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ladiebuggle's review
2.0
I love Lahiri, but this one was disappointing. I found the woman whose whereabouts we’re following to be boring and kind of insufferable.
lit_as_fakh's review against another edition
reflective
- Strong character development? It's complicated
4.75
jazzkezz's review
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
spaces_and_solaces's review
4.0
Lahiri is a Pulitzer prize winner & her prose is so poetic and minimalistic that sometimes just a few of her words have the power to cut you to your core.
Her work more often than not focuses on cultural relocation. If you’ve read / or watched The Namesake you’ll know. But, this book is different!
TW: This book may induce melancholy.
Whereabouts is narrated by a woman - unmarried, middle aged writer & a literature professor who has lived in the same city her whole life. (The city is hinted to be Rome several times).
She realizes, in the middle of her life’s journey, that she has lost her way. This story is about her trying to figure out her place in the world.
She deliberately fills her life with routines probably to mask the loneliness.
We follow her as she visits the same trattoria for lunch, swims twice weekly at dinnertime, visits her distant mother twice monthly and contemplates repeatedly about her unhappy childhood.
From the pages you get glimpses of the narrator's vulnerability.
There is a recurring theme of longing and solitude which is even more heartbreaking when the narrator is with her mother, her friends, at the bar or at a party.
Everything fades into darkness for the narrator, the places and the people and she is left with a gaping hole of loneliness that no one can cure.
She is but another nameless woman in a nameless city.
Lahiri’s prose is so delicate and you cannot help but wonder if this is some metaphorical journey into the author’s own mind.
It’s a brilliant story reflective of the urban solitude marked by longing & loneliness.
Her work more often than not focuses on cultural relocation. If you’ve read / or watched The Namesake you’ll know. But, this book is different!
TW: This book may induce melancholy.
Whereabouts is narrated by a woman - unmarried, middle aged writer & a literature professor who has lived in the same city her whole life. (The city is hinted to be Rome several times).
She realizes, in the middle of her life’s journey, that she has lost her way. This story is about her trying to figure out her place in the world.
She deliberately fills her life with routines probably to mask the loneliness.
We follow her as she visits the same trattoria for lunch, swims twice weekly at dinnertime, visits her distant mother twice monthly and contemplates repeatedly about her unhappy childhood.
From the pages you get glimpses of the narrator's vulnerability.
There is a recurring theme of longing and solitude which is even more heartbreaking when the narrator is with her mother, her friends, at the bar or at a party.
Everything fades into darkness for the narrator, the places and the people and she is left with a gaping hole of loneliness that no one can cure.
She is but another nameless woman in a nameless city.
Lahiri’s prose is so delicate and you cannot help but wonder if this is some metaphorical journey into the author’s own mind.
It’s a brilliant story reflective of the urban solitude marked by longing & loneliness.
bleumingpages's review
2.0
I decided to pick up this book solely because someone described it as "a breezy evening walk in the park". But having finished it I realised I like books that feel like a blazing furnace much better than a breezy evening walk in the park.
lyanaareads's review
4.0
I particularly love her thoughts on solitude and her mother. There’s a certain kind of sadness to it. The kind of emotion that you can understand because somehow it’s also familiar to you.
rachelvardeman's review
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I think I read Whereabouts at the right place and at the right time. It was on my list for a long time and I picked it up at the library when I was in a headspace similar to what the narrator often described. I loved that this book didn't include character names and used very little dialogue, but rather focused on one woman's internal monologue. I resonated with her thoughts, her ties to her parents and origin story, and her need and love for solitude. I loved her independence, her natural feminism, and the way she processes her grief and fears. The way she processes grief as an ever present part of life, a reminder that grief not only doesn't leave us but builds us into who we are. This was such an original idea for a novel with brilliant execution.