I’ve had Lowland on my shelf for years. I’ve had it recommended to me over and over again, and I’ve seen it in more must-read lists than I can count. And yet, this is the first Jhumpa Lahiri book I’ve gotten around to trying. It’s a quiet book, an internal exploration. It follows one woman as she goes about her normal life, and considers the decisions she made, the people who have touched her life or brushed past it, her past (and present) relationships, the fantasies she explores but doesn’t act on (and how they are destroyed by real life) and the small things that make up the fabric of her life.
This is the definition of the character-driven novel. There is nothing but character here. No plot to speak of, no major events. It’s unassuming and seems almost to fade into the background. Except that the woman on these pages will stick in your mind and be brought to the fore in small moments in your own life. I’ve remembered her when I’m alone, when I’m thinking of past loves, when I’m considering the items in my home that tether me to people and times past. Her life could have been mine, or similar to it, had I made different choices, and it brings up possibilities and quirks in my own personality.
I found it interesting to consider the context of this book as well. It is the first Lahiri wrote in Italian, which is not her first language, and that she later translated to English herself. There are a few things that interest me. I’ve learned two other languages (well, started to) and spent a lot of time around native speakers of one of them. Not enough to be fluent – definitely not enough to read, let alone write, a book in them – but enough to start to see how the flow of language is different. The rhythms, the subtle meanings, the expressions – it’s all different from one language to another. And that change in language also changes how ideas are brought together. I loved seeing her explore how to use a new language, and then to consider the process of translation. I often wonder, when reading a translated book, what was lost in translation. Mostly because a lot of words don’t translate exactly, but also because the translator isn’t usually also the writer. They make choices, and the feel of the book depends on those choices. It’s fascinating to me to read a book translated by the author, because I know that she made those choices herself. This is as close as I’ll ever get to reading a book in another language.
I definitely want to try other Lahiri books after this one. She is a very talented and perceptive writer, capable of taking us into the hidden and often contradictory and uncomfortable parts of her character’s mind. It’s a great book for anyone who enjoys exploring language and translation or who is a fan of books that take you deep into a character’s life and viewpoint.
A marvelous new novel from the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Lowland and Interpreter of Maladies–her first in nearly a decade.
Exuberance and dread, attachment and estrangement: in this novel, Jhumpa Lahiri stretches her themes to the limit. The woman at the center wavers between stasis and movement, between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties. The city she calls home, an engaging backdrop to her days, acts as a confidant: the sidewalks around her house, parks, bridges, piazzas, streets, stores, coffee bars. We follow her to the pool she frequents and to the train station that sometimes leads her to her mother, mired in a desperate solitude after her father’s untimely death. In addition to colleagues at work, where she never quite feels at ease, she has girl friends, guy friends, and “him,” a shadow who both consoles and unsettles her. But in the arc of a year, as one season gives way to the next, transformation awaits. One day at the sea, both overwhelmed and replenished by the sun’s vital heat, her perspective will change.
This is the first novel she has written in Italian and translated into English. It brims with the impulse to cross barriers. By grafting herself onto a new literary language, Lahiri has pushed herself to a new level of artistic achievement. – Goodreads
Book Title: Whereabouts
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Series: No
Edition: Audiobook
Published By: Knopf
Released: August 30, 2018
Genre: Fiction, Translated, Character Driven
Pages: 160
Date Read: July 21-29, 2021
Rating: 8/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.78/5 (11,084 ratings)