unaccustomed earth-Jumpha Lahiri

“Human nature will not flourish,any more than a potato,if it be planted and replanted,for too long a series of generations, in the same worn out soil.My children have had other birthplaces, and so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth.”
-Nathaniel Hawthorne(“The Custom-House”)

Jumpha Lahiri mentions this passage in the prologue,which pretty much sums up her entire body of work in “Unaccustomed Earth”

Description(Courtesy:About.com:BookReview)

* Each story deals with a Bengali family transplanted to the United States.

* The older generation struggles to assimilate while their children juggle mixed cultural identities.
* The characters’ lives change, some in dramatic events, some through subtle moments.

I read the book 9 months ago, last April…n browsing through my box of books…got this one and was reading it again!

Now not being a book critic or reviewer, me would just share thoughts on what i’d felt reading the book.Being a Lahiri first timer…not having read any of her two previous books(except for book n’ movie reviews of ‘Namesake’), i really liked the style of writing and the book as a whole.

Unaccustomed earth is not a full lenght novel.The book is presented in two parts.

Well the first part of the book…..four short stories(can i call it that…?!?!) Each a slice of life of the protagonist,of similar background…..n facing similar dilemmas….as they get accustomed to life..!
By the time me started reading the third story..started feeling lull….the ‘flavour’ of each slice of life being same and the flow of the story being very much similar. Yet its Lahiri’s  writing, which is kind of descriptive…poetic…lucid, that keeps me goin on. And also the fact that inspite of the stories being slow to evolve….it comes to the last couple of pages to comprehend how it all ends….or rather, how life continues to go on!

And reading the Second part,with three slices,and a similar story to start with….but a more wonderful style of writing i ge thooked to the book and don’t want to put it down till i finish it. Now thats mainly bcoz i realised that inspite of being written as three seperate stories,the protagonist Hema n’ Kaushik are the central theme of the entire second part.
And its worth holding on till the last part….the last couple of pages again bringing out with some kind of emotional maturity…in a beautifully devastating manner…the realities of getting accustomed with our own lives….
The second part really makes the book a ‘worth read’

Though the book potrays the lives and struggles of a particular community and generation, as a whole its about all of us….,about how we are striving towards getting accustomed to our lives…..letting go of all those unsaid words….unanswered questions…..unlived dreams….letting go of it all and getting accustomed to life!