The Lowland

The Lowland is the story of two brothers, the cautious and reliable Subash and the adventurous Udayan who despite being the younger is the one who takes the lead in all their activities. Born to a relatively poor middle-class family in a suburb of Calcutta, the boys are inseparable as children, but as Udayan becomes involved in a revolutionary movement in early adulthood they begin to grow apart. And so for the first time in his life it is Subash who makes the first move, to leave his family and India to go to America to continue his studies in Oceanography. And as Subash comes to term with his new life in Rhode Island, Udayan's life also changes as he secretly marries the studious Gauri, to the shock of his traditional parents who had show more expected to arrange their sons' marriages.

But it is Udayan's death in the early stages of the book which is the pivotal event from which the rest of the book flows, with the ramifications of a decision that Subash makes after his brother's death following him and his family down the years. And it is here that the book really comes into its own and becomes a beautiful and heartbreaking portrait of how decisions taken with the best of intentions can have tragic and unforeseen consequences.

The language with which Lahiri tells her story is beautiful: listening to this in audio I felt at times that I was hanging on every single word. She can create a heart-breaking scene with very few words as here when Udayan asks Subash to reconsider his decision to go to America:

'You're the other side of me, Subash. It's without you that I'm nothing. Don't go.

It was the only time he'd admitted such a thing. He'd said it with love in his voice. With need.

But Subash heard it as a command, one of so many he'd capitulated to all his life. Another exhortation to do as Udayan did, to follow him.'

The narrative weaves back and forward over seventy years, with events seen through the eyes of first one and then another participant. But at no time did it feel rushed. And at no time did the characters seem anything over than very real people living the lives which were so different from the ones they had expected to lead. Highly recommended. show less

Jhumpa Lahiri went to my top ten of favorite authors with her previous books so I was very hopeful that I would enjoy "The Lowlands". Not only was I not disappointed in that hope but I think this is her best yet. What a beautiful, heart wrenching novel about two brothers and the different paths each one took. I became so engrossed in this book and involved in the characters that I felt I was living their lives right along with them. There were times the book literally took my breath away.

Not only was it a wonderful story but I also learned so much about the politics of India. In many books, the political aspects go right over my head but Lahiri writes in such a way that it's very clear to follow and understand.

If you haven't tried any show more of Jhumpa Lahiri's books yet, don't miss out on this one. It's a beauty. show less

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 substrate to mine: the struggles of the Bengali communist party, the reconciliation of politics with the realities of everyday family life, immigration and integration, grief and its effects, and the evolution of people as they grow from show more youth to middle age to their winters. None of these were explored; they were merely described.

The book spans over fifty years of the adults’ lives, yet fails to recognise that people change as they age. We are not the same in late middle age as we were in early adulthood. We mature, we acquire wisdom (of varying degrees, it’s true, some acquire a lot more than others), we gain insight into complex matters. This is the byproduct of enduring, surviving, aging. But Lahiri’s characters don’t evolve, so they don’t seem real; they remain static, dooming the reader to boredom.

This is a book of promise unfulfilled. It was the last of the Booker shortlist that I read, and it was the weakest. show less

Subhash and Udayan Mitra are brothers, so close in age and appearance that they are hard to tell apart. Yet their personalities could not be more different. Udayan is the brave one, the one eager to break the rules and challenge convention. Subhash is the sweeter and more passive of the two, stable, if a little inert. True to his nature, Udayan joins a subversive political group bent on altering the social and economic face of India. Subhash, on the other hand, travels to the United States for further education. The events of the next few months change the course of their life and generations to follow, as Udayan sinks deeper into anger and violence and Subhash grows further away from his roots.

Lahiri is a storyteller obsessed with show more identity. Much of her work examines the calculus of identity, constantly asking what makes us who we are. She is well-positioned to make such inquires, as the daughter of Bengali immigrants, born in London but raised in Rhode Island. Is it the blood that runs through our veins? Is it the place where we are born or where we are raised? Is it the nature of our parents and family? Is it the things that we live through? Or is there something inside, small seeds of character that bloom and flower over the course of life? [The Lowland] is a story of how identity is shaped by the choices of others. In the book, the lowlands are two pools of floodwater behind Subhash and Udayan’s home, a metaphor for all of the things in their life that fill them up, forming them and the generations that follow. As the lowlands change in shape and constitution, so do their lives and those of the generations that follow them.

