Women's Book Club: Unaccustomed Earth June 25, 2008

Hi. Some of The Girls (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/someofthegirls/ ) is a group of women who enjoy life, conversations and going out. Every month, we'll have a Tuesday Book Club.

This month we'll be discussing "Unaccustomed Earth" with Mona as the moderator. We will meet at 6:30 PM which will give us time to order dinner and get settled, the actual book discussion will begin at 7:00 PM. (The 1.3 rule is in effect for dinner, every $10 base amount you spend you must put in $13 to cover tax and tip.) http://www.indiantajny.com/bleeker-intro.htm< a> />
Please indicate which short story you would like discussed in your evite response.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The gulf that separates expatriate Bengali parents from their American-raised children and that separates the children from India remains Lahiri's subject for this follow-up to Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake. In this set of eight stories, the results are again stunning. In the title story, Brooklyn-to-Seattle transplant Ruma frets about a presumed obligation to bring her widower father into her home, a stressful decision taken out of her hands by his unexpected independence. The alcoholism of Rahul is described by his elder sister, Sudha; her disappointment and bewilderment pack a particularly powerful punch. And in the loosely linked trio of stories closing the collection, the lives of Hema and Kaushik intersect over the years, first in 1974 when she is six and he is nine; then a few years later when, at 13, she swoons at the now-handsome 16-year-old teen's reappearance; and again in Italy, when she is a 37-year-old academic about to enter an arranged marriage, and he is a 40-year-old photojournalist. An inchoate grief for mothers lost at different stages of life enters many tales and, as the book progresses, takes on enormous resonance. Lahiri's stories of exile, identity, disappointment and maturation evince a spare and subtle mastery that has few contemporary equals. (Apr.)

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Please do not attend this discussion if you have not read the book.

Official Website: http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/VBEGPESZAOVQWGMYRQPD/081208lahiri