Jhumpa Lahiri is already a favorite here at ZONINO! so its ashame that it has taken this long for a recommendation of her third book and second collection of short stories. Unaccustomed Earth is similar in subject and style to Lahiri's previous works in that it centers around characters of Indian origins, either in India or immigrants elsewhere in the world; write what you know seems to be her mantra.Unaccustomed Earth is written in the same simplistic and yet beautifully detailed prose that has put Lahiri on the map. Divided in two parts, the first is similar to her first published book, Interpreter of Maladies, and consists of several independant stories. My favorite involves a Bengali-American man who is attending a wedding at his old boarding school with his American wife and the events that transpire in light of a stressed marriage and mixed feelings toward the bride and his alma mater.
The second part of the book contains one longer tale divided into three sections, each potentially independant in and of themselves. Each is written in a different voice and have their own free-standing sense of beginning and ending that is unique from chapters in a book. The last of the three sections has a double ending in which the second caught me completely, and tragically, off guard. It is not often you can be hit in the face, figuratively, while reading a book.
I like to imagine that Lahiri writes short stories as a way to meet potential characters that may become intriguing enough to keep around for an entire book, as she did with her novel, The Namesake. I thoroughly enjoy her short story wirting and I hope that one of these years she meets another character that can carry her next book.
Sergio del Limonar
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