DesiPundit

Reviewing Jhumpa Lahiri’s new collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth, Heartcrossings wrote, “Lahiri seems to take perverse pleasure in playing bad Santa who stuffs the stockings of her readers will coal when in fact she could have easily gratified us with a eight beautiful presents.” Vidya Pradhan too did not enjoy the book.

Perhaps it is just my brain on Bollywood, but I really wished at least one of the characters could have ended up at peace with his or her circumstances. The stories are ultimately cynical and dispassionate, like narratives discovered by looking through a microscope in a science lab. There is little warmth and passion and little recognition that there is much in the mundane to make life worth living.