Name: The Lowland
Rating: 4.027777777777778 (72 reviews)
ISBN: 9780307278265

Jhumpa Lahiri

Brothers Subhash and Udayan pursue different lives--Udayan in rebellion-torn Calcutta, Subhash in a quiet corner of America--until a shattering tragedy compels Subhash to return to India, where he tries to heal family wounds.

A Novel

The Lowland

Edwin Lang

A story of a family coming to terms with a terrorist in their midst, a son, a brother, a husband: Ostensibly to help the poor, morphed into a murderer of innocents. To Jhumpa Lahiri’s credit as a writer, I felt in the dark to the near end as the tale progressed, albeit content and driven on by the story and characters themselves. The Lowland was eminently readable, and my only complaint was that it had an element of the maudlin and morose about it. Half way through the book, I wondered in a fit of frustration where Lahiri was taking her captive readers in her monotony of sombre. Was the essence of the story simply that Subash, a displaced and misplaced Calcuttan Indian, always to remain so and fundamentally unhappy? Or, because of events early in their lives, were the main characters permanently and irrevocably traumatized, doomed to live truncated lives? Even amid Bela's upbringing or Meghan's, there was little joy. It seemed Jhumpah Lahiri would not permit an emotion like joy to sully the integrity and coherence of the tale, her objective. It seemed in Lahiri's world conscience does not permit normality after some egregious crime, the sins of the father infecting both preceding and following generations. In other words, Lahiri constructed a just world, where both good and bad actions had consequences. This approach gave a very believable and satisfying conclusion.. For the two key people in this story - Subash and Bela - who I also thought of as victims - I felt this to be true. There was also the sense or personal responsibility, from Gauri’s perspective: ' ... unable even now to conduct herself decently ‘. The statement echoed what I had felt, that this smart woman, much loved although perhaps imperfectly, could not make the right moral choice. Whereas with Subash quietly doing good seemed to come naturally in spite of his being the quiet rather boring one from the very beginning of the story. I always find it disturbing, as I did in this story, that a character knows the path ahead - Lahiri hints at this quoting the Rig Veda of the Upanishad 'a ‘spider reaches the liberty of space by means of its own threads’ and that a key character who is smart, well read, , knows the Upanishad, immersed in philosophical reasoning, cam entertain "an emotion as unstoppable and as egregious” (as one she had entertained decades ago, with equal devastation). There is though something endearing about how Jhumpa Lahiri's portrait of Gauri: if flawed - I think we know enough about parenting to know that people cannot - that some mothers cannot - be a parent, a father, a mother. In Lahiri’s hands Gauri never emerged as a monster or even heartless, always human, fragile, broken while outwardly successful, and ironically loved and at heart lovable. I was initially very confused by Subash’s presence. He seemed a good man, always, and the story seemed a lament for all good men everywhere. And then for a while The Lowland almost morphed into a warning against hoarding: Subash hoarding Bela’s love, not letting her go. Another conundrum we face: When do we embrace, hold tight to, when do we release? And then can anyone of us live, really live, on the periphery of some traumatic event? Or was The Lowlands a warning instead of remaining too distracted by the past, preoccupied, being unable to move on? And what of truth: when is it appropriate to hide it, to tell it? I did not agree for example with a reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle who described The Lowland as a story reflecting the 'aching disjunction of emigration and family': extreme passion, bordering on the irrational will likely destroy any family, and Jhumpa Lahiri demonstrated the opposite in Subash's quiet saintliness - that out of the dust of disaster comes togetherness, understanding and love. Yet I found one reviewer (for NPR) who made what I though a profound comment regarding The Lowland, capturing completely right the very essence of Lahiri's work: “life often denies us understanding (and) sometimes all we have to hold onto is our ability to endure” I enjoyed the book very much and would highly recommend it. While there was no question that The Lowland was about Indians from Calcutta of Bengali descent, this was not a story, at least from my perspective about Indians of Bengali descent: it had an everyman sense to it - how do we live, well, and love after some traumatic event? It is a book that recognizes that sometimes all we can do in endure and yet reinforces that in enduring we may ultimately triumph over the pain. Edwin

Een Bengaalse familie blijft tot in de derde generatie lijden onder de gewelddadige dood van de revolutionair ingestelde jongste zoon.

The lowland

Maybe I did not enjoy this as much as I did "The Namesake" but I really, really appreciate Lahiri's ability to tell the story of a life (or many lives) and of a country.

read this in big gulps. beautifully written & very heavy with grief - i felt it change my mental state as i read it so intensely. beautiful & terribly sad. 

