Whereabouts
Jhumpa Lahiri. Knopf, $23 (176p) ISBN 978-0-593-31831-7
The latest from Pulitzer winner Lahiri (The Interpreter of Maladies) is a meditative and aching snapshot of a life in suspension. The unnamed narrator, a single, middle-aged woman, lives a quiet life in an unnamed Italian city, ambling between cafes and storefronts, dinner parties with friends, and a leisurely career as a writer and teacher. The tranquil surface of her life belies a deeper unrest: a frayed, distant relationship with her widowed mother, romantic longings projected onto unavailable friends, and constant second-guessing of the paths her life has taken. The novel is told in short vignettes introducing a new scene and characters whose relationships are fertile ground for Lahiri’s impressive powers of observation. In a museum, for instance, sunlight refracted through the glass roof “brightens and darkens the room in turns. It’s a panorama that makes me think of the sea, of swimming in a clear blue patch underwater.” Throughout, Lahiri’s poetic flourishes and spare, conversational prose are on full display. This beautifully written portrait of a life in passage captures the hopes, frustrations, and longings of solitude and remembrance. (May)
Details
Reviewed on: 12/29/2020
Genre: Fiction
Hardcover - 176 pages - 978-0-7352-8146-2
Hardcover - 176 pages - 978-0-670-09541-4
Other - 978-0-593-31832-4
Paperback - 176 pages - 978-0-593-31208-7
Paperback - 224 pages - 978-0-593-39662-9
Paperback - 176 pages - 978-0-7352-8148-6
Paperback - 176 pages - 978-1-5266-2997-5
Pre-Recorded Audio Player - 978-1-6670-0097-8