Book Price Comparisons
|
| ||||||||||||
 Lahiri Penetrates the Challenges Between Cultures and Generations with Emotional Acuity Anyone who has been fortunate enough to read Jhumpa Lahiri's previous works like Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake already know the lushness of her prose and the emotional depth of her characters when they read her latest collection of short stories. She again focuses on the intractable bridge between old and new cultures and generations in her piercing look at the lives of expatriate Bengalis and their first-generation American-born children. The precarious balance the younger generation discovers they need to maintain is more than recognizing the disparities between Asian and Western cultures. It becomes an introspective struggle between maintaining traditional values and assimilating into the meritocratic American system. Primarily in their thirties and often feeling adrift in this cross-generational quagmire, they are silently ambivalent about their parents, traversing between betrayal and awe in mercurial strokes. Each of the eight stories is meticulously crafted by Lahiri to amplify her unifying theme with a minimum of contrivance. The title story focuses on an aging widower's visit with his daughter Ruma's family in Seattle. He has felt inordinately liberated since his wife's death, and now Ruma wants him to live permanently with her family. They struggle to reach a level of intimacy they have never known before. A similar struggle can be found in "Only Goodness", in which a rehabilitated alcoholic attempts to return to his estranged family through his elder sister. Even relationships that seem established on the surface such as the cross-cultural marriage at the center of the subtle "A Choice of Accommodations" unravel in small details as they travel to the wedding of an old friend. A non-Indian perspective is also represented in "Nobody's Business" where a student named Paul gets involved in the personal affairs of his housemate Sangeeta. A surprising jewel of a tale, "Hell-Heaven" spells out a housewife's attraction toward a younger man in subtly engrossing terms. My favorite part of the book is the three-part story under the umbrella title of "Hema and Kaushik" that ends the collection because it best summarizes Lahiri's concept of assimilation, specifically coming to terms with a constant disorientation. The first story, "Once in a Lifetime", introduces us to the two characters as teens with Kaushik having just returned from India. The middle and best story, "Year's End", flashes forward with Kaushik having become a globetrotting photojournalist who comes to realize his unaccustomed earth is his own home in Massachusetts where his father's new family has effectively eradicated any trace of late mother's life. Lahiri poignantly shows how his journey is not about fitting in or settling down but embracing one's heritage to forge one's destiny in full. The final story is a bit anticlimactic with Hema and Kaushik meeting again in Italy. Regardless, the author is fully aware of how the world's irrationalities pose a constant challenge to her characters. She knows they remain true to themselves only by keeping vigil on their culture. Great Book! A good follow up to The Namesake, although not quite as gripping as Interpreter of the Maladies. The set of unconnected stories has Lahiri's famous Indian originated complex charcters who don't ever really belong anywhere. She does a great job of helping viewers see these imperfect people strive to achieve a balance in their lives. My favorite is last set of stories connecting Hema and Kaushik. Their lives from each one's point of view and the unexpected ending was really moving. Keep up the great work Mrs. Lahiri! Beautifully written Following the enormously successful 'The Interpreter of Maladies' and 'The Namesake', Ms. Lahiri weaves a beautiful set of stories in this evocative collection. In her inimitable style, we view the world in the persona of the protagonists - taciturn, often Bengali. They do much of the "talking" sans dialogue, expressing their complex and deep emotions about the world around them. It is here that Ms.Lahiri's literary magic really becomes apparent. She paints broad brush strokes of time and emotion yet is remarkably descriptive of the smallest facets, taking us into the mind of her characters. In amazing detail, she outlines the smallest bits of scenery, without ever sounding verbose or dull. While one may not have ventured to all of her locales - Calcutta, Seattle or her favorite Ivy League settings in the northeast or an autumnal Italy, her vivid descriptions enable us to be right there. For the first half of the book, we are taken for 50-60 pages at a time into the lives of Ruma, a daughter who feels a strong sense of duty towards her widowed father who visits her and bonds with his grandson, all while concealing his secret love affair, to the "crush" of a married woman for another man as seen through the eyes of her daughter. The couple Megan and Amit who attend a weekend wedding with their own marriage having a crisis moment to Sudha grappling with her guilt at her brother's alcoholism to the story of Paul who harbors unreciprocated feelings for his housemate Sang and is drawn into her life in a manner he never anticipates. The second half of the book deals with the stories of Hema and Kaushik as their lives intersect as kids, the secret and kinship they share, Kaushik's life and a chance encounter decades later that leaves so much behind and yet doesn't. One does not have to be Bengali or even Indian to appreciate the universal appeal of the human stories she deftly weaves - infidelity, familial interactions with parents and siblings, love, loss and longing and of course her themes of straddling two cultures. She writes as before, of immigrants who struggle to adjust and who build their own little bubbles. But the feelings are global as is Kaushik the photojournalist who thinks "he had so little to do with India.....and yet.....he was always regarded as an Indian first". The subset of people who may have roots in both Calcutta and the US is probably limited. A few uniquely Bengali mentions - to wit, a grimy "flat" in Maniktala, chanachur (an Indian snack for "tea" time), Haldiram's (purveyor of the same) and words like dada and boudi (for elder brother and sister-in law often not used in a strict relational sense) merely ignite a sense of kinship with the author. Her richly textured writing make these literary easter eggs all the more savory while one knows that almost everyone is likely to find situations, feelings and characters that they can relate to. Some of the stories do not really come to "fruition" in a conventional sense. The complexities of what may transpire next are left to our imaginations. The characters and their stories leave a sense of poignancy that lasts long after. Flawlessly written stories about regret There is nothing flashy about author Jhumpa Lahiri's writing. It's simply true. She writes flawlessly about secrets held close, about heartbreak and regret. At the end of each of these quiet stories, you feel an emotional wallop. The characters invariably include a person or persons of Indian descent -- usually a Bengali. I was unfamiliar with Indian culture when I began reading Unaccustomed Earth, but it didn't hurt my enjoyment or understanding. The stories are universal. You only need to be human to relate to the characters and their situations. My heart ached for these people, because I recognized them. The retired widower yearning for a new life. The silent mother hiding a broken heart. The charming brother giving in to weakness, ruining all that is good. These people could easily be my relatives, my closest of friends, or yours. Everyone has a secret to hide. Everyone regrets. Although the stories are often sad, they always ring true. This book is an empathetic look at what it is to be human. | |||||||||||||
