Reams of print have been dedicated to Jhumpa Lahiri’s new bestseller “Unaccustomed Earth” (UE). Readers who love to follow the trails of Jhumpa’s endearing characters by now must have devoured the book, cover to cover, the fine print as well.
I quite like Jhumpa’s writing, though her first book “Interpreter of Maladies”, didn’t seem all that exciting to me, barring a few stories. Jhumpa Lahiri’s, herself a second-generation Bengali settled in the US, observations take a very interesting turn when one compares it to those of Sunil Gangopadhyay, the well-known Bangla writer. While Jhumpa’s perceptions are guided by the ken of an insider who is aware of the skeletons in the closet, Sunil Gangopadhyay’s rose-tinged view misses (quite naturally) the moles and warts of a life in the land of dreams.
Now coming back to UE. I was glad to see how much Jhumpa has matured as a writer. I am notorious for leaving my books unfinished, but UE made me break that old habit quite unconsciously. Before I realized, I had already reached my point of no return … and was getting a withdrawal symptom too.
Though all is well, yet I have a nagging doubt creeping surreptitiously and threatening to engulf my senses if I do not let it out immediately! So here it is. I didn’t like the title of the book. Now c’mmon… what kind of a title is “Unaccustomed Earth” pray? Did Jhumpa run out of creative steam while fashioning a name for her book? Tell me that I’m wrong. Would love to believe that!
2 comments:
True, true the title is definitely a dampner! But thankfully here the case was just the bad title and not the cover!! And even brilliant the soulful, slow yet completely endearing sagas inside the cover. Coming back to the title is UE is probably Jhumpa's own qualms about not being yet accustomed to any piece of the earth completely. She was born in UK, grew up in US and was raised with Bangali sentimentality and beliefs hence somewhere she herself I guess keep searching for roots in various relationships instead and the characters are always distant yet close.
yeah... to have such an insipid title for sucha brilliant cover like that ... there can be only one reason... either the editor was coopted or she probably didn't have much of a say... this bokk will thus go down in the annals of literature as a gaffe of the gifted!
Post a Comment