The Lowland


"Isolation offered its own form of companionship: the reliable silence of her rooms, the steadfast tranquility of the evenings. The promise that she would find things where she put them, that there would be no interruption, no surprise. It greeted her at the end of each day and lay still with her at night."

That's pretty much the tone of this novel. The Lowland happened to me by accident - one I have no qualms about. While vacating my beloved flat in Gurugram last month, I chanced upon this novel on an abandoned bookshelf in the living room I shared with my flatmates. Since there was nobody to claim it, I decided to make it mine! 

The Lowland is a story of an ordinary Bengali family torn by the Naxal movement back in the 1960s when life, supposedly, used to be simpler. It narrates the story of two brothers who, inseparable as kids, grew up to be polar opposites of each other. While the elder one, Subhash, moves to the US to build his own identity, the younger one, Udayan, finds himself drawn into the ever-changing political landscape of West Bengal. Udayan's fiery political ambitions & the aftermath of his actions transform the meaning of life not just for his parents, his wife and his brother but for the generation that follows them. 

Jhumpa Lahiri's evocative narrative has the power to sweep the readers off their feet and transport them to a completely different world. The characters have been intricately woven together and are extremely complex to comprehend. I, for one, found it mentally taxing to relate to the emotions that were unsaid, yet were right there for me to absorb. I, especially, found the story of Bijoli, the mother of the two brothers, heart-wrenching. The nostalgia, the constant tug of war between the life bygone & the life that lies ahead and the constant struggle to forge ahead in spite of the memories that never cease to hound make The Lowland an exquisite read.

The novel has an element of solitude that gently wraps itself around you and gives you the warmth & comfort that lingers on for long afterwards. I finished reading the book two days back and kept stalling writing its review cause I thought no matter what I write, I wouldn't be able to do justice to its characters. It took me laser-sharp focus & hours of thinking to finally give words to what I felt reading this novel. 

With that, I bid adieu to the story that's a journey in itself and give it 4 stars. I had to take away one star just because I found the climax a bit of a drag. But I do hope you enjoy reading The Lowland as much as I did!

My next read is a sci-fi thriller called Recursion by Blake Crouche. I came across this one through a Goodreads recommendation and I decided to pick it up as it looked like a relatively lighter read, which is exactly what I needed after reading The Lowland. I'd be back with a review soon!

Until then, happy reading. :)

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