Unaccustomed Earth

In these eight stories, Lahiri explores familiar terrain—generational conflicts in which children defy their parents’ traditional behaviors and dreams while carrying those burdens into their own lives. In the title story, Ruma, pregnant with her second child, feels dislocated by her family’s move to Seattle. In a surprising turn of events, Ruma, marooned at home like her traditional mother, finds that she needs her recently widowed father more than he needs her. In other stories, a Bengali-American husband and his Anglo wife embark on a romantic weekend that goes awry, and an Indian-American woman attempts to deal with her brother’s alcoholism. The last trio of stories, set in India, Massachusetts, and Rome, follows the lives of Hema and Kaushik for over 30 years, as they meet, separate, and then come together again. About exile, assimilation, loss, and acceptance, these stories ultimately seek to define "home."
Knopf. 331 pages. $25. ISBN: 0307265730

Boston Globe 4.5 of 5 Stars
"There are no sentimental flourishes of the exotic that romanticize the mystical allure of the East. … There is, however, an absolutely convincing and ultimately redemptive humanity in Lahiri’s characters." John Gregory Brown

San Francisco Chronicle 4.5 of 5 Stars
"It’s early to be proclaiming a best book of the year, but Jhumpa Lahiri’s gorgeous new collection of eight stories, Unaccustomed Earth, will be hard to top. … Not only do these tales showcase Lahiri’s gift for distilling lives into 25 to 50 pages, they also show why short stories are her form: She is a master of endings." Heller McAlpin

Los Angeles Times 4 of 5 Stars
"As in all her fiction, Lahiri’s prose here is deceptively simple, its mechanics invisible, as she enters into her characters’ innermost journeys. … The final story … is slightly jarring—it’s the only one to take place overseas and their reunion has a touch of convenient inevitability about it." Lisa Fugard

New York Times 4 of 5 Stars
"[Lahiri has] an intimate knowledge of their conflicted hearts, using her lapidary eye for detail to conjure their daily lives with extraordinary precision: the faint taste of coconut in the Nice cookies that a man associates with his dead wife; the Wonder Bread sandwiches, tinted green with curry, that a Bengali mother makes for her embarrassed daughter to take to school. A Chekhovian sense of loss blows through these new stories." Michiko Kakutani

New York Times Book Review 4 of 5 Stars
"The generational conflicts Lahiri depicts cut across national lines; the waves of admiration, competition and criticism that flow between the two families could occur between Smiths and Taylors in any suburban town. … Lahiri handles her characters without leaving any fingerprints." Liesl Schillinger

Christian Science Monitor 3.5 of 5 Stars
"The most poignant stories in Unaccustomed Earth delve into grown children’s efforts to deal with the fact that their father’s life didn’t end when their mother died. … When the parents disappear, the stories suffer." Yvonne Zipp

Washington Post 3.5 of 5 Stars
"The stories she generates from these clashes appear true to life, and while a few lack nuance and at times feel familiar, they are never predictable. Lahiri is far too accomplished and empathic a writer to relax her gaze; she excels at uncovering character and choosing detail." Lily Tuck

Critical Summary

Lahiri’s newest collection explores the universal moments—sibling rivalry, the start or end of an affair, the death of a loved one—that reverberate throughout life. In stories written in a speciously simple, graceful style, Lahiri develops psychologically resonant characters and fine-tunes her observations about second-generation immigrant life, all the while casting an empathetic eye on life’s many expectations and disappointments. Critics agree that Unaccustomed Earth is a standout collection—with a few minor flaws. In some stories, Lahiri doesn’t go far enough in building tension; a sense of predictability hangs over others. Perhaps the most common complaint, faint with praise, is that since Lahiri has approached this subject so successfully in the past, a writer with her talent might wish to tackle other subjects. Then again, there’s not much wrong with an embarrassment of riches.