Culture

Jhumpa Lahiri’s second collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, is another stunning contribution from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author. The fictional collection includes eight short stories, divided into two parts. The narrative works as a unified whole yet simultaneously each story commands its own space within the collection, each as unique and detailed as a fingerprint.

The collection follows the children of Bengali immigrants as they embark on new journeys in modern day America. It explores the many ways in which these characters sense their “otherness” growing up alongside their American counterparts. Many of these characters endeavour to remain dutiful to the expectations of their families. Yet they also possess a hunger to daringly strike out on their own, freed of such influence. This tumultuous tension troubles these characters throughout.

Perhaps one of the most captivating features of this novel is Lahiri’s haunting ability to unabashedly elucidate the anxieties, selfishness and bias of the individual. She unflinchingly deals with the uncomfortable, artfully catching the reader in the stream of conscious narrative. The beautiful, flowing prose is captivating and Lahiri proves herself to be an author with a fastidious eye for detail as she refuses to reduce the complexities of everyday life. Her diction remains unclouded and succinct, each word evidently chosen with great care, as she relies on the visceral to avoid becoming verbose. The relationships presented in the collection are incredibly compelling because of an intensity of depth, largely created because she does not shy away from difficult issues. The painful effects of alcoholism, death, estrangement and infidelity all appear in the collection. Lahiri’s ability to create an imagined world as complex and dynamic as our own is astounding.

In the title story, “Unaccustomed Earth,” we met Ruma who is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her father. Ruma has recently settled into a new home with her partner Adam and their small child Akash. It quickly becomes apparent Ruma is struggling to understand her relationship with her father after the death of her mother. She is pained by the absence of her mother and understands that it is altering the way she perceives those around her. To quote Lahiri, “There were times Ruma felt closer to her mother in death than she had in life, an intimacy born simply of thinking of her so often, of missing her. But she knew that this was an illusion, a mirage, and that the distance between them was now infinite, unyielding.” Again Lahiri delicately captures intense, multifarious emotions as Ruma reflects upon her father’s new relationship with her son. “[A]s she stood by the door she realized that for the first time in his life her father had fallen in love … But she stopped herself, returning upstairs, briefly envious of her own son.”