| Unaccustomed Earth |  | Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Rating:  122 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
ISBN: 0676979351
EAN: 9780676979350
ASIN: 0676979351
Publication Date: April 14, 2009 (In 131 Days)
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Product Description
Knopf Canada is proud to welcome this bestselling, Pulitzer Prize—winning author with eight dazzling stories that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.
In the stunning title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father who carefully tends her garden–where she later unearths evidence of a love affair he is keeping to himself. In “A Choice of Accommodations,” a couple’s romantic getaway weekend takes a dark turn at a party that lasts deep into the night. In “Only Goodness,” a woman eager to give her younger brother the perfect childhood she never had is overwhelmed by guilt, anguish and anger when his alcoholism threatens her family. And in “Hema and Kaushik,” a trio of linked stories–a luminous, intensely compelling elegy of life, death, love and fate–we follow the lives of a girl and boy who, one fateful winter, share a house in Massachusetts. They travel from innocence to experience on separate, sometimes painful paths, until destiny brings them together again years later in Rome.
Unaccustomed Earth is rich with the author’s signature gifts: exquisite prose, emotional wisdom and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is the work of a writer at the peak of her powers.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 117 more reviews...
 A writer's workbook November 27, 2008
Raymond D. Marshall (Thompson Falls, MT USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jhumpa Lahiri is a writer's writer. These stories are very romantic about missed loves. She uses stream of consciousness, changes of point of view, description, storytelling, and other writing techniques very well. I am amazed at her style.
She writes what she knows. She is a Bengali immigrant. Her characters and stories reflect that heritage. Her stories contain culture but are not limited to the culture. She is describing the human condition that is universal to all: A father who is trying to make a new life and trying to make up to a daughter for past ills; a flat-mate who falls in love with another but dares not express that love; parents that set unrealistic standards for their children. The situations are real and universal. I learn about the Bengali people but I also learn about life through her writing.
I was expecting a full novel instead of short stories in the first part of the book and a novella in the second part. She writes about the different garments and dishes but explain them well. Her purpose is not to do that. Her purpose is to tell the story and detailed descriptions of the foods and garments would distract. The reader can always go to Google for more detailed information.
The book kept my focus. A good read as they say. But more importantly for me, I found myself smiling at the style and techniques in admiration and jealousy.
Bengali beauties November 26, 2008
Evelyn Bibi (Virginia, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Loved it! So real: some stories are so sad. Great writing, as always.
Evelyn
Jhumpa's emotional masterpiece November 21, 2008
Soultan of Swing (USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Jhumpa Lahiri writes about the people she knows best. Although all the stories deal with Bengali families, the incidents could be common to any Indian family living in the USA, and any non-resident Indian (NRI) can relate to them. She preys on the reader's emotions throughout the book, with a rather gut-wrenching finale to most of the stories.
 Book of short stories - Cover to cover without a break? October 22, 2008
bakermom (CA, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It was definitely entertaining (I might have used "gripping" if it were a novel) enough to from cover to cover without a break. Even though it was about immigrant families from West Bengal (which I have never visited) living mostly on the East Coast of America (in cities and towns I have never heard of), she created a sense of association, call it connection, with the characters.
The little girl torn between two different cultures at home and at school, the teenager struggling in college and thereafter to prove herself, the accomplished professional resigning to an arranged marriage "to fix it", the expectant mom of a toddler, the parents wanting their kids to have the best of both worlds... they all hit home for this particular audience. Not sure if it would be the same outside the diaspora.
It was so good, it made me cry October 15, 2008
F. Essa (Los Angeles, CA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I LOVED this book. I especially enjoyed the Hema & Kaushik triology. Lahiri's writing just seems to flow with ease, and it's a pleasure to read. I just love the way her stories unfold very carefully. I actually liked this collection of short stories even more than Interpreter of Maladies. It's the best book I've read in years.
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