Book Review: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
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Unaccustomed Earth is collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, the author of the famous ”The Namesake“. It earned her Pulitzer award for fiction and catapulted her to a different orbit all together.
Through Unaccustomed Earth, she has tried to unveil the cover to reveal how the most ordinary lives have their secrets. The books starts with the story of a middle aged man who re-discovers his life after his wife’s death. His daughter who thought him to be a burden now finds the tables to be turned. It is followed by the story of a woman falling in love with much younger family friend. The next piece of art is about a son who is revulsed by his father’s second marriage to a young woman who has none of the sophistication and manners his mother had. The book ends with the story of a boy and a girl whose lives cross over the years, finally and fatedly falling in love.
There is one common thread which weaves all the stories in one necklace and that is “acute observations about human relationships.” Jhumpa has created magic out of mundane things in relationships. Her detailing in describing a particular situation forces you to visualize the scene vividly and pushes you to put yourself in that particular character.
One very obvious similarity between Unaccustomed Earth and The Namesake is that both the books have Bengali immigrants (in USA) as their epicenter. And I guess that is one of the reasons why NRI would be able to relate to the book much more.
Though the entire book is a marvelous piece of art, my personal favorite is the very first story titled “Unaccustomed Earth” where a daughter finds tables to be turned when her middle aged father visits her and instead of a burden proves to be a great help.
One warning: Don’t be terribly surprised if you find your eyes moist while reading the book since it actually touches you where it matters the most.
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