Book 6: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

I happened to get 2 books done within a week of each other. First one below.

Book 6: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

 

This book has 8 vignettes. 8 short stories that are people doing real things and having real dilemnas. People that you can recognize, b'c you've been in/seen those situations yourself. I loved Lahiri's other books: Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake. All of her books are generally about Bengali families (usually immigrant families) and how they interact with each other. Immigrant stories are one of my favorite genres, and Lahiri writing doesn't make me feel like she is repeating herself.

But I should warn you, be aware of the fact that like O. Henry's short stories.. these are not happy endings. If you need happy, Hollywood endings seek other stories!

I had a long car trip to take this month. Knowing this I got the MP3 player out with my library card and downloaded the audiobook for travelling. I love her books all curled up with a rainy day and a cup of tea, but on a long car ride they are just as enjoyable.

I would not like to give away any of the details of the vignettes.. they are so very short and I would hate to give away any endings. I will say the last half of the book was a series of stories between 2 people, Hema and Kaushik, who watch each other growing up, fall in love at the wrong time, and yet think about each other and write letters. (ok it might not be that way in the book, but with 2 narrators reading it felt like letters to each other.) All of the stories were fantastic, and I actually sat down after I listened to them and read them again.

I felt like each short story was a small facet to the complexities of our lives. A different solution to one problem lead to other ways of living. Lahiri's subtlety in her writing style, and the depth in which you understand a character are really fantastic. She can take a few words, make whole decades pass, and show you the consequences of their actions. She draws things together tightly without any excess around the edges.

I would be remiss if I didn't add a note about the audiobook narrators. I felt that it was wonderful to have 2 people reading the stories.. a male voice done by Ajay Naidu and a female voice done by Sarita Choudhury. Choudhury's voice was like a dream. I could have listened to her all day. Naidu's voice was very good, but almost haughty. As if he were taking it all too personally. Maybe he had read the stories and felt like they were in a defensive tone. It just made me dislike his characters so much more. Granted, he didn't have the most pleasant characters to read. An any actor worth their salt who can make you hate them by voice alone is doing a damn good job.

I will read this book again. I read all of Lahiri's books over and over.