Unaccustomed Earth

I have a complicated relationship with Jhumpa Lahiri- which began with a TV review of the Namesake ( the movie). Since experience had taught me that the books are usually better than the movies, I bought the book and read it- but surprisingly found Mira Nair’s version the better narrative. However, Lahiri’s prose and character etching interested me and I gave her another shot with The Interpreter of Maladies. With a second sojourn, I thought I could safecly conclude that JL was over hyped and repetitive ( Bengali food, immigrants who all live in Cambridge, who are all PhDs – duh!!). Inspite of all the accolades the critics and close friends showered on her, I was really not looking forward to anymore of her books.
What first set me going the third time was when the HT Brunch decided to publish “Hell and Heaven” as a teaser to Unaccustomed Earth. Smart move I should say- to choose a really bold story as a prelude to the book - wonder if the earth is really unaccustomed to the events described in the story ( extramarital affair narrated by the daughter- wow!). - but I digress. I was pleasantly surprised at way JL handled the entire plot, the neat, well-developed characters, the attention to detail. That was over a month ago. The story caught my attention- but not enough to persuade me to buy the hardcover. Hence, I finally read the entire collection 2 weeks ago when a friend was kind enough to lend me his copy.

Put together, I felt the stories have an overlying theme of sadness, despair and loss of control. Even days after having finished reading the book, the characters and the stories continue to haunt me. [In hindsight, maybe I should have heeded Ravi’s advice to read them slowly] JL’s ability to gives life to the emotions and the subtle workings of the minds and hearts of her characters- is definitely much better than her earlier attempts with IOM and The Namesake. I also found the stories more ambitious in their attempt to capture complex relationships- but overall, one cannot deny that there is a very dark theme to the book- in each there is separation or loss of a loved one- none of the stories feature getting back to normal or happier lives. For some reason, I found that extremely disturbing- a fact that stops me from overtly praising the effort.

To be frank, I am unable to decide upon which stories I liked the best/disliked the most. I liked the title story where Ruma grappled with her emotions of dealing with her widowed father and his clandestine affair. It seemed to be the closest to reality and then there was Only goodness where JL has touched upon the evils of alcoholism and how helpless and uncontrollable it can make you. I thought that although really well- written, the ink was wasted on Hema &Kaushik when the end was brought about via a strange coincidence than the culmination of events described by the writer.

Overall, I think it is a riveting read- but keep it for the rainy days when your mind is too tired to do anything else and you have enough time to kill. Avoid reading it on the go or while working on a serious project at work- for all you know this will capture the lion’s shares of your mind and implant it with dark, foreboding thoughts.