Response to "Once in a Lifetime" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahir's "Once in a Liftetime is a story about a young Indian girl growing up in modern America. She retells the story of how her parents met their closest friends, made it through Ph.D. programs, and lost their friends again. She tells this story through the eyes of the daughter, who is an only child. Yet, the story fully takes flight when her parents take in their best friends, who have returned from India. However, the family has no idea why. All they know is how much Dr. Choudhuri and his family have changed. It was described as being Americanized and it was shown through examples like the bottle of Johnny Walker. The only difference in the family is a son, who the daughter is timid around. That is, until she learns the true secret of their return, which is because his mom has breast cancer. This leads to a completely new element of the story because it really affects the daughter, but not in a sympathetic way. Instead, she reacts in a horrified way that she was in such close proximity with the disease. Regardless, she promises not to tell her family and she does just that. The story ends with her parents feeling snubbed because of their lack of communication with Dr. Choudhuri and his family. Only their daughter knows the truth, but she is determined to keep her promise.

I was personally not a fan of this story. While I really appreciated the main character's tone, it felt extremely slow. By that I mean, the story itself. She narrated it in a very drawn out fashion and I feel like the story could have been condensed. I also feel like there was not enough change to warrant the length of the story.

I did really enjoy her descriptions and sense of setting. I thought her descriptions of her mothers home was great. I also really enjoyed the development of the parents character and how they stayed true to keeping things a secret because of how prideful they were. It makes for a very interesting dynamic.

Another thing I wanted to see more of was the son. While we did see him more at the end, I wanted to see him much earlier. I also wanted to see him interact more at the dinner table we they first saw one another again. I did really enjoy their relationship and thought it progressed nicely.

If I could take anything from this story, it would be how real her characters felt. I almost felt like it was a non-fiction story and I think this was due to how strong her dialogue and descriptions were.

Overall, it was not by any means my favorite story, but it has the mark of an excellent writer and she demonstrates a very good use of her skills.