Unaccustomed Earth

By Jhumpa Lahiri

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Interpreter of Maladies: These eight stories take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand, as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.
 
“Glorious.... Showcases a considerable talent in full bloom.” —San Francisco Chronicle

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9780307268686

Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri has been a Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, but is currently teaching in New York. She has published her fiction in various US journals including the New Yorker, and has won several US prizes for her work.

Reviews for Unaccustomed Earth

[alanna1122 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite authors. Her writing is so beautiful and real. She never disappoints.

[natalieg-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this even more than The Namesake, which I loved.

[lisalynne_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The first thing that struck me about Unaccustomed Earth was how sad the stories all seemed. Though not really tragic, there seemed to be no happy endings in sight for any of these characters.There are strong themes of duty and obligation running through these stories. Parents deal with the difficulties of arranged marriages, adjusting to a new culture and children who seem more American than Bengali. Children are expected to live up to extremely high standards or cause their parents tremendous shame. They want to be truly American, to move away from the old-world traditions of the parents, yet they often seem to gravitate back, finding comfort in old ways. I found the same thread in Lahiri's earlier book, The Namesake.Full review is here.

[janismack · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I like this author’s writing style. Her prose is simple yet rich in detail. She has a way of revealing the inner most of her characters simply and effectively.

[abergsman-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Part Two, Hema and Kaushik is the gem of this short story collection. Whereas the first five stories are independent of each other, the last three are intimately connected, both beautiful and tragic.

[viviennestrauss · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One heartbreaking story after another.... I wish I could give this more than 5 stars.

[quaintlittlehead · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book of short stories (and one novella) is a breath of fresh air. It tells the tales of a number of (mostly) Bengali immigrants to the United States, but the heritage that binds them is far less significant than the experiences that bind them to all of us. Lahiri manages to make each protagonist feel like an everyman, probing wistfully those small but significant occurrences that can somehow unexpectedly send us into questioning our own place in this world. I found it a surprisingly cathartic read and highly recommend it to anyone who is at a point of transition in their life.

[renbedell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely amazing collection of 8 short stories that will take you on a journey of emotions as characters deal with themes such as family, relationships, and grief. Each story is incredibly written, with no words wasted, and filled with events that make it seem like they must be real. They all center around a Bengali character living in a different country, but any first generation person will be able to relate and anybody else will be able to appreciate. The stories can be incredibly sad, but also very moving. The 8 stories are all self-contained, but the last 3 are very connected. It is clear why this book won so many awards.

[tangledwing · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Especially the title story, which is a masterpiece.

[bookaddict45 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of the best collections of short stories that I have ever read. The writing is amazing. The author really knows how to distinguish the different characters by showcasing their thoughts, emotions and personalities so well. I literally enjoyed every single story. I am a huge fan of this author now.

[fhudnell-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the third book I've read by his author, and my least favorite. I confess that I am not a huge fan of short stories and I found this collection uneven. I liked the first story, "Unaccustomed Earth" and the final trio of related stories, collectively, "Hema and Kaushik", although these stories took a long time to get to the payoff. Generally, however, I was not engaged by these stories. Perhaps there was too much first person naval-gazing for me. There were stale marriages, adulterous relationships, cheating partners, alcoholic relatives and a couple of widowed fathers, but most of these characters were not that interesting to me. I listened to the audiobook and the female narrator was much better than the male one.

[ciruelo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri, is a book of short stories divided into two sections, with the second section one long story separated into three parts. This is the author’s third book and the experiences of Bengali immigrants and their American children are once again explored. Expertly written, the stories are both subtle and haunting. Past themes of dislocation, loss, and grief are revisited, as well as tender, unexpected love. My appreciation for Unaccustomed Earth is only tempered by the familiarity of the stories to others in Lahiri’s previous books.

[rascalstar · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent stories and writing. Eight stories, some of which are linked. Even the separate ones have a common thread. Jhumpa Lahiri is a Pulitzer Prize winner and internationally best selling author. The details are exquisite. I listened to this on CD, and it's so rich, that I'll read the book as well, which I have at home. Having heard it, the special voices in it during reading will resonate more. It's one worth listening to before reading. There are strong accents that lend so much atmosphere and authenticity, and you may not pick that up in simply reading.

[steve02476 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful collection of stories. I love her writing. I loved the dialogue and the gentle humor. A lot was melancholy but never tragic, just very human.

[klburnside · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book, as I have all of Jhumpa Lahiri's books. I was wavering between 4 and 5 starts. As it is in any short story collection, some stories were better than others. The endings of some of the stories are what I struggled with a bit. When I got to the end of some of the stories, I would think, "that's it? it can't end there!" but then as i thought about it, i realized that is what i liked about the story, is that it did end there. it was more like life. conflicts aren't perfectly resolved or even resolved at all, people don't get over their own hangups, relationships are never perfect....but life goes on...and i guess that was the beauty of the book.

