Jhumpa Lahiri Proves Pulitzers Are Not a Glass Ceiling

In March 2008, Jhumpa Lahiri released her third published book, “Unaccustomed Earth,” her second collection of short stories. Although it has been over a year since its release, this book remains on The New York Times Best Seller List, as well as on the Old Firehouse Books’ Best Seller List.

Aside from the top-ten lists, “Unaccustomed Earth” is a popular choice among book clubs, which the Tattered Cover Bookstore book club is reading in June and the Between the Sheets book club read in May.

So why does this book continue to be so popular?

Simple, Lahiri’s prose stands out because her books don’t entertain readers through predictive plotlines and thrills like the other authors (Roberts, Picoult and Brown) on the lists. Instead, Lahiri’s prose reveals what all literature seeks to show: the human condition.

After reading “Unaccustomed Earth,” “The Namesake” (2003) and her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of short stories, “Interpreter of Maladies” (2000), Lahiri proves that winning a Pulitzer doesn’t create a glass ceiling because she has evolved passed it.

Her books often detail the lives of immigrant Bengalis and Indians, but readers don’t feel bombarded by Indian and Bengali ethnicity. According to Lahiri, she does not write specifically about Bengalis, she writes about them as people.

One large difference between her two short story collections is length. Her current book is 333 pages with each story about 50 pages long; whereas, “Interpreter of Maladies” was 212 pages with stories averaging 20 pages. This simple difference allows Lahiri to do what she does best – explore the depths of realism.

Lahiri’s stories are all rooted in realism. Change doesn’t necessarily happen because the plot is character driven, which usually means the changes are emotional. Lahiri does this exceptionally well, so much so that readers will become attached to characters and experience the palpable loneliness Lahiri details.

The first chapter entitled “Unaccustomed Earth” details Ruma’s life after she moves with her husband and child, Akash to Seattle and her recently widowed father comes to visit. When her father arrives, Lahiri doesn’t tell readers their relationship is strained, she shows it by describing all of the things each character does not say to each other.

She accomplishes this by her uncomplicated, poised and delicate prose, while simultaneously maintaining focus and motion in the story.

But not every writer can do this.

For example, Lahiri uses drying tea bags waiting for their second use as signposts. These signposts are simple, yet shows that if the bag isn’t reused there is obviously something more going on with the characters using the tea bag. Without these images, the character’s emotional changes would not be complete.

In each story, readers become more attached to characters and empathize with their palpable, digging loneliness. Lahiri is the master of detailing what it is like to need to belong, whether it is to belong to another person, nationality or idea.

And since this book’s popularity remains steady, readers understand it too because it is what the human condition is all about.