Exuberance and dread, attachment and estrangement: in this novel, Jhumpa Lahiri stretches her themes to the limit. The woman at the center wavers between stasis and movement, between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties. The city she calls home, an engaging backdrop to her days, acts as a confidant: the sidewalks around her house, parks, bridges, piazzas, streets, stores, coffee bars. We follow her to the pool she frequents and to the train station that sometimes leads her to her mother, mired in a desperate solitude after her father’s untimely death. In addition to colleagues at work, where she never quite feels at ease, she has girl friends, guy friends, and “him,” a shadow who both consoles and unsettles her. But in the arc of a year, as one season gives way to the next, transformation awaits. One day at the sea, both overwhelmed and replenished by the sun’s vital heat, her perspective will change.

This is the first novel she has written in Italian and translated into English. It brims with the impulse to cross barriers. By grafting herself onto a new literary language, Lahiri has pushed herself to a new level of artistic achievement.

On my continuing quest to expand my reading sphere, I picked this book up because it was only a three-hour audio book, so I knew it would be a quick lesson.

It’s interesting to me that this is considered a novel, because it’s really more of a collection of vignettes. There’s no real plot or character development; it’s really a collection of stories about the events in a woman’s life.

This is the second short European novel I’ve listened to. IMO, they’re both a bit depressing and meandering. Both interesting, but not necessarily engaging or emotion inducing. I prefer books that put me in the characters’ heads more than simply describing the world as they see it — I want to experience it with them too.

Not a bad read, but nothing especially memorable about it.

Rated PG-13. Get your copy here.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.