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lahiri's lyric prose is built from attention to detail and emotion, revolving around immigration and coming-of-age stories that ring true with readers across cultures. The first part of this novel will ring familiar to readers already accustomed to Lahiri's work, and may even come across as repetitive or less striking. Yet, in the second part of this collection, all of her beauty and power strikes through.In the first part, each story is separate, the characters reminiscent of those she explored in Interpreter of Maladies, her first collection. The stories are lovely in and of themselves...but they are not so unique or powerful, maybe particularly to readers already familiar with her work since these stories pursue the same themes already so often explored in her works.Yet, the second part of this collection is a trio of linked stories which are as unique, powerful, and disarming as anything else she has written. I admit: in the first portion of this work, I wasn't bored...but I wasn't so sure I'd seek her work out in the future. In the second portion, I couldn't bring myself to put the work down. As when I first discovered her work, her characters and her prose disarmed me and brought me near to tears, striking as anything I've read in recent years.Read the first part for her lovely attention to detail, to characters, to emotion, and to polished writing. Read the second part for her unique power, and for what we look for in fiction with each story we escape to.Recommended, absolutely.

[emilyingreen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another great collection of short stories from the author of Namesake, Interpreter of Maladies. Some of them were developed better than others and some characters a little on the flat side, but the language and sentiment won out in the end.

[chrisway · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A nice collection of short stories.

[timbazzett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There has already been a plethora of praise heaped on Jhumpa Lahiri's fiction, and rightly so. I suspect that even years from now she will be recognized as the writer who most eloquently depicted the India-to-America immigrant experience. And the stories in her third book, UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, continue to document that phenomenon. Her emigrant characters ring true as fully realized human beings trying their best to make lives in a new and strange culture. And the first generation children of those people are equally challenged, torn between being faithful to the Indian traditions their parents try to instill in them and the desire to become fully American.My only problem with this book - and I should emphasize that it is MY problem - is that the characters from the eight stories herein began to run together and I found myself paging back and forth trying to figure out if I'd seen this character in a previous piece. And indeed, in the second part of the book, the viewpoints do shift between Hema and Kaushik, whose paths in life intersect periodically. I think perhaps the obvious answer to MY problem would have been to simply slow down and take some timeouts between stories. Which posed another problem: I couldn't wait to see what the next story would bring.But what the hell. Lahiri is simply a story teller of the first order, i.e. damn good. I'm looking forward now to reading her first book of stories, the one that got her the Pulitzer, and also the new novel, THE LOWLAND. This book? Highly recommended.

[chickadee2_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Collection of a few novelettes, but I didn't enjoy them. They were sad and just when I was getting the feel for the characters, the story ended.

[ariahfine-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book and plan on reading more of Lahiri's writing. This was a collection of fiction short stories. many following the stories of individuals or families transition from India (Bengali) to the United States. They were excellent and engaging stories with lots of different themes, lending some insight into the experiences and emotions involved in the common experience of moving from one culture to another. That was not the focus of the stories, only what tied them together, each individuals story giving you little glimpses into their lives and emotions they are wrestling with.

I'd definitely recommend it to others.

[shabacus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

These are beautiful stories, but they are not happy stories. The use of language is amazing, metaphors woven effortlessly into the text of the story, narrators (either in the first or third person) who have true voices, characters that jump out at the page.My biggest criticism is the depressing sameness of the themes--regret, sadness, missed opportunities, betrayal, unrequited longing. The world seen through Lahiri's eyes is a bleak and hopeless one. These thematic elements certainly provided a sense of unity to the stories in the collection, but they did not improve my appreciation of them.Overall, this is a collection I'm glad to have read, but not one that I'd read, as I did, on a rainy day.

[writermala · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

JhumpaLahiri has done a brilliant job of exploring the collective Bengali psyche using colourful characters who are different as chalk and cheese , yet remarkably Bengali. This makes for excellent reading.

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I kept running into Jhumpa Lahiri's books here on LibraryThing. With the release of The Lowlands, there have been discussions about whether she's a better short story writer than a novelist and I would like to have an opinion! So the only reasonable thing to do was to read something by her and Unaccustomed Earth was close at hand. Set primarily in Cambridge, Massachusetts, [Unaccustomed Earth] is a collection of short stories dealing primarily with the experience of being a second generation Indian immigrant, with parents who still prefer traditional foods, are still deeply rooted in Indian culture and who spend their vacations back in India. The children float between the world of their parents and American culture, which adds a layer of complexity to the ordinary struggle to become an adult and to find a purpose and a place in the world. Lahiri writes with subtlety and understanding. I especially liked the series of stories alternating between two characters who are tangentially connected by the friendship between their parents.As to whether Lahiri is a better short story writer or novelist; I'm still unqualified to have an opinion. Her short stories are awfully good, however.

