Unaccustomed to sadness

And another short story is over and gone. Still reading unaccustomed earth and other shorts by Jhumpa Lahiri. Once in a lifetime. That is what this one is called. The story of a young girl just entering her teens. Her crush on the boy she used to hate. How her family played host to his for a month or so. What is amazing about this one is that she steadily builds up on a character, letting you form your own impression of them, judging them even. And she snatches it away from you. In one single statement, she reprimands you, silently albeit, for being such a judgemental person. There is something to be learned from this for all of us, I suppose.
Another thing that strikes me about her stories is the strain. There is always a vein of sadness, a strange feeling that the people in this house are probably never going to be completely happy. It makes me wonder if she also had a life that was such.
Whatever said and done, Ms. Lahiri knows to write. She knows how to capture emotions that people would rather avoid. She is an expert at taking that awkwardness that every family experiences, but ignores and putting it out there in the open for everyone to see. She isn't afraid to tell you that she knows. She knows how it is. She understands that sometimes you need to get away, no matter how much you love them. She understands how relationships disintegrate and there is pretty much nothing you can do about it. They were just meant to be that way.
I must say, this is quite a leap for me, in terms of genre. I feel like I'm finally growing up. From Enid to Agatha, detoured to Ayn and finally to Jhumpa.
Two more stories to go. I'm waiting to see how they end more than anything, just to see if the pattern that I'm seeing continues. I hope it doesn't!