The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

"The Lowland", by Jhumpa Lahiri. This book is published by Random House India in 2013 and has 352 pages. This book was shortlisted for Man Booker prize in 2013 but lost to Eleanor Catton's 'The Luminaries'.

Subhash and Udayan are brothers born 15 months apart and brought up in Tollygunj, Kolkata. Subhash is careful type and Udayan is daring. They are inseparable in their childhood. Subhash goes to America for higher studies and Udayan is drawn in Naxalite movement. While Subhash is still in America, Udayan marries Gauri.

One day Subhash gets a message that Udayan is killed. He reaches Kolkata and finds that he was killed by Police and that Gauri is pregnant. Sensing antipathy of his parents towards Gauri, he marries her and takes her to America.

Will he be a good husband and father? Will Gauri come to love him? Will Subhash love Udayan's child? Will the marriage work?

Author shows the transitions in the lives of Subhash and Gauri. The book jumps back and fourth in past and present and covers a  time period of 70 years. It's a tragedy all along.

The narration seems jerky. The story starts well, drifts for majority of the time and becomes interesting at the very end. Reader does not understand exactly what message author is trying to convey. Background of naxalite movement introduces a dark undercurrent but it is not the soul of the story.

Gauri's character is an enigma. Author had tried to decipher why she behave the way she does. Gauri appears to be an escapist and Subhash seems to be destined by faith to suffer. I found some similarities between the character of Gauri in this story with Moushumi in 'The namesake'. Author should have curtailed the book by about 70 pages.

At the end of the book, I asked myself what did I read? Did I get the satisfaction of reading something good? Did I understand what author had to say? The answer is NO.

AVOID.