the lowland by jhumpa lahiri book review

Gauri starts to take classes at the university which leads to a PhD program in Philosophy in Boston, where she commutes two days a week. After Gauri leaves six-year-old Bela alone in the house, Subhash and Gauri fight, and the couple starts sleeping in separate rooms. Though Gauri and Subhash are living as husband and wife, Gauri doesn’t love Subhash. Once Gauri’s daughter, Bela, is born, Gauri stays home to raise her but is distant and feels no maternal love. Gauri believes that she doesn’t have any other options and accepts his offer. When he learns that Gauri is pregnant with Udayan’s child, Subhash offers to marry Gauri, take her to Rhode Island, and raise the child as his own.

Subhash’s parents never fully accepted Gauri, and he is alarmed by the way his parents treat her. One evening, Subhash receives a telegram from his parents reporting that Udayan was killed.įor the first time in two years, Subhash travels back to his neighborhood Tollygunge, but it no longer feels like home, and his grief-stricken parents are distant and cold with him. While Subhash is in the United States, the brothers write letters to each other, where Subhash learns that Udayan eloped with a woman named Gauri. While Udayan becomes more involved in the Naxalite movement, Subhash moves to Rhode Island to pursue a PhD in environmental science. Udayan is not afraid to break the rules or contradict authority and becomes a member of the Naxalites-a radical group of Maoists who oppose the current Indian government due to the mistreatment of the agricultural workers and lower class.

The lowland by jhumpa lahiri book review