Unaccustomed Earth

Ruma, the central character in the collection’s title story, is a Bengali-American woman in her late 30s. She is married to Adam, who is American and white. Together, they have a son named Akash. They have recently moved to a spacious, beautiful home on the Eastside of Seattle, and are living entirely on Adam’s salary. Ruma is also pregnant with her second child. While Ruma loves her husband and son, she struggles with the loneliness and isolation of her life as a homemaker, and has abandoned her own career. She is afraid that she is becoming too much like her mother, who was a housewife, and whom she vowed to never become. Her mother died suddenly a few months ago, during a surgery that was supposed to be routine. Having enjoyed an intimate relationship with her mother that allowed for open contention, her relationship with her father is much staider. Throughout the story, Ruma struggles with inviting her father to come live with her and her family, as she feels that this is what is expected of her as a good Bengali daughter. In the end, her father does the less-traditional things of strongly encouraging her to keep her career on track, and refusing the offer to live with her, in favor of maintaining his own full life of traveling, volunteering, and beginning a romantic affair with a woman named Mrs.