Unaccustomed Earth |  | Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Publisher: Knopf
List Price: $25.00
Buy Used: $3.45
as of 11/22/2009 12:57 CST details
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Seller: _athenaeum_
Rating:  196 reviews
Sales Rank: 13470
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st, First North American Edition
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307265730
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780307265739
ASIN: 0307265730
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
From the internationally best-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a superbly crafted new work of fiction: eight stories—longer and more emotionally complex than any she has yet written—that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers.
In the stunning title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father, who carefully tends the earth of her garden, where he and his grandson form a special bond. But he’s harboring a secret from his daughter, a love affair he’s keeping all to himself. In “A Choice of Accommodations,” a husband’s attempt to turn an old friend’s wedding into a romantic getaway weekend with his wife takes a dark, revealing turn as the party lasts deep into the night. In “Only Goodness,” a sister 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 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 Jhumpa Lahiri’s signature gifts: exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is a masterful, dazzling work of a writer at the peak of her powers.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 196
 Unaccostomed Earth November 9, 2009
Beth Hall (san diego,ca)
This is a wonderful read. It gives a view of Bengali culture far beyond any book I have read. We are reading it for our book club and I will be interested to hear what others have to say.
Beautifully Sad.... October 24, 2009
Sarah Chaudhary (Los Angeles, CA)
I think this may be her best work yet. She completely and effortlessly drew me into the emotional worlds of her characters. I grew attached to them, triumphing in their victories and anguishing in their heartbreaks. The stories all had a sad air about them and there were no happy endings in a traditional sense, which made for a bittersweet read. As for the critics who claim Lahiri is just offering up "more of the same" cross cultural stereotypes, I think these powerful stories actually transcend race, gender, and class, and present universal themes of grief, loss, and familial and romantic love that can be appreciated by all. Although she might revisit some underlying issues from her previous works, these tales stand alone as works of pure art.
 A particular culture, but universal struggles October 20, 2009
N. B. Kennedy (Hopewell, NJ USA)
I neglected to pick up this book for the longest time, thinking I would have little interest in cross-cultural struggles of which I've had no experience. But, truthfully, as a reader, you need only have had experience with parents, siblings, boyfriends or girlfriends or any friends at all, to appreciate the stories in this book.
In particular, I was charmed by the title story, that of a father who visits his married daughter and his grandson. The father has a secret, and the daughter has a dilemma. The story is narrated from both of their points of view, and both are utterly sympathetic characters. The daughter's thoughts are so universal to the human experience, regardless of culture, that they struck me as utterly true. For example: "Even with Akash [her son] to care for, part of her was beginning to prefer the solitude, without Adam [her husband] hovering around, full of concern about her state of mind, her mood."
The other stories did not grip me as fully; perhaps because most of them concern young lovers and their dramas. It's just my time of life, I suppose, that makes the relationship between parents and their adult children (and husbands and wives) more interesting to me.
But all of the stories are compelling, and the language spare and beautiful. I rarely read fiction, but have always loved the short story form, because the brevity forces an author to pare down events and emotions to their essential core. I also appreciated Ms. Lahiri's understated characters; they seemed like real people to me. I recently read Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs and was frustrated with the outlandish characters who populated that book. Few writers show the restraint that Ms. Lahiri does. For some readers, that translates into boredom; for me, it is a pathway to engagement.
Great book! October 2, 2009
Bob (Boston, MA USA)
A fantastic set of short stories that deal with people who have transplanted themselves in the United States.
Lyrical and Rich October 1, 2009
mcryan
Lahiri's prose is melodious and full. Her characters are gently coaxed into the light. She weaves a unique tapestry of interconnected stories and by the end, they all come together as one. Not everyone may be a fan but I would recommend this book to anyone. Her style is original.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 196
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