One thing is certain, Jhumpa Lahiri always excels at nailing the immigrant experience on the head. The feeling of otherness is made so tangible, her writing so authentic. In her novel, The Lowland, Lahiri once again makes a slam dunk with regard to the feelings and hardships immigrants face. This novel, however, was somewhat more quizzical than some others I have read by this author. The story seemed scattered and I didn't quite understand the plot nor what Lahiri's message was. There were some good sub-plots, but they weren't methodical enough to create one cohesive novel. It was almost as if they were several short stories combined.
In addition, the characters were unconvincing, in that I was never fully able to understand their true nature. I enjoyed Subhash and Udayan's early relationship, but its strength was unreliable. I appreciated Subhash's reverence toward his parents, but its steadiness faltered. I savored Gauri's reliability early on, but that was unsound. Bela's adoration for Subhash was beautiful, but even that just disappeared. It just seemed like a novel where every character was capricious and each situation, uncertain. There was just no one constant, and that can become frustrating for readers.
So, although I generally adore Jhumpa Lahiri's wiritng, this novel in particular was not one of my favorites. It excelled in capturing the immigrant's experience, and provided some good politically historical insight, but other than that, fell a little flat for me.
Read 2/28/20
No comments:
Post a Comment