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_askthebookbug 's review for:
Whereabouts
by Jhumpa Lahiri
• r e c o m m e n d a t i o n •
"Solitude: it's become my trade. As it requires a certain discipline, it's a condition I try to perfect. And yet it plagues me, it weighs on me in spite of my knowing it so well". - Jhumpa Lahiri.
There's an ordinary woman in her mid-forties living an ordinary life in Italy. She's single but not apologetic about it although it doesn't stop her from thinking about all the lovers that she could have had. 'If' has a strong presence in this book. She is a professor but one can't help but feel that she could have been a writer instead. Growing up, she had a father who was tired from the long working hours, whose idea of a vacation was sitting comfortably on the couch. Her mother, had to sit beside him although she would have liked to see the world. Our narrator is angry at her parents but is also quick to forgive and when you read it, you'll know why. She's a single child so she knows solitude well enough to befriend it. As she grows up, she keeps it close and shares a comfortable silence with it.
Written originally in Italian and later translated into English, Lahiri's new book oozes comfort. It assures the readers that it is okay to be alone and revel in it and also to seek company at other times. Through the narrator, she makes even the most mundane activities seem beautiful. This unnamed woman is interesting as she describes her days to us. There she is-on the sidewalk, in the pool, on the couch, in the hotel, by the sea and in bed and she talks about what goes on in her mind. Even something as simple as her visit to a beautician is wonderful to read. There are relationships that could have been and the ones that were never meant to last. As the book climaxes, it's reassuring that solitude can be chosen and savoured while also longing for things/people. Whereabouts is a unique book of vignettes about a woman who could be any one of us and this gives me relief.
Rating : 5/5.
"Solitude: it's become my trade. As it requires a certain discipline, it's a condition I try to perfect. And yet it plagues me, it weighs on me in spite of my knowing it so well". - Jhumpa Lahiri.
There's an ordinary woman in her mid-forties living an ordinary life in Italy. She's single but not apologetic about it although it doesn't stop her from thinking about all the lovers that she could have had. 'If' has a strong presence in this book. She is a professor but one can't help but feel that she could have been a writer instead. Growing up, she had a father who was tired from the long working hours, whose idea of a vacation was sitting comfortably on the couch. Her mother, had to sit beside him although she would have liked to see the world. Our narrator is angry at her parents but is also quick to forgive and when you read it, you'll know why. She's a single child so she knows solitude well enough to befriend it. As she grows up, she keeps it close and shares a comfortable silence with it.
Written originally in Italian and later translated into English, Lahiri's new book oozes comfort. It assures the readers that it is okay to be alone and revel in it and also to seek company at other times. Through the narrator, she makes even the most mundane activities seem beautiful. This unnamed woman is interesting as she describes her days to us. There she is-on the sidewalk, in the pool, on the couch, in the hotel, by the sea and in bed and she talks about what goes on in her mind. Even something as simple as her visit to a beautician is wonderful to read. There are relationships that could have been and the ones that were never meant to last. As the book climaxes, it's reassuring that solitude can be chosen and savoured while also longing for things/people. Whereabouts is a unique book of vignettes about a woman who could be any one of us and this gives me relief.
Rating : 5/5.