Unaccustomed Earth: 4. Only Goodness Summary & Analysis

When Sudha gives her little brother, Rahul, beer for the first time, he thinks it’s repulsive. But by the following summer, she’s regularly buying him six-packs, divvying up the cans between their bedrooms so Sudha’s parents won’t find the contraband. Academically gifted, Rahul skipped a grade, beginning Cornell at just 17, much to his Bengali parents’ delight. Though Sudha has found success herself, earning a master’s in international relations, she’s always had to work harder than Rahul to achieve it. Rahul’s achievements, on the other hand, have always seemed effortless. In high school, she never rebelled against her parents or lied—but Rahul was always more impervious to their control, and he lied often.

During Rahul’s first Christmas home from college, he asks Sudha to buy him more alcohol. She’s surprised, figuring he’d left that behind in high school. Reluctantly, she agrees, purchasing the beer and vodka he requests and hiding the drinks between their bedrooms, like they used to. Whereas relics from Sudha’s own childhood were lost during the family’s move from London to Wayland, Massachusetts before Rahul was born, his youth is carefully preserved in photographs and keepsakes—mostly thanks to Sudha. Six years older, she doted on him from the start, but a part of her always envied her brother’s intellect, beauty, and detachment from Sudha’s parents.

Sudha has always shown more deference to Sudha’s parents than Rahul, who tends to criticize and judge their lives. By the next summer, while Sudha has been accepted to the London School of Economics for her second master’s degree, Rahul’s grades have slipped from Bs to Cs, and his attitude is increasingly cold and resentful. Sudha senses that her little brother no longer looks up to her like he once did, and she knows her parents are upset with him for squandering his potential for seemingly no reason. When she tries to talk to him, he swiftly shuts his big sister out, angry at her constant need to interfere in his life.

Before Sudha leaves for London, her family takes her out to dinner, where Rahul seems happy and engaged with Sudha’s parents for the first time in ages. Late that same night, while his family is at home asleep, Rahul is arrested for drunk driving. When Sudha and her father bail him out of jail, her father is stoic and silent, uttering not one word to Rahul on the way home. The next day, Sudha tells her parents that Rahul has a drinking problem, and though it seems that her father agrees, her mother is defensive, claiming the police merely overreacted.

After his arrest, Rahul’s driver’s license is temporarily revoked, and Sudha’s parents are forced to pay $2,000 in fees. Now living in London, Sudha feels at home in a way she never has elsewhere, attributing her natural comfort to her being born there and to her parents’ positive experiences in the city. One day, while observing van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Marriage painting in a museum, she meets Roger Featherstone. A magazine editor with a PhD in art history, Roger tells Sudha about the painting, and she admires his intellect. They begin dating. Sudha likes Roger primarily because he’s as “competent” and restrained as she believes she is.

Sudha doesn’t return to spend Christmas with her family in Wayland, opting to take a trip to Seville with Roger instead. Sudha’s parents call and ask her to speak to Rahul, who is now failing out of Cornell and constantly moody, though she hasn’t talked to her brother in months. When she calls him, he acts like they’re still as close as ever, immediately complaining about their parents’ “hysteria” over his poor academic performance. He tells Sudha he wants to drop out and write a play, but when she explains that their parents will never allow it, he hangs up on her.

In April, Sudha returns for a visit to Wayland, newly engaged. Upon her arrival, she learns that Rahul was formally dismissed from Cornell and now lives at home with his and Sudha’s parents. He eventually finds work at a laundromat, a job that embarrasses his parents, who were once so proud of their academically advanced son. In the summer, Roger flies to Massachusetts to meet Sudha’s family, though he makes it clear to her beforehand that he intends to maintain firm boundaries with her parents. The visit is smooth, but Sudha discovers that her brother, though now 22, is still drinking alcohol in secret. Her concern for him grows.

Sudha and Roger decide to marry in London and hold a small reception in Wayland that fall. Sudha arrives a few days before Roger for the reception, staying with her family. When Rahul shows up with his new fiancée, a 30-year-old aspiring actress named Elena, Sudha’s parents are stunned. Sudha’s father, who is typically silent, firmly states that Rahul cannot marry Elena, and Rahul storms out. Sudha’s parents ask if Sudha could move her wedding reception to a venue without a bar, hoping to curb Rahul’s drinking. Frustrated, Sudha refuses, feeling it’s unfair that she’s always expected to “fix” her family’s problems.

At Sudha and Roger’s reception, Rahul makes a drunken toast that ends with his father forcing him off the stage and Rahul fleeing the venue. On her honeymoon, Sudha feels her reception is forever tainted by her brother’s display, and she doesn’t know how to forgive him. In a lukewarm attempt to console her, Roger chalks it up to Rahul being “young” and going through a rough patch. Not long after, Rahul suddenly disappears, leaving behind no note or explanation for Sudha’s parents. He steals his mother’s gold jewelry and takes a bus out of town, mailing a letter one week later telling his family that he wants to be alone.

Sudha falls pregnant shortly after her honeymoon, giving birth to a baby boy named Neel. She thinks about Rahul often but slowly gets used to no longer having her brother in her life. Sudha’s parents, too, grow accustomed to the void left by their absent son, consoled in part by Neel, whom they visit in London often and love like he’s their own. When Neel is 10 months old, Sudha receives a letter from Rahul—he’s sober now and living with Elena not far from their parents’ home in Wayland, working as a line cook. Sudha immediately writes back, inviting him to London and informing him that he’s an uncle.

When Rahul arrives at Sudha’s London doorstep, she feels like a missing part of herself has come home. He’s put on weight and grown long sideburns, and he’s quickly enamored with Neel. Sudha gives him a tour, and Rahul observes the recently framed photos of his and Sudha’s parents holding their new grandson. He tells Sudha about Elena’s daughter, Crystal, who treats him like a surrogate father. Later that evening, Sudha informs Rahul of their parents’ plans to move to Calcutta and their father’s struggle with an inflamed knee. Rahul asks about the family’s Christmas plans, and Sudha invites him, Elena, and Crystal to spend it with their parents here in London, doubtful Rahul will come.

All week, Rahul follows a steady routine: a long morning run, followed by coffee and sightseeing. In the evenings, he returns to Sudha’s for dinner and playtime with Neel. The night before he’s scheduled to leave, he suggests that Sudha and Roger go out to a movie while he watches Neel at home. Sudha feels uneasy about leaving her son with Rahul even for a couple hours, but Roger—ignorant to the full extent of Rahul’s alcoholism—urges her to trust him, saying they deserve a night out. Halfway through the movie, Sudha slips out to call Rahul and check in. He reassures her that everything is fine, easing her nerves.

When Sudha and Roger return home, they discover Neel playing alone in a partially filled bathtub, and Rahul passed out in Roger’s study. They struggle to wake him, and an argument erupts between the couple. Sudha confesses to her brother’s alcoholism. Furious, Roger bans Rahul from their home indefinitely, and though it breaks her heart, Sudha agrees. The next morning, Rahul, hungover and oblivious to the danger he’d put Neel in, insists it was a one-time relapse. But Sudha, exhausted and defeated, stands firm. She puts him in a cab, relieved that Neel is still too young to understand his uncle’s faults.