👶👶👶👶 Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri is a brilliant writer, using powerful, simple words to elicit deep emotion. Each story was a lovely, understated masterpiece. The only struggle I had was with the abrupt, unfulfilling endings of the first stories. One might argue that such is the nature of a short story; however, as shown in the second half of the book, she is capable of closure within the confines of this style.

Her stories are filled with a melancholy all too familiar to me as a child of immigrants. The hopes and dreams of parents so unfamiliar with this country really grabbed my attention, as did the stories of their children who had grown up completely aware of their family’s cultural norms, but perhaps not embracing them as much as their parents had hoped they would. They are stories of achievement and heartache, triumph and loss, and they’ll leave you reminded of the beautiful diversity of this great country.

Read 3/23/14