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Book Review: The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

Like all other work of Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland is anytime like getting into the cathartic experience of meditation. Her writing can force you to slow down on your thoughts.


She has no surprises, very few sudden twists; almost like a mundane journal entry, although in the narrators’ voice. Lahiri has that rare gift of beautifully narrating intertwined life journeys. The story itself has a little plot, yet is gripping, it holds you right to the end. However, the end is almost always predictable. Her writing is magical and exceptionally detailed. She paints with her words.

The book intentionally sounds clumsy. Be prepared to be pulled in and out of the past and for a good amount of heart wrench. It may leave you yearning to dig more about the Naxalbari movement in West Bengal and in general about Calcutta of the 1970s.

The blurb says that it is a story of two brothers. Well, the book does belong to Subhash and Udayan, but also equally to Gauri. Well, it may leave you upset, with questions and relatively tangled.

But Gauri’s character is equally befuddling and may leave you rattled. You empathize with her, feel her helplessness - she has been unwillingly put into an exhaustingly complicated circumstance. Well you may hate her, you wish her to commit suicide to put an end to it, to jump off that balcony. Ironically, at the same time, you also feel relieved that she receives an end in her grandchild right at the end. You see a cocktail of farrago of emotions.

Gauri is complicated, possibly not out of choice, but her circumstance. She could have chosen better. Having said that depression is not summoned or sent away by one’s choice.

Lahiri may leave you with many questions on Gauri specifically, or maybe you see confusing reflections of yourself in her. Lahiri’s description of Gauri’s post natal anxiety, her incomplete love for Udayan, her desire to be lost amongst the crowd of unknown, her selfish courage, her hungriness for knowledge - makes her so human and relatable. Yet, anyone can effortlessly despise her.

Certainly this book is more than a story of two brothers. Subhash is a loveable character, but given his niceness, he would easily be taken for granted. You’d feel sorry for him.

Many times, you would want to shake him into human reality. Such folks are left deprived, merely because of the characteristics of fellow humans and in general that of our society. He gives up constantly, does not complain; in fact doubts himself and his abilities. You love him, but, you know he will be granted a prolonged journey saturated with loneliness.

You do not know much of Bela or Udayan, just as Lahiri rightly intended. Bela does however leave you raw with hurt on her reaction upon meeting Gauri. That chapter being the only fast-paced chapter in the book. As much as we wanted to read more of Bela’s mind and suffer with her, we do not think Lahiri could have written anymore about her. If she did, the book would’ve made for a perfect soap opera adaptation. Highly recommended, the story will stay with you for long and if you get proper fits you may crave to read it over and again.

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