UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, is the third in the series of her collection of short stories and novel.A beautiful collection of tales about Bengali family life and one’s self-discovery. Although mostly Bengali characters and life style are there in the stories but still they have rich underlying elements of universality, allowing the characters to transcend the immigrant genre. The usage of language, words chosen craftily to paint the whole picture for the reader and the symbolism weaved through words is marvelous and depicts her story telling art nicely. UNACCUSTOMED EARTH is two sections with total eight stories.
The first section contains five distinct short stories, beginning with a story of a father visiting his daughter after a long time, since her mother expired. The story meanders around several issues of mingling of first and second generations of Indian immigrants to America. His visit turns out to be a real good experience for the young child in the family, who ultimately gets the affection of grandparents in the form of the visitor. The little details of gardening, making bed, taking care of the kitchen and daily chores, going out on weekends for simple visits are beautiful. Ruma the protagonist goes through turmoil due to various reasons. The story comes to a sudden poignant end with the finding of a misplaced postcard by her father.
Lahiri's has four more stories in this section with similar themes.
In "Hell-Heaven," a young woman recalls the coming of a Bengali uncle in the family as a family friend and how he finds a place in her childhood and her mother’s life.
In "Only Goodness," the portrayal of a sister who introduces alcohol to her brother and how he ends up as an addict is there. The sister, Sudha, tries to make a bond and care for the younger brother at various occasions but the situations worsen.
This brother, Rahul, turns up again after few years from the rehabilitation camp, at her door to meet her family and her little baby. Things go alright for some time, until one day the baby almost get drowned in the bathing tub, in the absence of parents and passing out of uncle Rahul in the intoxication of alcohol. This leads to an emotional upheaval in Sudha and her realization of her role in turning the life of his brother in this direction.
The second part of the book contains three stories intertwined in beautiful way having two parts from a male and female protagonist each, finally ending in their meeting and 20 years later.
The first story is told by Hema of her meeting Kaushik in childhood when his parents decide to return to Boston after a failed relocation to India. The various tribulations of giving her room to Kaushik, adjustments and expectations from the visitors are very real. But behind all this, there is a tragedy in Kaushik’s family life which nobody knows and the reader comes to know of it in second story by Kaushik.
The last final piece “ Going Ashore” happens twenty years later when the destiny had its way and both Hema and Kaushik meet in a third world, where in the Global world and different careers they meet in a beautiful setting of Rome. The portryal of Hema and Kaushik reflect the change of lifestyles – unrestricted travel, no personal attachments, no family roots, place, culture and non conventional career choices. Kaushik is a photographer of being alone genre, Hema is a researcher of ancient civilization.
The two people meet and suddenly strike a chord, once again destiny brings them together only be separated again after sharing beautiful moments.
In Lahiri’s stories, I have noticed few things starting from Interpretor of Maladies, Namesake and this Unaccustomed Earth, that characters are beside being Bengalis are high achievers, academically decorated with the degrees from MIT, Radcliffe, Harvard, Cornell, NYU, London School of Economics and sinfully rich. The characterization reveals the social practice of mixed marriages like Sudha and Roger Featherhose, Ruma and Adam. But then, if she aspires to write about NRIs, there are others, Gujratis, Kashmiris, Biharis, etc also residing there in large numbers. But if she has a special love for Bengali class, then there must be other Bengalis also, not that well off, highly educated, how about writing about them?
Jhumpa Lahiri is a brilliant writer, gifted with the art of weaving the scenes vividly for the readers, expressing emotions, etc. After I read the book, the general feeling was that of a terrible loss. I could somehow relate to the character of Hema of loving somebody with all her heart and one day the destiny separated the soulmates, leaving a longing desire of having him back, sadly filling the heart feeling what if, If i could, I wish....
The end feeling was of sadness, I literally felt depressed for few days on the loss of Kaushik in the end. That is what I feel the art of writing a story; one leaves the reader so much affected.
