Whereabouts: Book review






Book review

Title: Whereabouts
Author: Jhumpa Lahiri
Genre: Fiction/Translation (Italian)

Whereabouts is an interesting read that captures the  different slices of a life of the unnamed narrator who is a woman. The chapters are all short in the form of vignettes. It entails the characters observations of life around her in a new city. A life which is clearly filled with loneliness, wistfulness, melancholy and introspection. 

We learn that she is a professor in Italy living alone. She has lost her father during her teens and rarely visits her mother. She is trying to find herself in a city alien to her, describes her experiences with different people including a couple of flings. 

Narrated in first person, the readers get into the interiority of the character. We are privy to her thoughts and monologue. The theme of solitude  rings throughout the novel.  And the lyrical and poetic prose enhances this rather somber mood. She definitely has an eye for detail, describing the scene and settings  like a canvas painting, particularly that of nature. With her rhythmic sentences, she captures the intricacies and the vibe of the people and places she visits. 

It can be debated if Whereabouts is a novel in a traditional sense. Nevertheless it’s worth a read for its texture in language and the writer’s artistic observations.

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