Book Review: Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri - Page 2

Lahiri is sensitive to the contradictions inherent in the lives of Indians abroad. "Cinema of a certain period was the one thing my mother loved wholeheartedly about the West," a character relates. "She herself never wore a skirt — she considered it indecent — but she could recall, scene by scene, Audrey Hepburn's outfits in any given movie." Such small, but poignant details, contribute to the vividness and power of the stories in Unaccustomed Earth.

Lahiri will sometimes surprise us with a plot twist that runs counter to all our expectations. In the title story (really almost a novella), it is the widowed father who tries to hide his new romantic relationship from his daughter, and we enjoy the spectacle of the secretive parent – a reversal of he typical roles in a Lahiri story. Her finest moments here, however, come in the closing three stories, which stand together as a single, powerful tale. A Westernized Indian woman, with a PhD and a growing reputation as a scholar, rebounds from an unhappy affair and decides to settle for an arranged marriage with a traditional Indian man she hardly knows.

The basic premise here is straightforward, but Lahiri builds up to this conflict in carefully developed scenes. Every situation is a stepping stone up to the eventual conflict between traditional values and modern ways, but each interlude and event draws energy from its own inherent drama. Lahiri's story, despite its conventionality, is completely free of the trite or predictable. The readers, for their part, will hardly realize where they are being led. And Lahiri saves a final, unexpected surprise for the end, delivering a closing cadence that is so powerful, it is almost out of character for this author, who usually revels in smaller, more intimate scenes.

Readers who are looking for flashy experimentation or linguistic pyrotechnics are advised to go elsewhere. But don’t be fooled by the modest exterior to this author's prose. Lahiri is a great writer, who controls her subject, and constructs her tales with a master’s touch. She may already have a Pulitzer Prize to here credit, but with stories like these, Jhumpa Lahiri still seems to be hitting new heights.

Article Author: Ted Gioia

Ted Gioia is a writer and musician. He is the author of Delta Blues, The History of Jazz and, most recently, The Birth (and Death) of the Cool.

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