New York, April 11 (IANS) Indian
American Jhumpa Lahiri's new book "Unaccustomed Earth", which has been
receiving rave reviews in the US press, has zoomed to the top in New
York Times' list of best-selling fiction within two weeks of its April 1
launch.
The book, New York-based Lahiri's second collection of short stories,
debuts at No. 1 slot in the list to appear in the Times on April 20, a
paper's blog said Thursday.
"It's hard to remember the last genuinely serious, well-written work of
fiction - particularly a book of stories - that leapt straight to No. 1;
it's a powerful demonstration of Lahiri's newfound commercial clout,"
the blog Paper Cut said.
Lahiri's first collection of short stories, "Interpreter of Maladies",
won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. But she is better known for her novel,
"The Namesake", which was turned into a movie last year by Mira Nair,
starring Taboo and Irfan Khan.
Major US papers have promptly reviewed "Unaccustomed Earth", a
collection of eight stories. The New York Times Book Review featured the
book on the cover Sunday.
USA Today wrote about the book: "Immigrants may be the stories'
protagonists, but their doubts, insecurities, losses and heartbreaks
belong to all of us. Never before has Lahiri mined so perfectly the
secrets of the human heart."
The gushing review continued, "In part, Lahiri's gift to the reader is
gorgeous prose that bestows greatness on life's mundane events and
activities. But it is her exploration of lost love and lost loved ones
that gives her stories an emotional exactitude few writers could ever
hope to match."
Publishers Weekly said, "Lahiri's stories of exile, identity,
disappointment and maturation evince a spare and subtle mastery that has
few contemporary equals."
Interestingly, Lahiri, of Bengali descent, who is on a month long US
tour to promote her book, has hardly looked at the reviews for her new
book.
"I feel like I should be more hardened at this point, but in a way I
feel more vulnerable. With this book I decided not to look at anything
at all. Perhaps in the future I'll ask my editor or someone to show me a
few reviews that she thinks could really benefit me somehow," she told
The Atlantic Monthly. .
Click
here to send Gifts to India
|