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I read this for my English course and wow, just wow. I've read Lahiri's "The Namesake" for my high school English class and was really impressed with her writing, cultural insight and storytelling ability. And, this story is a testament to that! The story is told through the point of view of a Bengali-American girl, and focuses on her family, family friends and their assimilation (or their reluctance to assimilate) into American society. Through this story the reader learns about Bengali culture...
I still don't know if this was a fictional tale or not. If these events didn't actually happen to her, then I am incredibly impressed with the amount of detail she was able to put into her "childhood", and things that happened. It's also kinda sad haha, but in a nostalgic kinda way, not that anything incredibly tragic happens. But looking forward to reading some more from this author
So engrossing, and so beautifully written.
Fine rendering of hell-heaven. Short and sweet narrating with the right emotions.
Curiously paced, but familiar and pleasurableIt does seems as if I read this story before, though I wasn't reticent to read on though. It's a pleasurable read, familiar and warm. I love her characters and their movements through time.
Very short pleasant read, but not too exciting and seems somewhat familiar, even thought I've never read Jhumpa Lahiri before. I love to read about conflicting identities and the themes of cultural identities/divides, family, and immigrant experience are touched upon in this story.
Hell-Heaven, Jhumpa Lahiri“Hell-Heaven” is Jhumpa Lahiri’s ode to the intimate secrets of closest kin, from the acclaimed collection Unaccustomed Earth. Pranab Chakraborty was a fellow Bengali from Calcutta who had washed up on the shores of Central Square. Soon he was one of the family. From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, a staggeringly beautiful and precise story about a Bengali family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the impossibilities of...
I read this in The New Yorker when I first moved to the city. I found it so moving I tore it out and kept it, and bought subsequent issues of the magazine long after I had the stamina to keep up with it, just hoping to have that kind of moment again with another piece of fiction. It never happened. She was just that much better than the rest.This is still one of the best stories I have ever read.
Very detailed yet barely sketched description of her mother's attachment to a young man. Some of the details come through her girlish childish eyes, others are filled in as she grows up and the final pieces come into place a couple of decades later, through her mother's confidences.It makes one ponder about one's parent - the secret love in their heart, their despairs and joys, their reasons for surviving...What a very lovely and surgically sharp slice of her mother's soul...I forget to mention
In the month of May Vintage released special editions of short stories in honor of Short Story Month. The selections have been great reads. Jhumpa Lahiri's story is no exception. Told from the perspective of a young girl as she adapts to life in America, it is a tale about how the expectations of past traditions run into conflict with living in a new world. The prose is tight and the characters are well written. Perfect read for those looking for substance in a short amount of time.
Inoffensive and pleasant. Bengali families in the west. Cultural confusions. You know the story, usual Lahiri themes. Nothing to write home about.
If you want to read only one story from Unaccustomed Earth, pick this one.
I happen to find this title via Amazon’s Vintage Shorts Series. I confess I knew nothing about this author or her works before reading, but after reading Hell Heaven, I will be eager to try some of her other longer works. This was an impressive short story from Jhumpa Lahiri. Told from the viewpoint of Usha, an Indian woman whose family lives in the United States, the narrator reflects on a time period when a man who was from Calcutta came to the United States and befriended her family in Boston...
Opening lines:Pranab Chakraborty wasn’t technically my father’s younger brother. He was a fellow Bengali from Calcutta who had washed up on the barren shores of my parents’ social life in the early seventies, when they lived in a rented apartment in Central Square and could number their acquaintances on one hand. From Daily Lit:"Hell-Heaven" appears in beloved and bestselling author Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth. The acclaimed collection explores the secrets at the heart of family life. It
I started reading this cause I thought its ratings were crazy, but I hadn't read anything like this before. it was strange getting these paragraphs striking me with emotions I didn't know I had, as relateable as it on its strange grounds. so many beautifully written words have strike home so hard and unexpectedly. p.s. this wasn't a cheat book I used to reach half-way of my goal, I'm really happy that I read this.
I read a free copy of this book on www.dailylit.comI read Lahari's Namesake about 5years ago and was not quite impressed. However, this book is different. I liked the subtlety with which emotions are portrayed. Nothing sleazy or explicit.
The story really captures the cultural conflicts between traditional Indian values and modern American life. It's a coming of age story for a young girl.
A short, informative story of a young Bengali girl and her first crush, which happened to be the young man her mother fancied!
