Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri

I initially came upon this collection of stories at Borders, where it was on a shelf next to 'Eat, Pray, Love' in a display of if-you-like-this, you-will-also-like-this' books. Since I very much liked Eat, Pray, Love, I did what I typically do at Borders; I got out a piece of paper and wrote it down along with Lahiri's name to order from the library. (Hey, I read a LOT, and I'm not made of money.) After reading both, I am not sure why it was placed in that particular display, since they are really nothing at all alike, but I am glad that they were, because I might never have found it otherwise.

While I had never heard of Lahiri before picking up Unaccustomed Earth, it turns out that she has had a very illustrious writing career thus far, winning a Pulitzer, the PEN/Hemingway award, and having pieces selected for various prize recognitions from the New York Times, LA Times, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today.

It was immediately clear to me why she has won so much recognition. Her stories are simply captivating. I do not choose the word 'simply' by chance; they *are* simple, beautiful, complex, and understated. If you are a skimmer, as I sometimes am, you will miss subtle breaths that form the living soul of the characters. This is important, because while typically major plot points are not conveyed in this manner, the almost silent information that is slipped in those lines is what gives the characters their startling ability to extend beyond the pages, and in fact since the stories themselves rarely involve an Ending for the characters, it is easy to believe that they are actually out there, these people who are too real to be mere figments of Lahiri's imagination.

Like Lahiri herself, all of her main characters are Indian, and the essence of Indian culture as well as the struggle of integrating and continuing - or not continuing - that culture across oceans and generations is a major component of the tales she tells, although it is never the main focus. What she spotlights instead are issues everyone faces, such as caring for aging parents, death, love, growing up, alcoholism, and marriages lagging under the weight of parenthood, which are told through the lens of people who have the feeling of being not wholly one culture or another.

While the first two-thirds of the collecton is taken up with several shorter stories, the final third is given entirely to two individuals who met as children when one child's parents allow the other's family to stay with them during a relocation from India to Massachusettes. The story gives the two, a man and a woman, equal time, both while they are living together as children and over several short periods as they become adults, examining them finally as they again come together when they near middle age, this time as lovers. The resolution of this particular story literally took my breath. I sat and stared at the page, rereading the final paragraphs two, and then three, times, while my mind absorbed the contents. I am still thinking about it.

I love, love, loved this book. I will definitely be searching for her others.

Rating: Five out of five stars. A definite read.