Unaccustomed Earth
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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 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
--Daily Telegraph - Books of 2008 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
'Lahiri's enormous gifts as a storyteller are on full display ... gorgeous' Khaled Hosseini 'Probably the most influential writer of fiction in America' Financial Times 'Contains some of the best, most beautiful fiction written this decade - the kind that will be read 50 years from now' New Statesman 'It's difficult to think of a contemporary writer who gives her characters so much dignity ... Fiction of matchless restraint, yet also of rich, complex lives and credible characters' The Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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!
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!
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jhumpa Lahiri, winner of the Pulitzer Prize with her book The Interpreter of Maladies, continues to have one of modern fiction's most powerful voices.
The eight stories in her present book do not disappoint at all. They are wonderfully structured and are filled with acute psychological observations, eloquent writing and detailed descriptions. The main themes are about family secrets and relations. In one of them, there is the story of a widower who has a mistress and who prefers to keep it a secret from his daughter, in another, a married woman who falls platonically in love with a friend, in another, a sister who introduces her brother to alcoholism, in another, the story of a teen who cannot accept the father's new wife, etc.
Lahiri's stories of exile, identity, disappointment, bitterness, relations and maturation are brilliant and extremely realistic. Her language is aesthetically marvelous.
Joyce Åkesson, author of Love's Thrilling Dimensions and The Invitation (amazon.com)
The eight stories in her present book do not disappoint at all. They are wonderfully structured and are filled with acute psychological observations, eloquent writing and detailed descriptions. The main themes are about family secrets and relations. In one of them, there is the story of a widower who has a mistress and who prefers to keep it a secret from his daughter, in another, a married woman who falls platonically in love with a friend, in another, a sister who introduces her brother to alcoholism, in another, the story of a teen who cannot accept the father's new wife, etc.
Lahiri's stories of exile, identity, disappointment, bitterness, relations and maturation are brilliant and extremely realistic. Her language is aesthetically marvelous.
Joyce Åkesson, author of Love's Thrilling Dimensions and The Invitation (amazon.com)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
'the small mirror at the back revealing more than the room at first...
A selection of brilliantly written short stories; in just a few pages Lahiri has us understanding and empathising with the characters... Read more
Published 20 days ago by sally tarbox
Enthralling
Fantastic collection of short stories. Not my normal kind of reading topic, but having read a short story by Lahiri in another collection decided to try this. Read more
Published 12 months ago by W. Wright
Earthly Customs
Really beautiful storytelling. It's subtle - you don't notice being drawn in, but it happens quickly. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mrs. J. M. Galor
Must Read
What a wonderful book. It captured so beautifully the psyche of what makes one Indian, and showed the differences emerging through time across the generations and how the influence... Read more
Published 18 months ago by moonstone
an enchanting read
as an expatriate from the Indian subcontinent to the west in search of a better life, I can identify with many issues that the book deals with through easy to read short stories. Read more
Published on 5 April 2010 by R. Roy
a lovely read.
The book is separated into 8 stories, the last three are connected. Lahiri's use of simple use of story telling with little 'flowery descriptions' made the book seem like you were... Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2010 by J. Miah
Unusual but charming
Unusual because it starts off as a collection of short stories. It is only after a while that a few of the depicted characters resurface merging into the last stories. Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2010 by I LOVE BOOKS
Beautifully written
Such beautifully written stories, ordinary in terms of the everyday things that could happen to anyone but emotionally on a much, much higher plane. Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2009 by uksant
Succinct short stories with a skein of sari...
We read this for our book club and were each allocated a story to talk about. As the meeting got going I immediately heard that we were all discussing the people in the stories as... Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2009 by Mrs. Katharine Kirby
A good book group read
I read this book for a book group that I was leading. We had not realised that they were short stories when the book was recommended so I was a bit concerened how it would fit into... Read more
Published on 25 Oct 2009 by DubaiReader
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