Ananya Jain

Pratik M

Distinctly different from her usual immigrant experiential narrative. Of course, it still retains the cultural shifts but she has approached the immigrant experience more of freeing up from the shackles of the characters homeland. The Naxalite narrative may raise some hackles in terms of accuracy but it's merely the background strife that tears the family apart. It can easily be any other political upheaval in India that we don't seem to lack.

Jhumpa Lahiri's books have this tendency of making you poignant while and after you're done reading but somehow you seem to come back to her books; perhaps we do enjoy being sad

Sarah Sammis

Cody Degen

4.5ish stars, turns out Jhumpa Lahiri writes a much more enjoyable book when it’s not required summer reading for school

erin

So fucking good. Beautifully written, Lahiri tells a great story without getting in the way. 
I'm not usually a fan of switching POVs and big time jumps in novels, but she handles it with grace. Making connections between times and people without slapping you in the face with it. 

A great read. Emotionally affecting without getting maudlin. 

Also it started out all man-centric, but oh, what a red herring that was.

Patricia Nelson

I enjoyed this book but didn't love it. I found the constant changes between characters and time periods interrupted my immersion in the story. I wish there was more explanation about Gauri''s behavior because what was provided was disjointed and almost an afterthought.

Faith Ho 

as usual, beautiful writing and portraiture of a family. if i have to describe the way she writes characters: empathy. no matter what they do, "right" or "wrong", a withholding of judgment. (also a sense of ennui, a kind of suspended real). so many lines i paused at because they were so beautiful - not in the sense of particularly visceral but because i found the words that id been looking for. 

(4.5/5 bcos i read the namesake first and this has similar vibes and i prefer the namesake marginally more)

Prashanth Srivatsa

Beautifully written. Lahiri is at the heights of her command over language, but creates a plot so thickly shrouded in inescapable misery, that you know it is hopeless right from the word go. And Lahiri doesn't bother to prove you wrong.

Jhumpa Lahiri just knows exactly how to write a novel

Nadine 

Sadly nostalgic book of what life and idealism is reduced to as one separates geographically and in age from pivotal moments in youth and politics

michael haaf

Pretty boring and uninspired, I thought. This author writes fantastic short stories, so I'm disappointed but perhaps not surprised that her skill didn't carry over to long-form.

Alexia

All I can think of is "Why did it take me so long to read something by Lahiri?" This isn't the work of hers I was planning to read first, but from now on I'm in for a treat because I've been told this isn't her best, so lucky me!

Nicole 

I absolutely LOVED this book. A friend gave me her copy and insisted that i read it. I was a little hesitant at first because prior to this reading about politics wasn't really my thing but after i started i could not put it down. The nature of politics surrounding the story very seamlessly ties in with its subplots without being overbearing. The ending was so worth the read and so beautiful. I loved that the entire book spanned over such a long timeline because i really do enjoy seeing characters grow and develop. Overall it was really well written and i enjoyed the book in it’s entirety. If anyone is on the fence about reading it, please do!

Shantesh Patil

There is something about her writing that makes even the ordinary details of people's occasionally mundane lives seem so fascinating.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2013 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2014 SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2013 From Subhash's earliest memories, at every point, his brother was there. In the suburban streets of Calcutta where they wandered before dusk and in the hyacinth-strewn ponds where they played for hours on end, Udayan was always in his older brother's sight. So close in age, they were inseparable in childhood and yet, as the years pass – as U.S tanks roll into Vietnam and riots sweep across India – their brotherly bond can do nothing to forestall the tragedy that will upend their lives. 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, and in doing so will transform the futures of those dearest to him.

Jessica Smith

Original review, 2014: Probably the best novel I've read all year.

Reread review, 2021: This time around, I enjoyed it, but not quite as much as I did the previous time. I think what I liked about this book is that everyone in it is certainly flawed, but in a way that I found empathisable. Full review on my site!

Shreerag Plakazhi

The Lowland is one of the most elegantly written pieces of fiction I've read, maybe ever. It is however grossly lacking in content sometimes. At the end the reader is left feeling a little disappointed because the effort it took finish the book didn't match the end result. One does get a insider's look at the Naxalite movement in West Bengal and how it affected those who were directly or indirectly involved and that forms the heart of the book. This isn't for those who lack patience because Lahiri is a slow builder of her story; it felt like she worked out each word in this novel.

Pick it up if you are a passionate reader and can take her style of writing without leaving the book a little over two chapters in. Pick it up for its literature value.

The Lowland A Novel

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