The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (reviewed by Janis Gogan)

Esplanade Bookies met in January to discuss The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri.  Many of us had previously read Lahiri’s The Namesake, a story of an arranged Indian marriage which begins with the wife experiencing loneliness and cultural confusion in Cambridge after being transplanted from Calcutta for her husband’s MIT studies. The Lowland, a darker tale, begins with a young Indian, Sublash, who moves from Calcutta to Providence RI for his Ph.D. A poignant and puzzling story unfolds when his radicalized brother becomes a martyr to the Marxist cause. Sublash marries his brother’s widow and becomes father to his child.  He becomes a single father when his wife, struggling to achieve her own independence, leaves them. 

Our discussion of the book, over Indian snacks, considered what it revealed about mothers, fathers, daughters and sons, social isolation and romantic and brotherly love in both the United States and late 20th-century India.  It was also an opportunity to share knowledge about India from our reading and travels.

—Janis Gogan