Response to "Once in a Lifetime"

I found "Once in a Lifetime" by Jhumpa Lahiri to be a slightly odd story that I did not actually ejoy to a high degree until towards the end. The story itself did not quite grasp me as an incredibly compelling storyline and it got to feeling a little drawn out. This process did allow the reader to get into Hema's head a good bit, but I felt like we were lacking from what we might have been able to gain about her because of her lack of interaction. There was not much action going on in the story and it made it come off as a bit dry. The story itself was told in the interesting manner of telling memories of time together, from Hema to the son of her parents' friends as their family came to stay with theirs. It talks monotinously about the trivial things that went on in the household and how Hema internally was bitter or thoughtful or excited about one thing or another in regard to the two families and their dynamics. There also was a large focus on the seeming romantic element of the feelings by Hema, but those never materialized within the story. What I did like was the way this seemed to somewhat mislead the reader from the actual conflict that is revealed later. I thought it was neat the way that the story jerked you away from the dry lead up and kind of tied a lot of things together at the end, where the boring things from before all of a sudden were given some meaning. Like the fact of how he loved the snow, or the way Hema and the mothers went to go bra shopping. After this connection was made, however, I wanted there to be more interaction and action. This could be said of my opinion on the piece as a whole but I felt like it missed out at the end by not giving the reader a lot to drive it forward. The story read in a fluid way and it had some good descriptions that I felt played up the actual culture that was being portrayed. I just wish there was more done to reel me in or at least really bag me at the end when the bombshell of the breast cancer is dropped.