Meeting #15: Unaccustomed Earth

What a summer finale! I think our discussion last night was one of the best yet. We talked about the Indian/American experience, and how it is perceived from different generations. The book also brought about new challenges for our club. This was our first collection of short stories, and we struggled to agree on a theme that laced these disparate tales together. Some themes that were suggested include: the diaspora experience, love, relationships, family and assimilation/nonconformity.

Since this book was so different from everything else we have read, we all tried to liken it to something familiar:

1. A Seinfeld episode - a seemingly superficial exploration of everyday life (but in reality, it's very nuanced and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of human nature).
2.  A cocktail party - this book was an opportunity to meet many "characters" in a short period of time. After the party's over, it hard to keep everyone's name and story straight. But it's still so much fun to meet them all!
3.  A foreign film - we're so used to watching (or in our case reading) action packed plot lines that when confronted with something slow moving it can be challenging to adjust to the new pace.

Everyone had something to say about the book's opening quote:

Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth. -Nathaniel Hawthorne

Last night we "struck our roots into unaccustomed earth," and began a new Bookettes tradition: we'll now give each book an off-the-cuff grade for technical soundness and artistic merit (if these criteria sound familiar, you were probably a childhood figure skating fan too). Our group grade was an A- / B+. Some ladies felt the stories' endings were rushed, and were unattracted to the book's melancholy tone, while others related well to the themes, and were taken by Lahiri's signature exquisite prose.

Happy reading! I can't wait for our next meeting at Heidi's.

Cheers-

Solveig