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hilaryannbrown's review
4.0
This took me a while to get into, but I was hanging on every word by the end. I'll be thinking about this story for a long time.
book_concierge's review
4.0
From the book jacket: Born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other in the Calcutta neighborhood where they grow up. But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead. It is the 1960s, and Udayan – charismatic and impulsive – finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty; he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother’s political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.
My reactions
This is a dense, character-driven story, that explores both the immigrant experience and the relationships between family members. Spanning decades, we watch these characters muddle through life, changing their goals and expectations as tragedy or joy, opportunity or obstacle comes up. No one wants to make these kinds of decisions, but sometimes life forces us to do so. In this way we can all relate to the characters. And yet, their experience is very different from my own, and while I feel for their plight, I’m not sure I understand them. And I definitely do not like a few of them.
The story is not linear; Lahiri uses flashbacks as characters remember past events or wonder about what might have happened. It is never recognized as such, but clearly several of them are suffering from PTSD, doing what they can to hide from the world and avoid further pain (a strategy which, of course, does not work).
Lahiri writes beautifully, and I kept marking passages. She has a gift for putting the reader into the setting with her descriptions. One can feel the heat and humidity of Calcutta, smell the fresh briny scent on the breeze of a Rhode Island beach, hear the sounds of a morning ritual, and taste the food served. Her characters observe what is going on around them and their hesitancy or surprise when encountering new experiences, made me look at my familiar surroundings with new eyes. For example:
The main doors were almost always left open, held in place by large rocks. The locks on the apartment doors were flimsy, little buttons on knobs instead of padlocks and bolts. But she was in a place where no one was afraid to walk about, where drunken students stumbled laughing down a hill, back to their dormitories at all hours of the night. At the top of the hill was the campus police station. But there were no curfews or lockdowns. Students came and went and did as they pleased.
I so wish this was a book-club selection, because I long to discuss it with someone.
My reactions
This is a dense, character-driven story, that explores both the immigrant experience and the relationships between family members. Spanning decades, we watch these characters muddle through life, changing their goals and expectations as tragedy or joy, opportunity or obstacle comes up. No one wants to make these kinds of decisions, but sometimes life forces us to do so. In this way we can all relate to the characters. And yet, their experience is very different from my own, and while I feel for their plight, I’m not sure I understand them. And I definitely do not like a few of them.
The story is not linear; Lahiri uses flashbacks as characters remember past events or wonder about what might have happened. It is never recognized as such, but clearly several of them are suffering from PTSD, doing what they can to hide from the world and avoid further pain (a strategy which, of course, does not work).
Lahiri writes beautifully, and I kept marking passages. She has a gift for putting the reader into the setting with her descriptions. One can feel the heat and humidity of Calcutta, smell the fresh briny scent on the breeze of a Rhode Island beach, hear the sounds of a morning ritual, and taste the food served. Her characters observe what is going on around them and their hesitancy or surprise when encountering new experiences, made me look at my familiar surroundings with new eyes. For example:
The main doors were almost always left open, held in place by large rocks. The locks on the apartment doors were flimsy, little buttons on knobs instead of padlocks and bolts. But she was in a place where no one was afraid to walk about, where drunken students stumbled laughing down a hill, back to their dormitories at all hours of the night. At the top of the hill was the campus police station. But there were no curfews or lockdowns. Students came and went and did as they pleased.
I so wish this was a book-club selection, because I long to discuss it with someone.
mayawinshell's review
5.0
so good. so sad. so much love and interiority. it’s as ambivalent about revolutionary violence and its consequences as i tend to feel, so it was interesting food for thought. really brings anonymous violence and loss down to a personal, intimate scale, showing how to the revolution or to the cops, it’s just one comrade martyred or one enemy snuffed—but to a family it’s total devastation. i feel like it makes you ask: was any of the cause worth it? if this is what we’re left with—this grief, this fallout, echoing through generations? and is asking if it was worth it even useful when nothing can be undone?
i loved the loving father of this story… he’s so sweet. wiping the dust off the box fan blades and screwing the front back on just so it would be fresh and ready for his adult daughter’s brief stay at home again got me choooked up. love
i loved the loving father of this story… he’s so sweet. wiping the dust off the box fan blades and screwing the front back on just so it would be fresh and ready for his adult daughter’s brief stay at home again got me choooked up. love
dewey_scrapper's review
4.0
The book started out slow, so I was a little skeptical. I ended up enjoying it immensely.
aditipraveen's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
gorgeous novel. a stunning depiction of political violence in india and the resulting human lives it touches.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
waynediane's review
5.0
I really enjoyed this book thought deserves a 5 star rating ? This could fit into the ancestry genre without the DNA tracking and looking for your parents. A nice twist and typical India versus America.
Interesting the graft and political followings of Mao and Lenin Marxist ideals.
Interesting the graft and political followings of Mao and Lenin Marxist ideals.
roseleaf24's review
4.0
This story covers the life of a family, from India to Rhode Island to California and back again. It is told with Lahiri's characteristic quiet reserve, but nevertheless conveys the strong emotions of love and loss. The telling flows beautifully among the voices of various family members, letting each tell their own part of the tale. I couldn't help but think of The Nightingale, since I'd just discussed it, as this touches the same themes of siblings torn between devotion to family and devotion to a larger cause, and our utter failure to appropriately understand and heal the personal devastation caused by trauma.
alisonhori's review
4.0
This book is between a 4 and 5 star for me and I keep going back and forth. The story telling is absolutely vivid and the, generally very ordinary characters just living their lives, completely came to life so much so that I found myself incredibly frustrated with the crappy parenting choices of Subhash who was otherwise wonderful. The book is very carefully constructed so virtually any imagery raised early in the book will come back later...maybe several times. Sometimes this book felt a little too carefully constructed. Overall, while this book was very much about a specific family, details from the story absolutely resonated and continue to resonate with me and I learned about a piece of Indian history that I really didn't know much about at all. This was my first book by Lahiri and I am anxious to read others...I just started Luminaries and so far, I am very annoyed that Lumminaries beat this out for the Man Booker but we will see.