Unaccustomed Earth- The End

Jhumpa Lahiri is fabulous, and Unaccustomed Earth does not disappoint. While the first 2/3 of the book is markedly better, the last piece is also poetic in Lahiri's seemingly-signature bittersweet way.

Unaccustomed Earth is a collection of short stories, and it concludes with a slightly longer story told from two first person points-of-view and one omniscient point-of-view. From an analytical standpoint, that makes it interesting. In fact, I read on the edge of my seat, waiting to see the paths of the two narrators cross in adulthood as they do in their childhood. However, I found the meeting anticlimactic, and the use of a natural disaster to end the story felt like a cop-out. I suspect that the intensity of the event in her real life impacted Lahiri so drastically that she was moved to include it in her story, to use it as a tool, to memorialize, somehow, the event. But it read as forced after a story of utter ease.

I recently purchased Interpreter of Maladies, the collection that first brought Lahiri fame. I am excited to read it, but I am moving on to Julie & Julia first. I want to read the novel before I see the film, and I have a sense that the humor in this book will be intoxicating. I look forward to that.

Until we meet again in the blogosphere, happy reading!