Wow. Jhumpa Lahiri's THE LOWLAND is a big novel with the power of her best short stories. It follows the life of Subhash Mitra as he grows up in Calcutta and then moves to America--typical fare for Lahiri, but with much broader scope and even cleaner, crisper writing than the Pulitzer Prize winner has shown in the past.With a sweeping, addictive plot, THE LOWLAND still peels naked the identities brother, lover, father, and mother, often with just a small, simple gesture. It challenges the politi...

Twilight’s ChildrenHe had found the letter under his brother’s bed. He had not minded the dust that lit up the damp light of the room. He had read it immediately. But now that he was back in his room, he took it out again, wanting to read it one more time, as always.He remembered all the letters he used to receive from India and of how he could hear his Udayan’s childhood voice as he read it, even when the voice was long changed. In this letter he could not. This time he picked up from the third...

Two brothers, born in India before partition, come of political age in the 1960s. One brother becomes politically active, the other doesn’t, and their lives unfold in completely disparate ways. Tragedy is inevitable, and families struggle to readjust and heal. Some adjust better than others.The word ‘Potentially’ should have preceded the publisher’s blurb of “Suspenseful, sweeping, piercingly intimate”, because the opportunities to create that kind of story were squandered. There was a rich subs...

"Behind the water hyacinth, in the flood water of the Lowland: this was where, If the neighborhood was raided, Udayan had told her he would hide. He told her that there was a section where the growth was particularly dense. He kept the kerosene tin behind the house, to help him over the back wall. Even with the injured hand, he could manage it. He’d practiced it, late at night, a few times." Hey Jhumpa!Your name is so rhythmic that I could not resist myself addressing you while writing my thoug

Not all women should be mothers. Not all mothers love their children. This should be written about more. Also, not everyone gets wiser as they get older and “time heals all wounds” is bullshit. These are some of the themes of The Lowland. What I’ve noticed about both Lahiri novels I’ve read is that she is a master at writing about complete down-to-the-bone aloneness. There’s that (clichéd) lonely-disorientated immigrant experience that I relate to, but she also takes it further to a place that’s...

Jhumpa Lahiri is gifted with the ability to write beautifully. You read some books for the plot, and others for the sheer love of language. While "The Lowland" satisfied me plot-wise, it was Jhumpa Lahiri's language that blew me away once again. Something I really appreciated about the book was Jhumpa Lahiri's objective take on the political movement that forms the impetus for every plot line in the book. Lahiri stays away from the tempting trap of making a political point, and focuses instead o...

"Interpreter of Maladies" (Pulitzer winner), "Unaccustomed Earth", and novel"The Namesake" we're each so terrific, ... it would be hard for me to choose which of the three I liked better: yet if I 'had' to choose it would be "Unaccustomed Earth" as first favorite. Each of the books were about relationships - multiple challenges-and struggles as immigrant families adjust to American Cultural and social norms. Always insightful.... and ALWAYS filled with emotional attachment. And.. In her two book...

The political history was interesting - 1960s student radicals in India - but most of The Lowland, which takes place in subsequent decades, is just another overly serious modern American family saga (immigrant subtype). The unquestioned contrast in personalities of the two central brothers has a mythological quality but Lahiri's writing never achieves the grandeur befitting that. Sensible Subhash would, I'm sure, make an excellent, nice and reliable work colleague but written about as he was her...

I've been postponing writing a review of this book because I'm not sure what I can say that hasn't been already said by others in a more eloquent fashion. So I'll record here my lingering reaction, the feeling that has stayed with me after two months:This book is haunting and haunted. A pair of linked tragedies disrupt forever the lives of three generations. Like in The Infatuations, by Javier Marias, several characters are unable to let go, though the response in Marias's characters is more rat...

It is said that a book reader gets to live and experience many lives at once. The Lowland is one such book in which the reader would not just live a few lives but also be with them until the end and late into their lives. There is no pre-requirement to relate, understand or support the cause, belief and attitudes of the characters. Jhumpa Lahiri has written this story in such a way, that the reader would inadvertently go to live alongside each of the characters. It does feel, at times, that the

The Lowland, Jhumpa LahiriThe Lowland is the second novel by American author of Indian origin Jhumpa Lahiri, published by Alfred A. Knopf and Random House in 2013.Part I: Raised in Tollygunge in Calcutta, brothers Subhash and Udayan are inseparable; they find joy in fixing and listening to radios, learning Morse Code, and looking out for each other at school. When they leave home for university studies, their ideologies are challenged; Udayan embraces the Naxalite Movement while Subhash is more

Two brothers, born fifteen months apart in Calcutta, India, inseparable until the 1960's when they are both in their mid twenties and their interests begin to diverge. Udayar becomes a follower of Mao's revolutionary politics and joins the Naxalite movement. Which I had to look up on the all knowing wiki. Subhash goes to America to continue his studies. As I was reading this I felt as if the first half was like an outline, just the bare bones of the characters personalities were being revealed.

2.5 starsJumpa Lahiri has failed me. I remember loving The Namesake. I read an excerpt of it in The New Yorker and couldn't wait to read the complete novel. But The Lowland, while layered and complex, requires way too much STUDY. This is not an enjoyable book. I found myself bored and restless time and time again. Even at 50 percent in, I was muddling in murky waters. This book is about the history of India, lots of politics, upheaval, warring parties, etc. I don't adore political history anyway...

A bittersweet love story with the main focus being the bitterness of loss expressed over a life time and the consequences. I enjoyed the book overall but I was very disappointed in the ending. I feel that the ending fell very short of what it could have been. Anyways, this was a fantastic read with a lot of depth and emotion.I hope to read more from this author in the future.----------------------------------------------------I want to complete some lists on this site. I thought it would be a go...