first and second generation Bengali immigrants to the US and the changes in cultural identity and lifestyle which occur from one to the other. But that is to simplify her scope; none of her characters are predictable or stereotypical, and their dilemmas cross cultural and racial boundaries. I found the stories very moving and would recommend them highly.