Response to "Once in a Lifetime"

“Once in a Lifetime,” is a story that is written from the perspective of the daughter, Hema, of an Indian immigrant family who become friends with another Indian family while on their first stay living in America who eventually go back to India. The story gives insight into what the lives of some immigrant families are like--what cultural changes may or may not take place and things of that nature. The conflict in the story rests on Kaushik’s family who comes to stay with Hema’s family after 7 years of not speaking to one another. His family has changed, and ironically seems to be more Americanized that Hema’s family. Hema develops a crush on Kaushik who doesn’t pay her much attention, which its later revealed is most likely because his mom has cancer.
    The first thing I noticed about this story is the perspective, which is probably my favorite element of it. I often find comfort in writing in second person, although I know it’s a difficult technique to do effectively because you’re limited to the information you can provide because it can start to sound unnecessary or at times make your reader feel left out. However, with Lahiri’s framework of her story I never felt left out and I thought that the POV was extremely effective. She tells a story to someone that was only in her life for a brief moment compared to everything she may have experienced since them but she made it hold significant weight because it examines larger issues outside of the narrative.
    I also was inspired by the abundance of tiny details she was able to use in the story. I think the point of fiction is to make it sound like something that did or could have happened and often times I like reading entertaining stories even when I don’t necessarily buy them. This story seemed like nonfiction because the descriptions and details were so intricate that I felt submerged in that world. I thought the references such as “Gilligan’s Island” and “Good Housekeeping” were nice additions to the realness of the story. I also loved Hema’s dry honesty about how young she was at the time and the undeveloped emotions she had at that time. It added a lot to both her character and the contrast of upbringing from her and Kaushik.
    If there are any exceptions I would say that I slightly felt the story dragged on a little longer than I would have liked in between the family coming to stay and finding out Kaushik’s mother had cancer. I think it all worked by the end, but the build up to finding out well a little flat at some points just because I was eager to see where it was going although everything was extremely well written.