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Showing posts from October, 2013

The Lowland

This is my review of 'The Lowland' by Jhumpa Lahiri. Umbilical ties cut deep and bind together. Udayan and Subhash Mitra, born 15 months apart in the lowlands of Tollygunge, Calcutta, are alike and yet dissimilar. The elder brother, Subhash, is placid, eager to obey and fall in line. Udayan is bold, impulsive and idealistic. Quite predictably, you know what's in store for them. The placid brother makes a success of his career, but his personal life is in shambles and the younger one's idealism snatches him away far too soon. Lahiri's fluid, visual lucidity and layered writing vouches its presence in this book too. But, one can't ignore the melancholy tone trying to consume the characters. The story builds up very slowly, from the detailed Naxalbari movement which takes Udayan's life to the very picturesque depiction of Rhode Island, in USA, where Subhash makes his home. Lahiri takes almost 250 pages (of the book) to give us a very comprehensive picture