[anietzerck · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this collection of short stories, Lahiri portrays what it is like with cultures collide, especially in the department of love. I enjoyed reading this book. I think she did a good job exposing some of the emotions that are affected through this quick tales.

[phyllis.shepherd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an excellent collection of interconnected short stories. All of them explore the experience of first- and second-generation immigrants from India, not only their awareness of being different from their American friends and neighbors, but also the problems that are common to people of all ethnic backgrounds.The characters and plots are always compelling in Lahiri's works, but in this collection I was struck by the beauty with which each story ended. There may not have been a neat "solution," but I always felt that each one ended in just the right place. That is so often not the case, as we may be left wanting more information or the ending may feel rushed and contrived. Just another reason why I so admire Jhumpa Lahiri's work.

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have another book to add to my list of favorites. I just finished Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. A collection of short stories about Bengali immigrants - this book will touch your heart. Lahiri does a wonderful job in her portrayal of a wide cast of complex characters. As an American with immigrant parents, I can completely relate to the stories about children worrying that they can't achieve their parents' high expectations. 'What?? No PhD? How can we face our neighbors?' The narration of this audiobook is performed by Sarita Choudhury and Ajay Naidu. They are absolutely perfect and made this audiobook a joy from begining to end. 5 stars!

[megantron-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

clean, unpretentious writing. the strongest stories are the title story and "hell-heaven" --perhaps because these focus on the immigrant Bengali parents in addition to their 2nd gen children. both stories are perfectly paced and compelling in their own, quiet way and I can see them being anthologized.

part 2 ("Hema and Kaushik") is much weaker than part 1. Kaushik is an unsympathetic little shithead and Hema's presence barely registers.

the stories get a little repetitive-- they all feature characters who work in academia and who went to liberal arts schools like Swarthmore. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there's no need to say the same thing using three stories.

3.5 stars, but I'm rounding down because part 2 dragged on forever.

[banjo123 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

She is a good writer. All of the stories are about Indian immigrant families, and parent/child relations in some way, as well as exploring love and marriage. The first story, I think my favorite, was about a young mother, living in a Seattle suburb, as a stay-at-home mother, who is visited by her widowed father. The story alternates between their two viewpoints; she asks him to move in with them, but he doesn't want to. In general there is a distance and a negativity between the characters; all of whom are financially privileged and graduates of top colleges. There is very little lightness or levity, and I ended most of the stories feeling sad and a bit hopeless. Fair enough, life can be sad, and the immigrant experience is hard.

[zarad.garcia7alvarez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lahiri depicts the restraint of her characters perfectly and reveals to us the private desires that cause conflict with the traditions and expectations of Indian cultural and societal norms. But, by doing so, she redefines love and the inevitability of the sorrow it sometimes carries.

She is a queen of dichotomy. Though her characters have inner strength that persist and drive them further into their stories, their strength is also what makes them the victims of their own helplessness.

From Ruma’s father in his inability to share with his daughter, the acknowledgement of his feelings for another woman after the death of his wife. To Ruma, herself, who is unable to recover from her mother’s death, only to cope by denying herself a successful career and a rich relationship with her husband and son. The restraint in the relationship between “Baba” and Ruma contain within its silences and tension, a depth of love and feeling that can only be understood by grief, denial, and the need to protect those you love.

The story of Pranab Chakraborty and Boudi and their unrequited love that evolved within the boundaries of family friendship, compatibility, and all that is lacking in the current marriage to another is a tight-lipped, repressed, and torturous story of one who carries the burden of secret love, while the other remains oblivious to his lover’s personal sacrifice and loss.

The story of Amit and Megan shares the reality of a marriage that has reached its low season dented by babies and the monotony of routine. It also shows how people from the past can resurrect old feelings, yet reassure us that passion can still spring up from the loyalty and trust found in married love.

The story of Sudha and Rahul speak of weakened family ties due to the powerful stronghold of addiction and the loss of relationship and trust that can occur when someone is held by the compulsion of a vice and old stereotypes.

In the story of Sang, Paul, Farsouk, and Deidre, there is truth in the tangles of love, desire, and manipulation. It shows us of the compulsions we have against our better judgement and the inability to see clearly when we feel we are in love.

Lastly, the story of Hema and Kaushik is a small novella that shares with us two opposing lives, which are drawn to each other by family ties and later by circumstance and/or fate. The drama of their passion and love, though restrained by the reality of other entanglements, seem inevitable and, yet, also seem inevitable to suffer a sad demise.

Overall, I found the book, “Unaccustomed Earth” to be filled with good stories, though desolate and bleak. I was inspired by love, but disappointed by the failings of sometimes the characters or the outcome.

Still, after reading the book, I yearned for the stories to continue; for the characters to continue on in their vignettes, if not to provide a glimpse to a more resilient hope of something better for the characters themselves, but also an affirmation that love and lovers actually do “conquer all.”

Compared to Lahiri’s other works, this collection is darker and more sombre in its tone. Your heart will break, but insist in some way that this is the way it must be so.