2013 book 226

Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland
I love Lahiri's writing--and have read The Namesake several times--so was very much looking forward to a new novel from her. This was a slow starter, though; I wasn't really interested in the characters till about a quarter of the way through. The story involves a pair of Indian brothers--one of whom gets involved in the radical politics of the 60s and 70s (and marries a philosophy student),  while the other goes to America to study oceanography. At first, reading this felt like something of a slog, but an unexpected plot point made me much more invested, and I liked it a lot after that. Lahiri's writing is superb as always (the last section is particularly lyrical), and her characters are GREAT, even when they're doing things that aren't very sympathetic (Subhash and Bela are particularly compelling, though). I think this will be a book group favorite--there are a LOT of things to discuss. It took me a while to get into, but by the end, I was sold. B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on September 24th.