Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Image via WikipediaNot long after I finished reading The Namesake, I found Unaccustomed Earth in the clearance section of Borders and just had to buy it. I had been blown away by The Namesake and I was sure that Unaccustomed Earth would have the same effect...even if it was a collection of short stories which I don't normally find very satisfying to read (though, I do enjoy listening to audio versions-go figure).

Unaccustomed Earth is split up into two sections. The first section is five separate stories, the second, a longer story split up in three parts. I enjoyed all the stories, though, it was the final story that seemed to have the most impact-perhaps because it was longer and more involved than the others. I also throughly enjoyed the title story as well as another story called "Only Good".

Strangely enough, the one complaint I have about the book is that the stories weren't really all that short. In fact, I found that most of the stories took close to an entire day to read through, which is unusual for a collection of short stories. However, each story was worth reading to the end and there wasn't a single story that I did not enjoy at least on some level.