The beauty of Lahiri’s stories is in their intricacy and epic scale. She is laser focused on the small details of her character’s lives, making them imminently real and recognizable. But her focus also extends to the larger connections between each of the characters and how their choices in life shape the lives of everyone around them. The result is an epic family story that reads like an intimate conversation.

Bottom Line: Epic but intimate story of identity.

5 bones!!!!!
A favorite for the year show less

Subhash and Udayan had a close relationship as boys growing up in Calcutta 1950s & 60s, not long after Partition. As they matured, Udayan turned to political activism, and Subhash went to America to study. Udayan becomes increasingly entangled in an insurgent movement and is killed by the police. Subhash returned home, and met Udayan’s wife Gauri, who, as a widow, was expected to remain with her in-laws. With bold but perhaps misguided feelings of duty, Subhash married Gauri, who was pregnant, and took her to America to start a new life.

Subhash cares for Gauri and raises daughter Bela as his own. But Gauri is unfulfilled: she was a brilliant student at university in India, and has been unable to fulfill her dreams. She doesn’t love show more Subhash, and proves to be an uncaring mother. Little by little she distances herself from Subhash and Bela, finally taking a dramatic step towards personal independence. Subhash and Bela remain close, but Bela’s parentage remains “the elephant in the room” for Subhash, and Lahiri shows the long-term effects of Subhash’s initial bold act.

It’s not pretty. There’s very little happiness in this novel, and yet I found it hard to envision an alternative scenario that would have worked out better for the characters. Gauri could have remained in India, which would have required sacrificing her intellect and abilities to serve her in-laws. Gauri and Subhash could have stayed together for Bela’s sake, but that has a downside, too. Lahiri doesn’t sugar coat the emotions here: There are a couple of scenes that hit especially hard: when Subhash and Bela return from an extended trip to India, and when Bela and Gauri meet again many years later. Let’s just say Gauri was awful, and got exactly what she deserved.

This novel was not as brilliant as Lahiri’s short fiction, but I still feel it was worthy of a place on the 2013 Booker Prize shortlist. show less

THE LOWLAND is the third Lahiri book I have read and what I've decided is that you simply can't go wrong with her books. As was true of the other two, THE NAMESAKE and UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, this tale (again) of Indian-American emigrants and their offspring, is simply beautifully written. The characters are comlex and multi-dimensional. Subhash, Udayana and Gauri - and, later, Gauri's daughter Bela - are people (yes, before you're done reading, they will seem very much like real people) who will resonate and live on in your mind, even after you've read the final page of their story. Indeed, I even dreamed about them during the few days I was reading the book. It's a multi-generational story that covers nearly fifty years and moves from the show more outer edges of Calcutta to Rhode Island to California and back. Each character is distinct - Udayan a secret disciple of the Naxalite revolutionary movement in the India of the sixties. Subhash is the steady scholar who emigrates to America to study, and later Gauri joins him there. That ambition and industry that seems to characterize Lahiri's Indian emigrants and their American-born children is much in evidence here. Gauri is perhaps the most fascinating, if not the most likeable of the characters. But, while I didn't always LIKE Gauri, I found the storyline itself irresistible, staying up into the wee hours to finish the book. THE LOWLAND is classic Jhumpa Lahiri. Literary, instructional, compelling fiction. I loved it. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

This is a book that will stay with me for awhile. I listened to it on audio, and really liked the narration and the story. The characters in this book were all brilliant, but very dysfunctional, emotionally. The writing is beautiful and I could picture everything and everyone from the wonderful descriptive writing. I liked how the book moved between the present and the past, filling in the gaps of what had happened, and from different characters' points of view. I wanted a happy ending, but I guess it was as it was meant to be, with things not neatly tied up. The characters were pretty sad, with none of them really getting what they needed or wanted and none of them could really open up and communicate effectively with the significant show more people in their lives. It led to tragedy for all of them. I highly recommend this book. show less