Unaccustomed Earth

[Vidya]

I've started on this and while Lahiri's writing is luminously readable as always, I find the stories rather more-of-the-same, rather like a better written Divakaruni. There's an effusive reaction here, though perhaps the writer is focusing on the style and not the scope of Lahiri's writing, which to me seems limited at this point. You can't go on writing about the same thing every time - although, I must remark, Updike did it rather successfully. Perhaps, as in his case, it is Lahiri's style and winning way with words which will define her.

[Vidya]

Having finished the thing, I have to say that both Lahiri's people and her prose are sounding very much like an old and rather tired "mixie". The Bengali mother, the Bengali father, the Bengali brother, the Bengali sister, the "foreign" life partner, the saris, the sweets, the yearning. Possibly some really uplifting writing would have been a saving grace but unfortunately Lahiri seems to be rehashing her formula of long, measured (and sometimes, sadly, leaden) sentences, heavy words... The first story shows promise but as you proceed, both message and means seem worn.

I liked the last story, the triptych; but some sparkle of real joy in the happy parts of the tale would have helped immensely.