Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri

Hello,

Finished reading "Unaccustomed Earth," a collection of short stories, by Jhumpa Lahiri. The lives of expatriate Bengalis and their first-generation American-born children are once again the theme of the stories as were her earlier highly successful, Pulitzer Prize- winning story collection "Interpreter of Maladies" and her novel "The Namesake, which then was also made into a very successful film.

In "Unaccustomed Earth" we see the second generation Bengali kids struggle with their identities as their elders start adopting the American way of life. The stories try to show to us a struggle to adapt by individuals and the conflict between the desire to remain close to the roots and the need to adapt to the American way of life.

In the opening story we have a daughter trying to get over the loss of her mother, trying to maintain the filial relationship with her father as he struggles to let her know that he has moved beyond the past. The inability of the daughter to be Indian and the struggle of the father to acknowledge his Americanism is well depicted.

Bringing them both under one roof, Jhumpa creates a tension that gets exciting to finally end in the daughter voicing her needs and then getting to know about her father's secret by accident.

Told in simple sentences, you identify with the characters' innermost feelings. Ruma's vulnerability and her father's rising panic is transformed into a compelling emotional landscape.
I really liked the way the father looks at his marriage "the entire enterprise of having a family, of putting children on this earth, as gratifying as it sometimes felt, was flawed from the start." But this is of course hindsight and as he thinks somewhere else "He did not want to be part of another family, part of the mess, the feuds, the demands, the energy of it."

The second story "Hell Heaven" once again is a struggle between the 'have done' and 'could not do' the transition kind of American Bengalis. Pranab Chakraborty playing with the emotions of a simple housewife and then moving on to greener American pastures to finally in a very American manner cheat on his wife, leaving Aparna to long secretly for a moment of bliss, but not being able to gather the courage to take things in her hand. She is finally able to get over her burden when she narrates the story, to her daughter, who was then nursing a broken heart herself, of how she had almost ended her life after Pranab had decided to get married .

In "The choice of Accommodation" we have another Bengali, Amit, struggle to honour his marriage vows as he is haunted by the love of his childhood and youth. He is finally being able to do justice to his marriage after wedding of his affection takes place at the school where it all started. By bringing him back to the school dorm, Jhumpa gives his life a new beginning which is as open and uninhibited as the love making of Amit and Megan at the end of the story.

"Only Goodness" talks about the relationship between a brother and sister and ends up in a near disaster as the brother almost kills the child of his sister when he finds himself failing to kill his obsession for alcohol. The struggle of the brother is wonderfully depicted as he goes back to the source, her sister, her fight with her guilt, about having introduced him to it.

The stories about Sangeeta in "Nobody's business" and the next set of three stories about Hema and Kaushik are just fine. In fact the simplicity is missing as the situations turn contrived at the end.

All in all the stories are all well told but the length is something I have complains about. It has something of an Alice Munroe or John Updike kind of fixation for description of the landscape that at time turns boring. This is mostly in the last three stories as Jhumpa tries to convey meaning to the lonliness and solitude by taking the protagonist through several towns and events.

Love,

Manoj