The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

Synopsis (partially from Amazon)

… an extraordinary new novel, set in both India and America, that expands the scope and range of one of our most dazzling storytellers: a tale of two brothers bound by tragedy, a fiercely brilliant woman haunted by her past, a country torn by revolution, and a love that lasts long past death.

Born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other in the Calcutta neighborhood where they grow up.  But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead. It is the 1960s, and Udayan—charismatic and impulsive—finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty; he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother’s political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.

But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family’s home, he goes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind—including those seared in the heart of his brother’s wife.

My Review:

Through multiple reviews, I cautiously added this to my reading list suppressing my desire to order the book, knowing that I should wait for a while to pick it up at an affordable price.  Much to my surprise, I was elated when I received this book as part of birthday gift from my dear husband.  He sneakily picked it up during our weekend away in Paris with my father in law, and hid it from me throughout the entire trip.  Love it!

I have nothing but a rave review and praise for this book, I finished it in just one week! Jhumpa Lahiri is the author of my favorite book, The Namesake.  Maybe a cliché for the daughter of two Indian immigrants, but who cares… I relate to it so well, it’s a close mirror image to how I feel, how my own life has progressed.  The Lowlands is not the same, of course, but it’s so beautifully written, I found myself reflecting on passages, saving pages of a couple of these passages that evoked meaning for me, well after I was through the chapter. I did also find myself thinking about my parents on a couple of different occasions.  Sometimes I thought about what my own parents experienced between the 60-70s when they were growing up in India… what were those times like?  In other instances, I began to understand the complexity of what it means to let a child experience mistakes, regrets or grief and how difficult that might be.  I don’t have children, so maybe it’s in my head, but I appreciated the perspective Lahiri gave me. 

My only minor complaint about the novel was the huge swaths of time that were missing between various chapters.  The novel continues fluidly each time, and you most certainly do not need to know the events in between to love the book, but on occasion I found myself wishing that the picture was more fruitfully colored.  Perhaps a purely selfish desire… just because I loved the book so much.  I’m not sure you can really call this a complaint, but that’s it. 

The Lowland is a must-read Lahiri novel.  If you haven’t read Lahiri before, I highly recommend her as an author and especially recommend The Lowland. Lahiri has received much well-deserved praise for this novel and many book awards, all a credit to her enchanting writing abilities.