"Unaccustomed Earth"

This is the latest collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri.

I have fallen in love with it, if I can exaggerate. Jhumpa Lahiri always captures my attention 100%. Such intricate delicate emotions handled with such enormous strength and style. Phew! And I like her style of narrating. Its slightly placid and in passive voice but it draws you into the story as you read it. Her stories take my breath away, almost because they are just so realistic. Namesake did it to me. This time, its this one. Unputdownable.

I am zipping through it with nothing else to do during the weekend. The second short story was touching now. The first one was itself just so natural and free-flowing that I was already swimming in those mixed emotions for the father and daughter, not to forget the grandson Akash!

I can relate to those people so easily in her stories. I wonder why. Is it because her writings have a feminine touch and sentiment to her? Maybe. I can so easily feel what the girl's character goes through in the second story - as much as I've read it until now. The mother confesses the pain and tumultuous turmoil to the daughter wherein both have been through similar grief of losing out on a guy whom they each banked for love (though quite out of turn).

Now I know about four families - all of them Bengali (coz the writer is herself one). I wish she would write about other regional families too. One family is struggling to deal with a drunkard. Another family is about a couple who think love is out of their married life after spending 10 years together. They realise in the end that it has not actually vanished but was taken for granted so long, in very complicated ways and after getting hurt. :)

Kudos to J.L. :)